Introduction
Hi everyone. I am a PhD candidate in French & Francophone World Studies at the U of I. I defended my prospectus last semester, so I am just beginning the writing process of my dissertation. During camp, I am hoping to work on turning my prospectus into the introduction of my dissertation, and starting on the first chapter I am writing, which I plan to make my third chapter...My dissertation focuses on contemporary performances, films, and texts by artists from the Caribbean and Indian Ocean and their diasporas and focused on the memory and legacies of slavery. I am working with the philosophy of Lénablou, a choreographer and dancer from Guadeloupe, which she calls bigidi . The philosophy of bigidi derives from her study of the Guadeloupean dance tradition gwo-ka and describes a way of living that has come about in Guadeloupe involving being out of balance, accessing all of one's possible bearings, and adapting to constant uncertainty. Blou posits that bigidi evolved from cre