excuse me while i take up space
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Part 2: The Stage
Stage Design
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This capstone project looked to community as a source of dance vocabulary. It honored the physical information that our bodies shared in intimate black spaces. The places where we shared ourselves were sacred. Therefore, the movements that occurred in those spaces were sacred as well. This work was tied to our being, and produced only to empower our definitions and embodiments of blackness.
The stage can turn into a place where dancers are put on display because of a performer versus audience relationship that can automatically be assumed.The intention of this project readdressed the audience as an afterthought in the grand scheme of the performance. The stage symbolized an act of unapologetically taking up space and needed to be restructured to channel the environments where we explored our individuality through fellowship.
This design avoided putting our bodies on display and gave dancers an opportunity to make the stage their own personal space. It gave options to hide or share dance and ensured autonomy in the narratives that would be told.
Costumes
Costumes were reflective of each dancer's style. The pieces were casual to ensure that the dancers could move in them. Costumes ranged from cargo pants, sheer button-downs, layered t-shirts over long-sleeve shirts, to flared pants. The one element that unified our costumes together was color. All costumes were dyed to match the true skin tone of the dancer. Our complexions varied in shades of brown, but existing together in our skin ensured self-empowerment
The Choreography (In Progress)
This work was not done and was still growing right up until the final performance. We never got to film a full version of the piece or create a cohesive dance. In my capstone paper in Chapter 5, I depict how I would have tied the final body of work together