Congratulations to the Bessies organization and this year's winners!

 

j. bouey in A Message from Mx. Black Cooper (photo: Rachel Keane)

 

The New York Dance and Performance Awards, the Bessies, tonight announced the 2023 award recipients at the 39th Bessie Awards Ceremony. The Illustrious Blacks hosted this year’s celebratory event, which was held at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park as part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City. A complete list of the 2023 awards follows below.

 

Bessie Awards were presented to artists for outstanding choreographer/creator, performer, sound design/music composition, visual design, outstanding revival, and breakout choreographer—an award that honors an artist who has made an exceptional leap in their career this past year. All of the awardees and nominated artists in these categories received a $500 honorarium, courtesy of a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

 

Renowned dancer, singer, and actor Dionne Figgins presented Virginia Johnson with the 2023 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. Artists and dance advocates Porshia A. Derival and Ms Vee presented Michele Byrd-McPhee with the 2023 Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. Other presenters included Tyler Ashley, Clifton Brown, George Faison, Erin Fogerty, Dyane Harvey Salaam, Karisma Jay, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Abdel Salaam, and Paz Tanjuaquio.

 

Barkha Patel was honored with the 2023 Juried Bessie Award, selected by the 2023 Bessie Jury luciana achugar, Ayodele Casel, and Kyle Marshall. The Juried Award recognizes a choreographer who exhibits some of the most interesting and exciting ideas in dance in New York City today, and whose work deserves to be seen more outside the city. The award comes with touring support and other engagement opportunities from New York State DanceForce.

 

The ceremony also included special remarks from Vicky Capote of Dance/NYC, Alton Murray, Deputy Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Lucy Sexton, Executive Director, New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, and Bessies Executive Director Heather Robles.

 

The ceremony included an audience participation dance tribute to O’Shae Sibley. Dance Theatre of Harlem performed Orange, a duet by Stanton Welch, in honor of Virginia Johnson. Fredrick Earl Mosley’s Unbroken, performed by his company Diversity of Dance was also presented, along with an excerpt from Princess Lockeroo’s The Fabulous Waack Dancers Big Show, and Afro-Acro, performed by AbunDancers Youth Ensemble.

 

The Bessies also honored members of the dance community who died this past year. The moving In Memoriam was presented by dancers Mireicy Aquino and Jhailyn Farcon.

 

The celebration continued at the Bessies Silent Disco After-Party with DJ Sabine Blaizin on Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza.

 

The 2023 Bessie Awards Ceremony was produced by Torya Beard and Heather Robles.

 

THE 2023 NEW YORK DANCE AND PERFORMANCE AWARD RECIPIENTS AND CITATIONS:

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE AWARD

 

Virginia Johnson

 

For inspiring audiences for 28 years with dynamic performances as a founding member and principal dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem. For her tenure as Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, continuing the company’s legacy of innovation and excellence, while expanding its reach and impact through collaborations with other organizations. For founding Pointe Magazine, and serving as editor-in-chief for nearly a decade. For editorial vision, bringing diverse voices and perspectives to the forefront of the dance community. For a lifelong commitment to the arts, and a career of significant contributions to the world of dance as a celebrated dancer, editor, and artistic director.

 

OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE FIELD OF DANCE AWARD

 

Michele Byrd-McPhee

 

For being an incredible force in the global dance community, especially as an advocate for young girls and women in hip-hop. As the Founder and Executive Director of Ladies of Hip-Hop, Byrd-McPhee has worked for decades to recontextualize spaces and conversations about hip-hop along gender, cultural, socio-historical, and racial lines. Her vision for women of all generations in hip-hop has created opportunities for them to perform on concert dance stages, teach in the most prestigious dance institutions, and create incredible opportunities for themselves within hip-hop’s legacy.

 

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER/CREATOR

 

LaTasha Barnes

LaTasha Barnes presents The Jazz Continuum at The Joyce Theater

 

A joyous celebration of jazz dance throughout history, Barnes flexes the imposed proscenium setting to engage a communal experience, demonstrating community as the center of this form. An offering of (re)embodiment to the audience, this work showcases seamless transitions between styles, demonstrating technical mastery from the cast and deep creativity and thoughtfulness from its creator.

 

Dormeshia

Dormeshia Tap Collective: Rhythm Is Life at The Joyce Theater

 

For crafting stellar interplay between movement, sound, performer, and improvisation. Deeply human, rooted in tradition and joy, Dormeshia shows us where tap dance has been, where it is, and where it is going.

 

Benjamin Akio Kimitch

Tiger Hands at The Shed

 

For a beautiful work with an extraordinarily sensitive exploration of personal and cultural identity. The work creates an entirely new movement vocabulary that holds resonant memories of traditional Peking opera dance forms, and is embedded with shimmering novelty in tribute to a beloved mother.

 

Omari Wiles

New York Is Burning at Works & Process at The Guggenheim

 

For a beautiful representation of intergenerational Black experiences that pays homage to the dancers and artists from the classic documentary Paris Is Burning. This work is a gorgeously joyous, queer collection of dance and music stories. As a timeless tribute, it highlights the Afro Dance, House, Vogue, and Ballroom communities, their current cultural relevance, and prioritizes the diversity of dancers’ bodies, bringing out the power within Black dance and music.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER

 

j. bouey

 

In A Message from Mx. Black Copper by j. bouey at Movement Research at the Judson Church

For an exhilarating performance embodying Black joy. This work is an exploration of emotion and movement that evokes love, trauma, honesty, and progression. The performance was thoughtful, unapologetic, and celebratory of life, self, and ancestry.

 

Amanda Castro

In Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic by Ayodele Casel at The Joyce Theater

 

Castro’s performance capacity and arresting stage presence offer playfulness, dynamism, and mastery, particularly in the connection between percussionist and dancer. Her clear delineation in performance teaches the audience about Afro-Latin influences and intrinsic tap rhythms, with a demonstrated fluency in many styles.

 

Joyce Edwards

In Grace, The Equality of Night and Day and Open Door by Ronald K. Brown at The Joyce Theater

 

For bringing presence and identity into an exquisite embodiment of Ronald K. Brown’s work. Edwards exudes irrefutable strength, depth, warmth, reverence, conviction, and connection.

 

Albert Silindokuhle Ibokwe Khoza

In And so you see… our honorable blue sky and ever enduring sun… can only be consumed slice by slice… by Robyn Orlin at New York Live Arts

 

A uniquely bombastic, outrageous, and gorgeous performance that transcends genres, this is an unforgettably commanding performance that reveals deeper truths.

 

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL

 

In The Upper Room (1986/2022)

By Twyla Tharp at New York City Center

 

For a masterfully crafted and timeless work of dance art. In the Upper Room synthesizes choreography, costumes, music, and lighting into a transcendent experience for both audience and performers. The compelling score intersects with the bold choreography, creating an experience of raw power and grace.

 

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN/ MUSIC COMPOSITION

 

Charles Turner and Sean Mason

 

For LaTasha Barnes presents The Jazz Continuum by LaTasha Barnes at The Joyce Theater

For a New York City sonic dream of musical arrangement that pays tribute to the eras of Black music from authentic jazz to hip-hop classics. The audience is brilliantly taken on a rollercoaster of musical nostalgia that makes one want to cry, dance, and move with joy! From the piano keys to the DJ turntables, and from the jazz clubs of Harlem to the playgrounds of Brooklyn, the arrangement is a true delight showing the magic of The Jazz Continuum.

 

OUTSTANDING VISUAL DESIGN

 

Tina Tzoka & Loukas Bakas (Set Design), Stephanos Droussiotis (Lighting Design), Nektarios Dionysatos (Sculptures and Special Constructions), Dimitris Korres (Mechanical Inventions)

For Transverse Orientation by Dimitris Papaioannou at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

 

For a team of designers who create scenes beyond what people might think is possible, and leave them gasping in awe. The team is the ‘David Copperfield’ of the field, possessing wide imaginative abilities that create the magic and make-believe of the theater.

 

OUTSTANDING BREAKOUT CHOREOGRAPHER

 

Symara Johnson

 

For deeply personal and profoundly joyful movement research with a choreographic practice based in American and West Indian heritage. For merging movement practices with rigorous archival research which calls for being in the present moment. For a creation of space within this practice for engagement of many ideas generated on the spot, and the ability to move between them with abandonment.

 

2023 JURIED BESSIE AWARD

 

Barkha Patel

 

For elegantly and magnificently creating, educating, and sharing work that elevates classical Indian and Kathak dance. Patel is deeply rooted in her art form’s spiritual and cultural history and is a contemporary voice who will contribute to the evolution of Kathak dance and its place in the dance world at large. 

 

ABOUT THE BESSIES

 

The New York Dance and Performance Awards have saluted outstanding and groundbreaking creative work in the dance field in New York City for 39 years. Known as “The Bessies” in honor of revered dance teacher Bessie Schönberg, the awards were established in 1984 by David R. White at Dance Theater Workshop. They recognize choreography, performance, music composition, visual design, legacy, and service to the field of dance by independent dance artists and organizations. Nominees are chosen by a selection committee composed of artists, presenters, producers, and writers. All those working in the dance field are invited to join the Bessies Membership and participate in annual discussions on the direction of the awards and nominate members to serve on the selection committee. For more information about The Bessies, visit www.bessies.org.

 

The 2022–2023 Bessie Awards Selection Committee: Tyler Ashley, Elizabeth Burke, Tymberly Canale, Yoshiko Chuma, Donna Costello, Porshia A. Derival, Tiffany Geigel, Valerie Green, Satsu Holmes, William Isaac, Anabella Lenzu, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Shalewa Mackall, Yoko Murakami, Ivan Talijančić, and Kate Thomas.

 

The Bessies Steering Committee: Paz Tanjuaquio (chair), Yvonne H. Chow, Stanford Makishi, maura nguyễn donohue, Nicky Paraiso, Craig Peterson, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, george emilio sanchez, and Charmaine Warren.

BODY AND SOUL: george emilio sanchez: Information is medicine

george emilio sanchez (photo: Dave Sanders)

george emilio sanchez, wearing a black winter coat with a wine-purple scarf wrapped and tucked around his neck, stands against a blurred background. With an intent gaze towards the camera, sanchez has salt-and-pepper hair, mustache, and beard.

Still from In the Court of the Conqueror of a home occupying the ancestral lands of Kaskaskia, Tamaroa and Piankishaw Nations among other Mississippian Cultures. Image by Patty Ortiz.

 

The photo shows one side of a long white house surrounded by trees. There's a flagpole bearing the United States flag. At the base of the slide's image, a line of bright red letters spell out NOTYOURLAND.

My guest today, george emilio sanchez, is a passionate and critical voice for our times. A skilled artist and activist, he brings a gift for blending factual historical and cultural knowledge, lived experience, and creative storytelling in solo performances that inform, captivate, and challenge audiences. In this episode of Body and Soul, sanchez discusses a 19th-century Supreme Court ruling that violated indigenous tribal sovereignty; In the Court of the Conqueror, a performance in collaboration with visual artist Patty Ortiz; and The Shed's great exhibition on Brazil's indigenous Yanomami people.

Please forgive the abrupt ending of this episode! Details I edited out--concerning The Yanomami Struggle exhibition at The Shed, a New York City arts space--can be found at https://theshed.org/program/262-the-yanomami-struggle. The exhibition runs through Sunday, April 16, and I do highly recommend it.

To listen to today's podcast with george emilio sanchez, click here!

And scroll down for more information!

Still from In the Court of the Conqueror (photo: Maria Baranova)

Wearing his long white hair loose and a white, long-sleeved cotton shirt, sanchez gazes directly into the camera. He holds his arms and hands outward, left arm crossing in front of his chest, in the middle of a storytelling gesture.

Bio: george emilio sanchez is a writer, performance artist and advocate for indigenous rights and sovereignty.  Currently, he is touring the US with his recent performance collaboration with visual artist, Patty Ortiz, titled In the Court of the Conqueror.  This piece focuses on the 200 year-old history of US Supreme Court rulings that have diminished the Tribal Sovereignty of Native Nations, while also interlacing his individual journey of acknowledging his own indigeneity while being raised in an Ecuadorian immigrant household.  In the Court of the Conqueror premiered at Abrons Arts Center in New York City in March 2022 and has since toured to five states.  george emilio is also the performance director for Emergenyc, a program that experiments with the intersection of arts and activism and is celebrating its 15th year anniversary in 2023.  He was named the inaugural recipient of the Keith Haring Fellow at The MacDowell in 2021. https://www.georgeemiliosanchez.com/

BODY AND SOUL: Kayhan Irani: stories from the waters of memory

Kayhan Irani (photo: Jehangir Irani)

 

Kayhan, dark hair and dark eyes, sits sideways on a bench. Her arms are folded as they rest across the back the bench. She is looking slightly off camera to someone as if she's in conversation.

******

Kayhan Irani--writer, performer, artivist, mother--finds herself  aswirl in a constellation of stories, savoring books by writers of color whose values point the way to a positive future. Come be inspired by Irani's beautiful talk on the textures of memory and how stories help us re-weave community.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

Subscribe to Body and Soul for more.

Read below for more about my special guest, Kayhan Irani!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

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Kayhan Irani performs There is a Portal in Philadelphia (photo: Aidan Un)

Kayhan, standing on a dark stage with eyes shut. She is in profile and a spotlight illuminates her face and chest. Her left arm is lifted up above her head, palm closed as if holding something. Her lips are slightly as she exhales.

BIO: I am Kayhan Irani, a writer, a performer, a cultural organizer, and a Theater of the Oppressed Joker. For the past twenty I have used the tools of participatory theater and storytelling, internationally and in the US, to develop grassroots leaders and seed transformative change. I make art that brings people together to deepen our relationships to each other through story. Performance as conversation, as memory, as a way to return to ourselves what we have disregarded. My current project, There is a Portal, is performance as pedagogy. A deeply personal, reflective digital journey, coupled with in-person spaces of gentle, collective inquiry and local/diasporic storytelling. The project offers embodied poetic exploration to help us divest from narratives of erasure, restore our core metaphors, and build narratives that orient us toward self-belonging.

www.artivista.org/

Artists Reach Out: Adrienne Truscott

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Adrienne Truscott

Adrienne Truscott
(photo: Julieta Cervantes)

Adrienne Truscott’s work straddles many genres as a means of creative and financial curiosity and survival--choreographer/comedian/performer/writer and half of The Wau Wau Sisters, a 15-year-long boundary-busting cabaret collaboration. Her work over the years--as both performer and maker--crosses lines and methodologies between dance, theater and performance art, and these iterations appear as both seven-minute acts on the drag and club circuit to evening-length pieces. Her critically acclaimed Adrienne Truscott's Asking For It continues to tour, is being made into a documentary special and is considered a critical impetus to the evolving discourse about rape culture and gender.

She’s a 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award Artist (Dance) and a 2017 and 2020 FCA grant recipient for Theater and Performance. She’s been presented by or performed at such iconic venues/series as Sydney Opera House, The Moth, The Roundhouse, CBGB’s, PS122, The Kitchen, Danspace, Judson Memorial Church, MoMa among others. Director’s credits include David’s Friend, Lords of Strut, The Cockpainter, Glace Chase Is Talented, and currently AmericanMotherFuck. She’s an occasional writer for The Guardian, and her essays have been published in two Australian anthologies.

Shows currently on tour are THIS (2018 Bessie Nominee for Outstanding Production, Wild Bore (Green Room Award (AU)) and Adrienne Truscott’s A One-Trick Pony. She was about to finish development and rehearsal on Grey Arias with Le Gateau Chocolat (UK/AU) for Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne) before so many things were cancelled, and is currently rehearsing remotely with Brokentalkers (IR) and developing a new solo piece about genius and gender. Past collaborators include Deborah Hay, David Neumann, Split Britches, Sarah Michelson, John Cameron Mitchell, Kiki and Herb, La Soiree/La Clique. She has taught at Wesleyan, Barnard, Bard, Princeton and NYU.

She wears many hats and is attracted to the thrilling possibility of failure as a mandate for rigor.

Adrienne Truscott
(courtesy of Project Arts Centre, Dublin)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

I was in Melbourne working on a project with my friend Le Gateau Chocolat. We were mining our ten-plus years of friendship, correspondence and repartee that mashed up politics, allyship, the darkest of humor and trauma in a strangely easy and immediate way-- always covered with a coat of trashy drag and, often, all that ground would be covered in the same text, FaceTime moment, IG msg, etc. Although we’ve spent umpteen nights, days, two-show days, etc., making each other shriek backstage, attended countless festivals at the same time with different work, endured weird audiences and weirder reviews, this was our first time collaborating.

Grey Arias is a two-hander we had been waiting two years (ten?) to begin. We were on a tight schedule to complete and open this new work in three weeks and then run for three more; we both had reason to anticipate two years of touring work as a result. It’s a piece about race, gender and trauma through the lens of our shared and idiosyncratic performance modes, hurled against and exploiting the (awful) offerings of the problematic scaffolding of Madame Butterfly.

We had demanded that things around the show’s content be reflected institutionally and in our creative team, and we were working and collaborating in a mode that was deeper, funnier and more dangerous than anything else I’ve done, I think. It felt radical. It was thrilling.

We arrived on March 2, and were postponed and on flights by March 18, a day or two after our first off-book showing. We were already working in the modes and strategies performing artists contrive and develop in order to survive: en route to Melbourne, I had performed another piece in a group evening at On The Boards (Seattle) and then flown to Wellington, NZ to join a Philadelphia-based, queer cabaret cohort, doing yet a different piece of work, and Gateau was arriving, colliding with me, from similar circumstances. We wanted a dramaturg but didn’t have the budget for one from the institution. So, my dear friend John came to Melbourne and they worked with us for a week in exchange for housing and introductions.

I was supposed to finish that and leave for Ireland for 2 different projects via another different gig in London and Croatia. All gone for now. Making all of that happen was just another iteration of the ongoing tetris game of survival--turning one gig into two, letting one paid-for plane fare allow for another gig, maybe this gig could invisibly underwrite this other one nearby; use accommodation money to rent a friend’s place and pocket the rest for your cellphone bill. It’s a grift, isn’t it?

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

I returned to performing the year I dropped out of college. At the time I thought I was just confused, bored, finding my way. I now know that dropping out was a common response to a (too common) traumatic event. I was wandering around a bit but found myself in the company of two important, life-changing groups: a hippie circus in the mold of Bread & Puppet and Wesleyan dance majors, and both of them changed my life.

In part, I realized that I had massive defensive, protective structures built up around me and something about performing--my attraction to it and my terror of it--made me know that, if I went deep into what it means, I would be able to actually be present in my own life. I don’t know another way I would have found that.

Most of my teachers--whether in improvisational movement, compositional improvisation--taught me to practice being present and lured me away from the kinds of "protections" that had, up until that point, made life seem strange and alien. Deborah Hay’s work involved grounding and practicing presence in different but profound ways that still reside in my body and practice regardless of what I’m practicing.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

I lost a year’s actual work in a week, and the loss of that work was followed by the loss of anticipated work. Amidst all the confusion, my first move was to just rest. I hadn’t had nothing to do, for that long, in 20 years--for which I’m both grateful and exhausted! Then I got sick with COVID-19. So, I just concentrated on getting better and not infecting anyone else.

It’s clear to me that I probably won’t be on any kind of stage for at least a year, and that’s how I make my living--in theater spaces filled with people. I have other projects and collaborations that are text-based in some way. So, those are continuing (via Zoom with Ireland, but...).

In the meantime, I am envisioning how to build/create a place for artists on the property I share with my partner of eighteen years (who is also an artist) that imagines a way to offer space and refuge that is accessible, somehow, outside the traditional models of residency applications and in-kind support. I know this is possible, because I feel like I’ve been operating in a way that engages, straddles and avoids traditional models all at once. So that’s what I’m doing until further notice--yardwork and building.

I feel that my movement practice has become task-based and weather related--like some kind of artist-farmer consulting the weather as if it were an Independent Contractors’s Almanac for when to work outside (tear down, build up) and when to work inside (write, meet, consult).

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

I have been wanting to create these little out-cropped cabins for years, but I’m always too busy and on the road. I care about making space for other artists and participating in community/chosen family. I care about artist-to-artist strategies that evolve and re-imagine how we exchange support, share a precarious economic landscape, provide for each other and which deploys many of the same strategies I use as an independent artist to something that supports a community.

I don’t know how "legit" it will be because a lot of "legit" places in the world (banks, local permit offices, etc.) don’t view my twenty years of art-making and bill-paying as proof that I can function responsibly or even exist! It’s kind of hilarious. I just don’t look like a real person or thing "on paper" unless it’s in an arts-industry context. So, I’m going the outlaw route to get it done my own way--weather permitting!

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

For now, my practice feels like some iteration that is adjacent to what it used to be--and will be for the foreseeable future--meaning, I am writing and conceiving and collaborating; I am learning to video edit, because I want to and I have the "time," and I want to be in control of if and how my live work translates to digital, if it comes to that (I’m resistant and protective of our live art for now); I’m mentoring some other artists. And, today I’m gonna work outside, building a second DIY structure for someone, an artist, who needs space, refuge, etc. "until the rains come" at 8pm tonight!

As a maker, I’ve always worked in a mode that first asks if an obstacle presented can be a gift or a solution that may be more satisfying than the direct route. For now, that means physical labor and imagining this little artists’ compound. My friend who is a trans production coordinator and lighting designer who is between housing for the month of June is arriving on June 2 to help us build in exchange for housing and (socially distanced) community. So, it’s already starting!

Briefly share one self-care tip that has special meaning to you now.

My self-care involves not hustling gigs online in a panic, meditating, curating my digital interactions carefully and mowing the lawn which is always a very rich creative space for me.

******

DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

******

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Artists Reach Out: Monstah Black

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Monstah Black

Monstah Black
(photo: Lia Clay for the 2018 Queer|Art Community Portrait)

Monstah began his career as a performance artist with an emphasis on dance, costume design and music composition. He received an MFA in New Media Arts and Performance from Long Island University. He is currently one half (with his husband) of the electronic duo The Illustrious Blacks. Together they write, produce, record and perform internationally their original music.

Awards include Open Call The Shed NYC recipient, The Tom Murrin Performance Award, Franklin Furnace Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, American Music Center Live Music for Dance and NYSCA.  He has garnered support from New York organizations including Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, The Field, Movement Research and New York Live Arts. Publications include New York Magazine, Billboard Magazine, Paper Magazine and The New York Times.

Monstah is a Queer Arts Mentorship and Yaddo fellow as well as a Long Island University New Media Art and Performance, MFA.

theillustriousblacks.com


Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

The Illustriousblacks (Monstah and Manchildblack) have had to readjust and remix most of our plans for projects in 2020. The quarantine has allowed us to take a deeper focus.

A residency project that was a year long at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) in Queens experienced a complete remix due to COVID-19. Survival mode became re-imagining original ideas and remixing what was in our immediate surroundings. It caused me to reach beyond comfortable boundaries I’d created for myself (sound, visual and movement qualities). This is how our “Walk-in Closet” was born as a venue for Back In The Closet w/ Monstah Black.

It gave me, and continues to give me, a platform in which to share steps in the process as we build on new ideas. For JCAL, it became a direct opportunity as a marketing strategy to promote my film Cotton, screening in June.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

When I was a child, my parents encouraged me to practice and study all the things I showed skill in. They’re responsible for dance classes and church choir; most of my creative interests are inspired by them. Other responsible culprits would be Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Sylvester, Flip Wilson, Lola Falana, Cher and Parliament Funkadelic.

The choice to go to undergrad for Choreography/Performance at Virginia Commonwealth University sealed my destiny for becoming and staying an interdisciplinary artist.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning? 

I am currently practicing bringing attention back to my rib cage and everything below it. For several years now, I’ve built tons of material and improvised structures based on my upper body, arms, fingers, facial expressions and spine articulation. The quarantine is bringing me back to a place of being more grounded, and that, ultimately, is affecting my vocal quality as well as my body.

I’m currently envisioning a life of streaming/film and television. I love performing for the camera.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

I care most about being able to influence and inspire younger generations to love themselves no matter how much they may feel marginalized and been told otherwise. My practice has been to reach beyond the boundaries and limitations that were put before me. I continue to do that in hopes that it inspires others to do the same.

How does your practice function within the world?

My practice (as well as The Illustriousblacks) flourishes in the idea of togetherness and joy. This is most apparent in environments where music, dance and visuals meet harmoniously (dance parties). That’s a language that is fluent in all cultures. Through music, dance and visuals our goal is to spread the idea of love and unity.

Briefly share one self-care tip that has special meaning to you now. 

Morning Movement Meditation and squats. Sorry that’s two lol.

******

DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

******

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Artists Reach Out: Peter Sciscioli

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Peter Sciscioli

Peter Sciscioli
(photos: Anna M. Maynard)

Peter Sciscioli is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary performer, creator, educator and producer whose work encompasses dance, music, theater and film. Since 1997, he has been creating performance works through a choreographic lens with a wide variety of collaborators in venues around the world. In 2012, Peter founded the International Interdisciplinary Artists Consortium (IIAC), a network of artists and producers working across disciplines and cultures, designed to share resources. As a performer, he has worked closely with Jane Comfort and Daria Faïn, and with Meredith Monk in various capacities. Peter has taught his approach to Voice as Movement in Central and North America, co-initiated The Sounding Body workshop series at Movement Research (MR) and currently offers private lessons online. He has received recent support of his work and initiatives from MR’s Global Practice Sharing (GPS) program and the U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Each summer Peter also serves as facilitator for a IIAC residency and Moving Arts Lab, a festival meeting ground for interdisciplinary exploration, at Earthdance in Western Massachusetts. www.petersciscioli.com

La Voz Como Movimiento

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

For the last two years I’ve been engaged in a group process intended to deepen my research and practice of an approach to the voice and body I call “Voice as Movement.” Initially, I invited a few colleagues to explore some ideas and inquiries, and that process has evolved into creating a work that can eventually be shared with others.

We’d intended to move to a next-stage this spring, but instead have continued meeting once a week online. In some ways, living through this pandemic has allowed us to deepen our process, allowing something to unfold in its own time and in connection to the now, and acknowledging that the process itself has inherent value. Those have been some of the gifts. Much gratitude goes to Sara Galassini, Luisa Muhr and Petra van Noort for continuing to share their wisdom, care and curiosity so generously.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

“Voice as Movement” is informed by years of engaging in music, theater, movement and energy work, and has evolved over the last ten years or so. As a child, I studied Western classical violin and performed in musical theater and operas. I later acted in plays and began formal dance training in college. After graduating, I moved to Chicago where I was fortunate to join Chicago Moving Company under the tutelage of Nana Shineflug, one of the city’s matriarchs of modern dance who specialized in activating the chi-body. I also performed, taught, choreographed and was an administrator for Hedwig Dances, directed by Jan Bartoszek.

After moving to New York in 2002 I started working with Meredith Monk, from whom, along with members of her Vocal Ensemble, I’ve learned immeasurably. Later performing with Jane Comfort and Company and Daria Faïn allowed me to grow in both a dance theater practice and in energetic work, respectively.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

In a large sense, I think what I’m practicing is integration. The group process combines somatic practices, voice and violin, while drawing inspiration from a theatrical source as well as a companion planting method and a connection with nature (Three Sisters). My ongoing teaching encourages a deepening into the connections between breathing, movement and the voice. This extends to a personal practice of checking in daily on how I’m feeling, using similar practices I share with others, and trying to nurture myself through a variety of means. While a mantra for me during the pandemic has been “one day at a time”, I’m trusting a continuation of these practices and I would like to envision physical spaces that we can return to, in order to experience direct connection, sharing, and learning with others in the near and safer future.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

I’ve always been interested in and curious about what makes us feel more alive. While engaging in the arts from a young age was exciting and liberating, I later discovered and was able to identify an emergent value system underlying all of these practices. While self-expression is a way of sharing ourselves with the world, I’ve found that ego can often get in the way. One of the things I value most is the ability to attune to oneself and others at the same time. These practices have helped me learn how to listen, to trust in intuition, to be vulnerable, to be strong, to feel connection and a sense of community, and to learn how to communicate through the wisdom of the body. Being able to engage in them with others erases boundaries so that we can connect more on a soul level, expanding our perception beyond ourselves. Kindness, care and compassion feel like deepening presences along the way.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

While I’m very grateful to be able to continue with these practices right now, the shape of them has changed. Nothing can replace in-person-ness, direct exchanges of energy, the sense of touch and being physically affected by being in the same time and place as other people. The shift to teaching online sometimes impedes my ability to perceive what is happening physically in a person’s body, both visually and aurally, though a good deal is still possible, and I think, is of use. In the group practice, we can’t all sing at the same time and hear each other, nor can we obviously explore what’s physically possible between us. There are distinct limitations. At the same time, the fact that this technology is out there is amazing. I also try to remember the simple fact that we are all living in a body and that it’s through the body that we perceive the world. I continue to be humbled by the ability, abundance of inquiry, contemplation and knowledge that is available to me.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Artists Reach Out: Sara Juli

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Sara Juli

Sara Juli
(photo: Brett Deutsch)

Sara Juli in
Tense Vagina: an actual diagnosis
(photo: Kristofer Alan Thompson)

Sara Juli has been creating and performing comedic dance-theater for two decades and has performed her work extensively around the world. Sara is the 2017 Maine Fellow for the Performing Arts, is a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists recipient, a National Dance Project recipient for 2019-2021, and is touring her newest solo, Burnt-Out Wife nationally. Sara is Chair of Bates Dance Festival’s Advisory Board and an Affiliated Artist of Bates College. She is the Founder/Director of Surala Consulting, a fundraising consultancy supporting arts organizations and individual artists. www.suralaconsulting.com www.sarajuli.com @sarajulimoves

Sara Juli in Burnt-Out Wife
(photo: Nick Pierce)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

In 2018-2019, I imagined, wrote, choreographed and built a new solo performance piece about the decay and detritus of marriage over time--Burnt-Out Wife--the largest production of my career. I invested deeply in an incredible collaborative team including a dramaturg (Michelle Mola), set designer (Pamela Moulton), costume designer (Carol Farrell), sound designer (Ryan MacDonald), illustrator/graphics designer (Devon Kelley-Yurdin), co-songwriter (Sorcha Cribben-Merril), and lighting designer (Justin Moriarty). We worked for many months on creating a Pepto-Bismol-pink bathroom, where the character dances, laughs and sings-out her emotions and secrets.

I feel beyond fortunate that I was able to premiere the work in Portland, Maine, thanks to a commission from SPACE and Portland Ovations and additionally grateful I was able to bring the show to New York City through a commission from Dixon Place and American Dance Festival. I was also able to perform the show in Concord, NH and Portsmouth, NH--the latter on March 7-8 when everything was just starting to shut down. However, my tour was just getting started, and my hard work was just starting to pay off.

Thanks to receiving the National Dance Project, I had a robust tour scheduled for 2020 and 2021, which is now either cancelled or tenuous, at best, for the foreseeable future. To have invested so deeply both artistically and financially into the creative process, and to not be able to share/tour the work, nor receive any (much needed) compensation is devastating. This work is my livelihood in every sense of the word.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

My parents enrolled me in a creative movement class in New London, CT when I was three years old. My teacher, L’Ana Burton, still calls me her first dance student, a title I wear proudly. A few years later she founded and became director of the Connecticut College Children’s Dance Center where I danced technique and improvisation classes until I was fourteen. L’Ana taught me to find portals into my imagination and to access tools that would form movement thoughts and ideas that had depth.

At Conn College, during high school, I met Martha Myers who encouraged me to attend American Dance Festival where I enrolled as a student for six summers. My undergraduate experience was at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY where I was a Dance major. As a senior, I took a two-week intensive workshop with Deborah Hay.  The workshop was long, slow and meditative. I lost myself fully in her practice of harvesting magic and, literally one day, something clicked. I had an actual AHA! moment where I unearthed an artistic practice and voice (literally) that I have been cultivating and growing ever since.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

Currently, I am practicing a combination of parenting, exercising, stress-eating, calling friends and family, cooking for my family of four, and trying to make, find or borrow money to live. A lot of my time is spent on meal planning. How is it that breakfast and lunch are so close together? Why does the biggest meal of the day come at a time when I’m most exhausted?

Envisioning is a difficult practice these days, and I have good days and bad. On a bad day, I envision never being able to perform live for audiences again. As a performer who physically touches audiences heavily during shows, I envision that part of my work not being possible anymore. I envision needing to get a job in a different industry. Maybe I could be an Event Planner? Maybe I need to work full-time as a Development professional and let go of my artistic practice?

On a good day I envision there being a space where my solo work can be performed safely. I envision people’s need for laughter, and my gift for making audiences laugh. I envision writing and performing a stand-up comedy show that gets picked-up by Netflix or Hulu. I envision the Burnt-Out Wife tour resuming. I envision a teaching platform where I can help empower our artistic community to fundraise in a landscape that is primed and ready to donate to the cause. I envision so many things each day, it’s hard to keep track.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about? How does your practice function within the world we have now?

I most care about my two wonderful daughters. I expend a lot of energy trying to give off the appearance that all is well. And some days all is well.

We are self-isolating in a home that I love, with a yard and fresh air in abundance. We are trying to get a dog. We are so lucky and blessed. We’ve been playing Four Square, Scrabble, dancing in our underwear, watching Broadway musicals, and painting rocks as part of another attempt at a garden. My husband and I are taking long walks together. We argue. We are kind. We are scared. We parent our children as best we can.

I am learning to move slower and to stop and smell the flowers. (No, literally I smelled some daffodils in our yard the other day--who knew?) We are finding silver linings.

I think about the relevance of the arts and my practice during times of crisis. I think about being a housewife. I think about my mother. I think about laundry--all the time. I think about recording myself singing a song in my bathtub. I think about “becoming a digital artist” and get lost every time. I think about my value. I think about death. I think about keeping my children safe. Mostly, I think about finding a new normal for my children and myself, and about a future where dance exists, and I am still a part of it.

Briefly share one self-care tip that has special meaning to you now.

I have been e-exercising with a group of newish dance friends, who I know from Bates Dance Festival, each morning at 10am.  I look forward to seeing their smiling faces, laughing, chatting and then sweating our asses off together.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

******

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Artists Reach Out: Nile Harris

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Nile Harris

Nile Harris
(photo: Chloe Bellemere)

Nile Harris is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist working in the intersections of theater, choreography, and time-based media. His work has been presented at the Palais de Tokyo, Dixon Place, Secret Project Robot, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Movement Research at Judson Church and The Watermill Center, where his commissioned installation, curated by Robert Wilson, was featured in publications such as New York Magazine, W Magazine, Art News, and Vulture. His work has been supported with residencies at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Abrons Arts Center, and Otion Front Studio with funding support from the National YoungArts Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Pepatián. As a performer, he has performed for various artists including 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Malcolm-x Betts and in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including The Inheritance and Occupied Territories.

Nile Harris
(photo: Marisol Diaz)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

Prior to Covid-19, I was working on an evening-length installment of my performance series, The Rise and Fall of the Huxtable Family which was to premiere at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance this May.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

I grew up a quintessential theater kid. I was fortunate to go to a wonderful magnet high school (shoutout: New World School of the Arts!) where I was allowed to explore the fullness of my identity and creative curiosities at a relatively young age.

I began writing and directing plays. I became obsessed with writing these silent dramas that told stories through activating images through scenography and moving bodies. I’ve never had any formal dance training and at the time never considered what I was making in proximity to what I understood to be “dance.” And then I moved to New York and was exposed to downtown dance and performance communities and folks working in the intersection of forms, and I thought, "This makes sense to me!"

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

I create interdisciplinary worlds on the stage that manipulate time and perception through the use of the body. I’m interested in making dynamic live spaces and interactive experiences that interrogate the cultural histories we embody. With that, my work questions the often insidious narratives told around those histories that enable the current power structures present in the America project.

Technically speaking, I practice failure. I am in the practice of embodied experimentation and envision a world that values experimentation as a means to radically re-imagine the world that we live in, and I believe that failure and experimentation are kindred acts.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

I believe that I am in a constant state of becoming, so in my practice I value the process as equal to the product. My favorite part of making a show is the collaborative nature of things. And with that in mind, I work with BIPOC individuals who challenge and inspire me, because prioritizing those voices in my work and in the world is one of my deepest priorities.

How does your practice function within the world we have now? 

I’m in the process of figuring that out and trying to be okay with sitting with the not knowing.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

******

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Artists Reach Out: Sharon Bridgforth

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Sharon Bridgforth

Sharon Bridgforth
(photo: Nia Witherspoon)

Sharon Bridgforth came of age during assassinations, riots, the civil rights and Black power movements and Soul music. She strives to queerly/embody the unbending dignity, commitment to community, self-determination and Love of Black cultures that was modeled for her. A Doris Duke Performing Artist, Sharon is a writer that creates ritual/jazz theatre. Widely published, she is a RedBone Press author, and has received support from Creative Capital, MAP Fund and the National Performance Network. A New Dramatists alumnae, Sharon is has served as dramaturge for the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative’s Choreographic Fellowship Program and The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography in partnership program with the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative. She has been Artist In-Residence at: Thousand Currents; The NoVo Foundation; allgo, a Texas statewide qpoc organization; Brown University’s MFA Playwriting Program; University of Iowa’s MFA Playwrights Program; The Theatre School at DePaul University; and The Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Sharon is Executive Producer and Host of the Who Yo People Is podcast series. More at http://sharonbridgforth.com.

(photo above courtesy of the artist;
below, Michal Daniel, Pillsbury House Theatre)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

Everything that I was scheduled to do has been canceled or indefinitely postponed. I would have been traveling/some of which was to serve as a dramaturge for women of color choreographers (thanks to ongoing connections via Urban Bush Women). It hurts financially/and because I had to miss being in process with people that I love.

After being forced off the road...I slept. I didn't know how exhausted I was. I am still sleeping a lot. I can only focus on doing about two work-related things a day. Thankfully, one of those things is writing. For two years, I have wondered what/when/and how I was going to write a new piece. Well it's here. It wakes me up early and tells me what it wants me to know. Various kinds of Zoom meetings are also part of my day now.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

I was raised by Southerners in South Central L.A. My family are great storytellers. Their stories always dance and sing and laugh loud and sometimes name the dead. Two of my Great Aunts in Memphis were teachers. They started me in school there early--made sure I had the basics down. I always loved readings. So when my young lesbian-queer bodied self was struggling, I wrote.  Since my sensibilities where shaped by Black Southerners/I imagined language as music. As moving. With lots of things happening at the same time/and lots of people talking all at once. And then I saw For Colored Girls and, later, Urban Bush Women, and I realized that I was writing for performance. I started my own theater company in 1993. Experienced artists claimed me/helped me work the work. And here we are.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

My primary practice is listening. Opening. Receiving. Allowing. A character that came to me in the '90s has returned. In the '90s, RedBone Press published the bull-jean stories, a performance/novel featuring a "wo'mn loving/wo'mn named bull-dog-jean." That work carried me into my writer's voice by helping me solidify my practice as a blues based/theatrical jazz artist. Currently/characters from several newer pieces are joining bull-jean. They are all coming forward to help new work's Narrator--who is grieving the loss of her elders. I'll know more in time.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

For years, I worked in health and human services: as an intake counselor for Planned Parenthood; an Austin Travis County Health Department epidemiologist; an HIV tester, outreach worker and early-intervention specialist. My mentors at the time where artists that used art as a vehicle for social justice. When they found out that I had suitcases (literally) filled with writing/they pulled me and my writing into their community-organizing efforts. After a while, I realized that my work as an artist is my service. So I shifted my focus and integrated my love of community organizing with my love of African American Southern migration stories/and traditions. I approach art making, collaboration and sharing like a community organizer. The work may start with me, but it is not about me. It is my contribution to the collective healing, celebration, connection, and remembering.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

Right now the writing I am doing is really a ritual for grieving. It is a looking back and a looking forward. It is healing and it is preparation. The surrender that it requires is a great teacher. It helps me feel all my feelings. It makes me more committed to trying to be my better self. It reminds me to connect more with those I love. To center more in gratitude. To Offer.

Briefly share one self-care tip that has special meaning to you now.

My wife/Omi Osun Joni L. Jones and I make videos of ourselves reading children's books, and we send them to little ones that we love. It brings us SO much joy! Especially because the parents always send us videos of the children watching the recordings. Our readings always open with us rapping (lawd hep) about how much we love them. It gives us the opportunity to play and to know that we are unconditionally loved.  Play is my tip for today. Play. And share.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

******

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