You Will Soon Die is one of the poems that will be included in the Ten Poem project.
The Ten Poem Project is a dance research initiative that explores the complexities of being a multi-migrant dance artist in today's world. Through a deeply personal narrative, the project examines the author's experiences across different cultures and geographies, revealing the many layers of identity, displacement, and belonging.
These stories are expressed through an innovative mixture of dance, film, robotics, and a compilation in a book monograph, offering a multidisciplinary perspective on migration within an artistic career.
The poems in The Ten Poem Project as an exploration of migratory experiences and the profound feeling of not having a place to call home. This sense of impermanence is disorienting and has significantly shaped the author’s worldview.
The poem section of the project is organized into six parts, each containing approximately five to six narrative poems. These poems are deeply personal, drawing from the fading memories of the author to weave stories that are both intimate and universal.
The narratives explore childhood memories, familial relationships, professional experiences, aspirations, and the traumas that have marked the author’s journey. Through poetic storytelling, the project offers a raw and emotional perspective on migration, identity, and the search for belonging.
Poem
SEE MOREThe dance film section of The Ten Poem Project is a visceral response to the complex process of “remembering.” The movements are deeply expressive, serving as a dialogue between the narrative poems, the lived experiences of the performers, and the algorithmically evoked states generated by sensors.
In collaboration with Lillian Chen, a Robotics Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, the project explores the use of wearable sensors applied to the body of a dancer. These sensors are connected to a reader that translates the dancer’s felt emotions into visual data, displayed on surrounding screens. This innovative integration of dance, film, and robotics creates an immersive experience that captures the emotional landscape of memory, migration, and identity.
Film
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In much of dance research, dancers have been more than merely curious about the potential of technology in dance. There is an undeniable excitement about how technology, when applied to the presentation of dance, can elevate the audience's experience. Additionally, the possibility of using technology to preserve the fleeting nature of dance for longer periods is both fascinating and valuable. Since the days of Alwin Nikolais, dancers have been more than just curious; they have been innovators in exploring the application of technology in dance-making.
As a young aspiring dancer in Nigeria, Sinclair was deeply inspired by the works of modern dance pioneers and the visionary Nigerian theatre director Hubert Ogunde. While studying theatre at the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria, Sinclair immersed himself in reading plays, performing on stage, and dancing wherever the opportunity arose. These experiences ingrained in him the identity of a storyteller, shaping his artistic voice. Story-making is embedded in his DNA. However, the intimate, vulnerable, and ephemeral nature of storytelling through dance—marked by a limited reach from body to audience—has often inspired him to create dance through various forms of media. In this deeply personal journey, Sinclair channels his love for film, his passion for technology in dance, and his belief that his stories are best expressed through dance as a medium for embodied knowledge transmission.
The Tech. Collaboration with Dr Lillian Chin
Dr. Chin and her robotics research marks a new and exciting chapter for Sinclair. This partnership thrives on a shared vision. Using Lillian’s wearable sensors, Sinclair’s quest for technology synchronize with his movements while translating the emotional depth of his performances into algorithmic computer graphs and patterns created by the body sensors. Sinclair believes that emotions, much like a halo or aura, constantly surround him, providing comfort and resilience during life's most challenging moments. Yet, this emotional halo—shaped by lived experiences, traumas, hardships, and lessons learned—is invisible to the naked eye, even as it fuels his courage to move forward.
In this performance, these seemingly abstract and, at this stage of the research, “meaningless” computer-generated graphs will accompany Sinclair and the performers on a journey to create a story that is both familiar and unprecedented—a narrative that exists yet has never been told in this way before.