youcanplayinthesun
“meticulous…economical and imaginative.” – George Jackson, Dance View Times
youcanplayinthesun (2017) is an early iteration of work that continues my exploration of intra-group body dialogue from the lens of Black women.
Science fiction writer Octavia Butler's use of visionary fiction continues to galvanize my design of dance performance space, to imagine worlds that prioritize liberative story telling at the intersections of gender and race. This work explores the ways in which we give or get permission to take up space, as we encounter each other in all Black spaces. How do we as gendered and raced bodies show compassion towards the internalized manifestations of struggle against oppression in ourselves? And with each other? What do we do with coping mechanisms that have become traditions?
This work was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Local Dance Commissioning Project.