From January to June this year, I had the privilege to be a part of SEED, an early-career choreographers’ residency and mentorship program offered through Culture Flow Projects. It’s been a few months since it concluded, so I thought I would put down some thoughts.
So, how did SEED work? I would characterize it as two parts education and one part performance. As a part of the residency, we met every other Thursday to receive movement training, history classes, professional development, and feedback on our own work. The program then culminated with two performances of our cohort’s work on June 9th.
The whole program was an amazing experience and I feel that I grew so much as a result. As an early-career choreographer with limited experience, this also gave me an opportunity to present work in a theatrical space that I would otherwise not have had access to.
I presented a piece based around adversarial images and anti-surveillance fashion (yes, that is a real thing!). This piece was called “Traffic Jammer” and featured dancers Nicole Davis, Mikyla Mendoza, Kate Sandoval, Mari Maria, Afton Coombs (me), Celia Duran, Kirk Patrick “Patches” Viloria, and Tylei Sade Morris (in order of appearance). The music was RISING by Fox Capture Plan, and film visuals and clothing were created by me.
The clothing is a crucial aspect of the work because “Traffic Jammer” is a combined fashion design and movement piece. The clothing designs are based on work by security researcher Kate Rose, and the images on these pieces trigger automatic license plate readers (ALPR’s) with artistically “junk data.” Automated systems such as ALPR’s are a threat to our safety and freedoms as the data can persist in databases for long periods of times. Depending on the jurisdiction, these records can be retrained for years, even without suspicion of a crime. When operated by private companies, the data can be sold to other agencies or businesses without our knowledge or consent. This is not security nor is it safety.
But, the more that designs like this appear out in the world, the more junk data goes in to these systems. Moreover, these approaches are relatively accessible. You do not need to be a software engineer with a high-powered computer and access to a GPU. All that is required is a working device with internet access and a graphics program with which to design a shirt. DIY, you’re the glitch in the system.
The piece is only one part choreography to two parts freestyle, I would say. It begins with something of a movement score, in which dancers have basic rules for movement (specifically, walking on a grid with robotic and stiff movements to express being “in the machine”). From there, first one dancer and then an increasing number of dancers wear colorful adversarial clothing and engage in freer improvised movement in their own idioms, in which they playfully engage with and unlock the dancers still trapped in the grid. There are two choreographed sections after this, several periods of quasi-freestyle movement across predetermined positions and formations, and finally a cypher to close out the show. In the cypher, audience members also put on some of the adversarial fashion items and join in. After the show in the Q&A, I talked about how I made these items and about how easy it is for artists to make their own designs for their projects.
But how did we get from that first January meeting to the June performance?
The first meeting of SEED occurred before the start of the year with an administrative meeting in November, which allowed us to introduce ourselves and which also set the basic rules and dates for the residency. As part of the residency, we received ten hours a month of studio space for rehearsals and creation, with the goal of creating a final piece by June. We also received some reading recommendations which I’m working on now, so I’ll update and link to an additional blog post once I have something to say about that.
In January, we got into the biweekly meetings. The first meeting was partially discussion and partially movement led by Vanessa Neva. I was actually traveling for Dissident Rhythms at the time, so I joined remotely. From there, we received movement training and history from Tashara Gavin on authentic jazz and Danzel Thompson-Stout on umfundalai. We also received choreographic feedback from Amy O’Neal and mentorship throughout the program from Vanessa Neva and T. Akuchu who run the program through Culture Flow Projects. Some of the mentorship activities included viewing selected dance footage for discussion, getting feedback on our own work, learning about grant applications, updating resumes and CV’s, and covering the basics of lighting and staging for a theater show.
The opportunities to learn from the movement artists were amazing. These workshops were partially movement and partially history, and I felt that I came away with a better understanding of the broad family that is African-American diasporic dances. For example, learning more about authentic jazz and diasporic practices connected to the movements and practices I was familiar with from tap dancing and deepened my understanding of that and related art forms.
The administrative and career workshops were also very useful. Honestly, I would have had a very hard time figuring this stuff out on my own. I don’t know of any guidebooks or how-to’s on navigating the world as a dancer creating academic or theatrical work (let me know if you know of one, though!). But T. and Vanessa helped so much explaining where to find grants and apply to them, how to write a resume and CV, how to easily set up a website (and specifically one that looks good for dance portfolios), and so on. Thanks so much to both of them for all of this.
The last part of the residency was very focused on the upcoming performance. We had tech rehearsal with lighting and sound and feedback sessions which culminated in two shows on June 9, a matinee and an evening show. The matinee was completely sold out and the evening was close, and I’m kind of still in shock that I was able to show this work to so many people. This program gave me and the other choreographers a chance to show our work to a large audience and in a black box-style theater, which I think we probably would have had difficulty accessing otherwise. I know that I’m new to choreographing, and this was a huge opportunity for me to develop this work and show it to an audience.
So what’s next? Well, as a follow-up to this piece, I would really like to run a workshop in which artists and community members could create their own anti-surveillance designs and go home with a new adversarial fashion piece. TBD!
And, applications for the next SEED cohort will open up later this year. If I remember correctly, that will happen around September. If you’re interested, I would encourage you to apply!
In conclusion, I just want to say thank you so much to Culture Flow Projects for the support and mentorship, and to the dancers for spending their time and their energy on the piece. I appreciate this opportunity so much. Thank you!
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