NYC-based dance company shares dance about representations of Black Women
The much anticipated performance of New York-based choreographer Camille A. Brown and her company of dancers will present BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, a work that reveals the complexity of carving out a self-defined identity as a black female in urban American culture. In a society where black women are often only portrayed in terms of their strength, resiliency, or trauma, this work seeks to interrogate these narratives by representing a nuanced spectrum of black womanhood in a racially and politically charged world.
With original music compositions (live music by pianist, Scott Patterson and electric bassist, Tracy Wormworth), Brown uses the rhythmic play of African-American vernacular dance forms including social dancing, double-dutch, steppin’, tap, Juba, ring shout, and gesture as the black woman’s domain to evoke childhood memories of self-discovery. From play to protest the performers come into their identities, from childhood innocence to girlhood awareness to maturity—all the while shaped by their environments, the bonds of sisterhood, and society at large.
BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play was commissioned by DANCECleveland through a 2014 Joyce Award from the Joyce Foundation and was developed in part during a residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY. The choreography was developed in part with support from the Jerome Anniversary 50th Anniversary Grant, The MAP Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Boston Globe describes Brown as a “storyteller, with many tales to tell and has gathered a company of earthy movers, deft at giving her dances the physical weight needed to carry serious themes…
With great anticipation for Camille A. Brown’s choreography of BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, the Festival Gala will also feature Detroit-based companies ARTLAB J Dance, Eisenhower Dance as well as a “Festival first”: two international dance companies Teatr Tańca Zawirowania and R.se Dance Company who will be presenting work as a part of a new international dance exchange initiative. The Festival Gala will be held at the Detroit Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts Saturday, August 1st. The Festival Gala will be culminated with the 3rd Annual Detroit Dance City Festival (DDCF) in downtown Detroit July 30th-August 1st, 2015. The three-day community-building event celebrates dance in its various forms with daily workshops, performances by over forty local and international performing artists, dance companies, and will provide networking opportunities held at various venues downtown.
For more information https://www.camilleabrown.org/blackgirllinguisticplay/
For more information about the Detroit Dance City Festival www.detroitdancecityfestival.com
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