We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Kamajian and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?

Lernazang is a cultural collective and performance ensemble whose mission is to strengthen Armenian heritage in diaspora, particular in Los Angeles.

First we started out as a group of friends who just wanted to study and practice traditional Armenian dance and music together. We then were asked to perform at fundraisers and other events and began to integrate public performance into our weekly practice sessions. Slowly, our passion project began turning into what we saw as a powerful community-building entity. We began to host public workshops, integrate dance and music into protests and political actions, perform at fundraisers, and teach dance and music to Armenian youth across LA. These activities were driven by the fact that we recognize how Armenians have been largely severed from their dance practices due to decades of colonization, dispossession, and erasure.

We began to realize that our work could not just be something we do for ourselves, but had to be shared and could be an important way to start a conversation about the power of cultural heritage and collective memory on Armenian identity in the context and aftermath of genocide. Our primary mission is to decolonize Armenian aesthetics, by reconceptualizing Armenianness outside of Sovietized, Orientalized, and Eurocentric standards of practice and performance. Lernazang is the only ensemble who centers this approach. The majority of dance schools or Armenian performance groups do not engage with these questions and instead reproduce balletic caricatures of Armenianness and slap the label of “traditional” on top of it.

As we continued to share knowledge on our vision for Armenian aesthetic and cultural practices, we decided that it would be most effective to turn our vision into a functioning non-profit organization, so we could continue to build a strong sense of community around our forgotten (and often denigrated) heritage practices. We envision Lernazang as a center for learning and performance, where Armenians and non-Armenians alike can engage with Armenian expressive culture in invigorating and socially-conscious ways.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Lernazang is committed to practicing and performing a repertoire gleaned from Armenian Genocide survivors who were exiled from their historic homeland, what we refer to as Western Armenia.

As a decolonial practice, we seek to revive embodied connections to the musical and choreographic forms of our ancestral homeland, that of Western Armenia. We do this first through deep study and practice for ourselves, and then through dance classes, events and public performances for the larger Los Angeles community.

This is what sets Lernazang apart. We reject ballet as a filter through which Armenians should express themselves. We reject Western classical music as a measure for “civilized” or “good” Armenian music. We reject the colonial dichotomy between “traditional” and “modern,” where “tradition” is typecast as backward, fixed, and stuck in the past, and modernity is granted only to the West. We reject the idea that only by adhering to balletic or “modern” forms can Armenians be contemporary, and we refuse to Orientalize ourselves for a Western gaze. These concepts fuel our work, and we find that they are not sufficiently addressed in our community.

Our efforts are linked to a greater desire for ALL Armenians to consider these critical issues, and to—most importantly—view culture as deeply political. In a time where Armenians are faced with erasure once again, we have to look critically and holistically at the myriad of forces and powers that inform and influence Armenian cultural production today.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to

Leo Carillo beach is my favorite spot along the coast, it’s also one of the few dog beaches and I love to bring my rescue dog from Armenia, Darchin, along with me.

Eat? Iroha Sushi. Pizzana. Anajak Thai are my current favorite restaurants.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

My husband, Armen Adamian. Without him, his depth of knowledge or his critical perspective, Lernazang would not exist!

My Lernazang family: Lia Azaryan, Alex Avaneszadeh, Haik Adamian, Hasmik Baghdasaryan, Petros Berberyan, Ani Hovsepian, Ani Hakobyan, Aghavni Semerdjian, Armin Minassian, and Sose Aghababyan.

our վարպետներ (varbedner or master musicians) and mentors: Hasmik Harutunyan, Tigran Zakaryan, Albert Ordinyan, Emmanuel Hovannisyan and Vardan Baghdasaryan.

This is community work, so without them and their efforts what we do would not be possible.

Instagram: @nataloush, @lernazang

Facebook: @lernazang

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrkhJ5O7fCFtjkyv3tpW-NQ

Image Credits
Sergo Artsakh Nairi Bandari

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