A dominating thread of grief and healing wound its way through La MaMa Moves! 2021 and most of the artists brought song and storytelling into a festival that, as curator Nicky Paraiso acknowledged was full of resilient artists “making work that is essential and true to this pivotal moment in time.”
Fact and fiction, inseparable, blur and tease. Cut to disco ball, still swinging. Slow down and watch the air sparkle.
And then, time reversed itself.
We sit like middle schoolers at lunch, cliques separated by social barriers. People chat. “Did you get the job?” “The one at TikTok? No, it was a no. They said they’re on a hiring freeze.”
Black Dance Stories is exactly what it sounds like and precisely what we need right now. It’s a distillation of insightful moments in post-performance talkbacks spliced with casual conversations you once shared over drinks, plus powerful sentiments you’re overhearing now at BLM protests.
Black Dance Stories is exactly what it sounds like and precisely what we need right now. It’s a distillation of insightful moments in post-performance talkbacks spliced with casual conversations you once shared over drinks, plus powerful sentiments you’re overhearing now at BLM protests.
Molly Lieber + Eleanor Smith X Tara Sheena
Bobbi Jene Smith X Benedict Nguyen
7 Names: Everett Saunders + Marjani Forté-Saunders X Benedict Nguyen
Ella Rothschild X Melissa Levin
This body unfurls in slow motion, leaving ample space for labels, classifications, and archetypes to land upon her and vanish.
I start to explain something about artistic agency over visual archives of original work but all that comes out is I guess we’re all in trouble.