Project Description
In a residency in Lewiston, Maine, presented jointly by the Bates Dance Festival and LA Arts, Doug Varone and Dancers created a new work, A Momentary Order (premiered in 1992), that aimed to help Franco-American residents reclaim their cultural identity lost to decades of suppression and discrimination. The Varone residency also aimed to strengthen the connection between the town and Bates College, which had remained isolated from Franco Lewiston by long tradition. The Doug Varone Company's ten-month residency included workshops, discussions, community meetings and forums, lecture-demonstrations, open rehearsals, and showings of the work-in-progress. The culminating performance took place in an abandoned mill to sold-out audiences. The "story," inspired by local residents' stories, gestures, and speech patterns, includes mill worker characters' a mother and father, their son, and fellow inhabitants. One result of the project was a revival of what had once been an annual Franco-American festival. A local historian noted that it also sparked both individual and civic interest in the preservation of heritage.

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities
Initial contact was a meeting called a "Community Gathering" attended by about one hundred people, mostly senior citizens who brought photos and other objects and mementos to share, along with their stories. The artists were later invited to the homes of local residents where they ate Franco food, saw home movies, and heard live music. The nature of these visits had a profound impact on the three collaborating organizations. Originally conceived as a work with quasi-political content, the project evolved to more directly concern the people in the community rather than the social forces that acted upon them. A Franco-Yankee Contra dance brought together enthusiasts of traditional music and dancing with the Varone Company dancers and Bates Dance Festival dance students. An excerpt from the commissioned work-in-progress was performed at the contra dance.

The artists were sensitive to their standing as outsiders in the community and were aware of the potential for charges of cultural appropriation. Their artistic approach was to transform the local culture through the filter of their own experience and aesthetics into something new, not a reproduction. They stressed this to local residents, articulating that they could not themselves produce Franco-American art. Despite this preparation, some residents who participated in the project throughout its various stages were baffled by the new work. They appreciated its professionalism but wished it had more direct connection to their French heritage. They felt their own music and dancing should have been used to tell their story.

Information Sources
Suzanne Carbonneau. "A Momentary Order." Inside Arts. Washington, D.C.: Association of Performing Arts Presenters. February/March 1995.