Choreography + Film
“You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.”
NINA SIMONE
Photo by Alex Himwich
reclamation: processing (through) lament
Commissioned by Duke University in 2022, this work explores the process of orienting oneself in the present moment within the excess, whiplash, and residue of 2020.
Thoughts and Questions guiding this work are:
Where have we been?, Where are we now?
How are we navigating the present moment externally, internally, and collectively?
How and what are we processing (through)?
What are our practices of lament?, What does lament do for/to our present, how does it help us to orient?
What are our acts of reclamation?, Where do surrender and reclamation meet?
What are the roles of joy and play within our processing, lamenting, and reclaiming?, What acts of reclamation/self preservation are moving you/me/us through?
What is an erotic/embodied/somatic practice of lament?, What feels good in lament/in allowing ourselves to be present in lament?, If lament/grief/melancholy are constants when do they refresh? What are we gathering in the tide of lament & the waves of the wake (Christina Sharpe)?
Lament is a process that is about allowing the self to be moved through, not just the self moving through., Letting lament move, letting process process has to be out of our control.
Performers Pictured: Alyah Baker, Kahlila Brown, Lee Edwards, Ayan Felix, and Amari Jones
Photos by Alec Himwich at Duke University’s November Dances (2022)
Relics of the Afrofuture Film
A video collaboration between Ivy Nicole-Jonet and myself. Relics of the Afrofuture (2021) acts as a nonlinear portal of present relics and future possibility. In our co-dreamed visual landscape the link between Black life and nature is crucial. In our Afrofuture, natural resources are not weaponized against Black communities, and Black life is cared for and preserved as is the environment.
Images by Ivy Nivole-Jonet
Screened at Queering Film (2021) by metaDEN, New Women Space and Mott Haven Film Festival, Incu Arts Gallery: Past, Present, Future Exhibition (2021), Flick! Experimental Film Festival! at UNCG (2021), Durham Art Guild 67th Annual Juried Exhibition (2021), ADF’s Movies by Movers (2022), Alabama Screen Dance Festival (2022), and Afrofuturism849 Film Festival (2023), Afrofuturist Femmes Film Festival (2024).
Mending in Space
Mending in Space (2020) is a collaborative exploration and meditation on rest, safety, and (un)productivity between Black Femmes in public space.
Pictured: Alyah Baker, Lee Edwards, and Amari Jones
Photo by Satsuki Scoville Photography at ADF’s Creative Healing Parade (2020)
Now or Then: Strange Fruit Film
Originally, a live performance created for Evita Colon’s project “Speak to My Soul” (Philly, 2017), later transformed into a site-specific dance film in 2018; this piece pays homage to victims of lynching’s across the United States.
Part of of the film is recorded in Coatesville, PA near where Zachariah Walker was lynched on August 13, 1911. During the filming in Coatesivlle we were harassed by a local person, threatened with police intervention, and forced to disperse. The remainder of the film was recorded at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. At the time of this recording the most recent reported lynching was that of Danye Jones, age 24 in Missouri on October 17, 2018.
Pictured: Lee Edwards, Nyasha George, and Desiree Lovett
Photos by The Wassaic Project
Original Filming and Editing by: Jasmine Lynea
Screened at DANCE SHORTS (2019)
Letters II Mama
Created in 2017, this piece is where my passions of teaching in K-12 education and creating intertwined. This work comments on the silence surrounding Black mental health within the communities I live and grew up in, while giving a glimpse into my own struggles with depression. It serves as an open letter to my mother, a critique of K-12 education systems, and a “thank you” to my students who unknowingly saved my life.
Pictured: Lee Edwards, Nyasha George, Desiree Lovett, and Mynesha Whyte
Photos by Jaqlin Medlock at APAP 2019 with Booking Dance Festival
Faith
Faith, is a dance film and live performance choreopoem created in 2016. The piece asks how to navigate fighting for individual freedom, and collective liberation, while holding tight to one’s faith.
The film was recored on the Delaware River. A location where slave ships traveled, enslaved folks moved toward freedom, slave catchers patrolled, and where Black folks lived and are living.
Pictured: Lee Edwards, Clarricia Golden, Mawu Gora, James Whitfield, Mynesha Whyte, and Brionna Williams.
Photos by Mike Hurwitz at KYLD 31st Inhale (2017), Tony Turner at The Wassaic Project (2017), and Whitney Browne at iKada Dance’s Poetic Spirit (2018)
Screened at Dance City Festival Detroit (2017) and WAYPOINT Exhibition (2016).
“why is your bouquet allowed to grow from flowers to trees, while my roses and daisies are picked like weeds from your garden?” — Perspective
Perspective
Created in response to the declination of charges against police officer Timothy Loehmann for the murder of 12 year old Tamir Rice. Perspective is a choreopoem and duet that examines the societal value placed on Black life through movement, props, and metaphor.
Pictured: Lee Edwards and Clarricia Golden.
Photos by Levi and Gala Derroisne at The Outlet Dance Project (2016)