NOT ABOUT RACE DANCE

Not About Race Dance

Written by UC Santa Cruz | Institute of the Arts and Sciences

A special performance, in collaboration with GERALDCASELDANCE and featuring an all-BIPOC dance ensemble, titled: Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance. This event is part of Surge: Explorations in Afrofuturism, a multidimensional and transcultural month-long festival on Afrofuturism.

Dance artist and equity activator Gerald Casel will present Not About Race Dance, a collaborative, choreographic response to the racial politics of U.S. postmodern dance. Despite postmodernism’s popularity, its racial dynamics have gone largely unacknowledged. In Not About Race Dance, Casel and his collaborators occupy a space that has been historically defined by white artists to present a contrasting vision of where Black and Brown bodies belong. When the work premiered this past December, the Fjord Review said that the dancers were “intensely present and riveting…reclaiming the literal and sociological ‘white space’ of postmodern dancing in episodes that are vulnerable, cathartic, clever, and delivered with compelling rigor. Not About Race Dance features an all-BIPOC ensemble of five dancers that includes Styles Alexander, Gerald Casel, Audrey Johnson, Karla Quintero, and Cauveri Suresh, with an original score performed live by sound designer Tim Russell. Additional collaborators include Aron Altmark (lighting and media design) and Rebecca Chaleff (dramaturgy).

About GERALDCASELDANCE

Since 1998, GERALDCASELDANCE has been creating and presenting experimental dance that combines social practice with creative and collaborative explorations. Each dance provokes reflection and implants its imagery into the viewer’s psyche by combining movement and spatial composition with metaphor. Dropping hints of narrative while inviting space for contemplation, the dances deliver multiple levels of interpretation and meaning. GERALDCASELDANCE has been presented at KuanDu Arts Festival Taiwan, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop (Fresh Tracks and SplitStream), Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place, Dancenow NYC, Aaron Davis Hall, 92nd Street Y, The Yard, Jacob’s Pillow (Inside/Out), Danceworks Milwaukee, ODC Theater and throughout Scotland following a company residency at Dancebase Edinburgh. Casel has been an artist in residence at ODC Theater, Movement Research, and has been awarded fellowships through the Hellman Foundation, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (Freedom Fellow), National Center for Choreography Akron, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and The Bogliasco Foundation. For more information about GERALDCASELDANCE visit geraldcasel.com.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.

Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance.