a note

We began in December 2019 because I - marion - wanted to be in a room making performance that was  grounded in physical practice, collective imagination and relationship. It was important that I went into this process with people I love who are artists I respect and trust. We started with big ideas about the apocalypse, liminal space and utopia, asking the question: how do we rebuild together?

Upon lockdown March 2020, we experimented virtually, developing practices that informed the live work. We recorded voice memos which now live in our sound score. We built tiny utopic environments using our own domestic materials and lights. Symara learned carpentry skills to make money when all dance gigs were canceled, which we later called upon to do construction in the live work. The 2020 Summer of Unrest brought a complete pause for this project, each of us doing what we needed to do. I stepped away from artmaking entirely and into the street as a full time protester and activist. I took time away from dance to center the need for action, learning and urgent allyship in my immediate community. My creative process prioritizes collective care, relationship building, and trust. As a white Latina cisgender woman, I work to hold and facilitate mulitracial, multi-gendered spaces of experimentation and exploration. Upon returning together, this collective has prioritized a human-centered and equity-centered approach to art making through antiracist, anticapitalist and abolitionist practices. 

This project amplifies the artistry of performers Ogemdi Ude, Symara Johnson, Kimiko Tanabe, s. lumbert, Tara Sheena, and slowdanger. We all look and move differently, and come from distinct backgrounds in the dance world. This project brings us together to thread our plurality and multiplicitous textures through the choreography, soundscore and materials. 

As we gathered in one of our last zoom meetings Spring 2021 before resuming rehearsals in person, I asked - what are you taking with you? what are you leaving behind? - a prompt designed for a moment in which there was hope of a real, finite departure from the pandemic. We stay asking those questions today. As our dream team grows, I am learning that above and beyond the lesson emerging from this project is that we take relationships, collective imagination and collective action.

Together - as a multiracial, multigendered, femme & BIPOC-centered group - we move, groove, sense and sound, build and rebuild, lose and find order together, as a posit for a better world-
marion spencer - director + choreographer
Ogemdi Ude  - performer
Kimiko Tanabe - performer
s. lumbert - performer
slowdanger - performers + sound designers
Symara Johnson - collaborating artist + former performer
Tara Sheena - collaborating artist + former performer
Lindsey Jennings - understudy performer 
Meghann Trago - understudy performer 
Malcolm-x Betts - costume designer
Athena Kokoronis - costume designer
Myssi Robinson - creative archivist, visual designer + creator of archival surface painting
Stephanie Acosta - experimental archivist + video editor 
HandyQueers - set designers
Iris McCloughan - dramaturg
jess pretty - creative producer
Shana Crawford - lighting designer
theo armstrong - stage manager