Rennie Harris, Philadelphia PA, cont.

4/9

AP: Are there influences in your dances from things you see in the theater compared with the pedestrian movement that you see in other places?

RH: I don't think I have any influence from the dancing I see in the theater. The one thing that moves me about modern dance or ballet is that I am visually pleased to see things flow seamlessly. I love that.

Pedestrian movement is the thing. That's what makes sense to me more than anything else. I remember sitting down at lunchtime watching people walking. Everybody walks differently. I just like looking at people's shoes. And you notice that they run over this way, and then this toe is up at the same time. How are they walking? I entertain myself with that.

When I go to the club most of the time I'm not inspired to dance because I need certain music that inspires me to go get up. But I still go, anyway, I enjoy watching all the other people dance. There was a dude at this club the other day—this White dude—he had on a fur midriff jacket—all this fur, right, and these big old glasses like this, right, and no shirt and leather pants.

AP: So even in different media you're looking at movement.

RH: Oh, yes, definitely. If I look at one thing I'm too bored. I look at movies the way they flow, the way they’re directed.

AP: So do any other art forms influence you, and how so?

RH: Acting influences me because I really look at the person's body and I am also looking at the person “behind” him—the one who's quiet. They say Will Smith (note 5) said it was hard for him to understand Ali (note 6) when he was quiet because there were very few tapes of this man ever not talking. Movement is like communication to me and is better than speaking to anyone. And on one level, in a pedestrian kind of way, it is your actions that show your true sincerity more than what you say. So action is your movement. It is what you do that communicates, you know. We pick up from people. Like in this room you'll pick up a vibe before the other person can tell you what the problem is, and you know something is wrong. The feeling is a movement. It's the energy that we all have. And we possess the ability to understand other people because of that. We pick up what people say and understand what they say by way of facial expressions and their hands—the way that they move and their body language. And so I think for the most part anything that's movement based influenced me.

I've never been moved by anything I saw visually painted, ever, in my entire life. I still have not grasped the concept of how another person is moved by that visual thing who didn't have the experience of creating it. You know what I mean?

AP: What about music?

RH: The musician gives us the tool to go to another place without drugs. He can take you to happiness if you really have the right DJ or the right musician. He takes you to ecstasy, and that ecstasy is like giving you little “jokes” to say everything. In that moment of ecstasy brought on by the musician—whether we called it the DJ or the person singing—that moment is a little bit like God is saying that He is still here. At that moment you don't care about nothing. It's like being on drugs. You don't care about when the rent is due.

What's interesting is the musician is always trying to emulate us, trying to look at your body when you're dancing. And he's trying to look at how you're moving. It's give and take. We lose a little bit of the now and the improvisational part when it's recorded. But what's amazing is that inspiration remains.