By Rebecca Ragain
When choreographer Agnieszka Laska gave her husband, composer Jack Gabel, a book of poems written by Guantanamo detainees, she set in motion an artistic project that would consume her life for the next year.
The project is Lamentatio, a multi-media production with a $30,000 budget that brings to the stage 50 performers from groups including Agnieszka Laska Dancers, Danscoreo, Impetus Arts and The Tuesday Group.
Performers from Danscoreo flew from their homes in Mexico to be part of the production; they were familiar with Laska’s work from previous collaborations. From local group Impetus Arts, Laska brought in dancers with disabilities to portray the physical damage done to victims of war.
The performance is set to Polish composer Roman Maciejewski’s Requiem, which he spent more than a decade writing in response to the atrocities of World War II. Laska, who is Polish, says, “My family, like everybody, was really severely affected by World War II, so [the Requiem] resonated with me.”
In addition to Maciejewski’s Requiem, Lamentatio features original music created by Gabel. A group of musicians, including a cellist and vocal choir, will perform live.
Gabel set his music to verses from Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak and Here, Bullet, a book of poetry by Brian Turner, a U.S. soldier who served in Iraq. Although the project began with the detainees’ poems, Gabel added lines from Here, Bullet to create a more balanced representation that shows the conflict from both sides.
The performance’s acted scenes are based on Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror, as well as the words of Guantanamo guard Chris Arendt.
Also being recreated on stage are the actions of veterans who participate in the Combat Paper Project, based in Burlington, Vt. This project helps those involved with war deal with the experience through art—specifically, through paper-making. Veterans cut into pieces the uniforms they wore during their tours of duty. The pieces are processed into pulp and then paper, which is used for broadside prints, books and personal journals.
During the process of creating Lamentatio, Laska dedicated a significant portion of her time to reading true stories and doing other research because she feels that accuracy is important in a work that draws on current events.
Laska often quotes composer Maciejewski’s belief that war is a result of ignorance and a lack of respect for human life. With Lamentatio, she says, “I’m trying to overcome that ignorance.”
Laska’s goal for the work, which is the biggest and most elaborate production she has ever put together, is not to proselytize for peace. Rather, the mission is to get people to really think about war—about the proportion of their tax dollars going to military budgets, for example, or the numbers of civilian casualties—and to take some personal responsibility.
Laska says, “If we go home and think it’s going to be okay, it’s not going to be… There are many things that people can do, on any level, starting from small to big, but it’s not going to happen and it’s not going to change if we don’t step in, all of us, every single one of us.”
Laska is well aware that because the topic of war is often avoided, it might be hard to convince people to spend their Saturday evening watching Lamentatio. Nonetheless, she has continued to pour her thoughts, emotions and energy into making a high-quality production—“a piece of art that touches the human soul,” as she puts it.
She adds: “I don’t want it to be one more dance piece that you see and forget the next day. It’s something—I believe it’ll be something that people will remember. I want them to think and start being active about these things.”
Rebecca Ragain is a Portland freelance writer who frequently covers dance for
Just Out. Contact her at 
