Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:58:46.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dancing After Life: Flexible Spacetimes of Black Female ResistDance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2021

Layla Zami Open the ORCID record for Layla Zami [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay explores the intersection of concert dance, cultural memory, Black womanhood, and non-linear spacetime from an Afro-European perspective. Inspired by Black feminist methodologies, the text interweaves performance analysis, historical context, interdisciplinary theory including my own concept of perforMemory, and auto-ethnographic experience gained through participant observation. My writing moves along three lines of inquiry tuned in the key of C: contextualizing, conjuring and contemplating. The article offers a case study of I Step on Air, a contemporary dance piece created by Nigerian-German dancer-choreographer Oxana Chi (Berlin/New York) and dedicated to Ghanian-German poet and activist May Ayim. By including an interlude with the choreographer's own creative writing about the piece, the article also provides the reader with the precious perspective of Oxana Chi on her process. The article is a reflection on/of the resonances between movement, writing, and activism. Let's celebrate the power of Black women to resistDance, step by step, move by move, breath by breath…

Keywords

Oxana ChiMay Ayimcultural memoryperforMemoryAfro-German dancedance historyactivism
Type
Article
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 53 , Special Issue 2: Arms Akimbo: Black Women Choreographing Social Change , August 2021 , pp. 67 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Dance Studies Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

- including a contribution by Oxana Chi

References

Works Cited

Aduonum, Ama Oforiwaa. 2011. “Memory Walking with Urban Bush Women's Batty Moves.” The Drama Review 55 (1): 52–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asante, Kariamu Welsh. 2001. “Commonalities in African Dance: An Aesthetic Foundation.” In Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, edited by Dils, Ann and Albright, Ann Cooper, 144–151. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Ayim, May. 1995. blues in schwarz weiss. Berlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag.Google Scholar
Ayim, May. 1997. Grenzenlos und Unverschämt. Berlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag.Google Scholar
Batiste, Stephanie. 2014. “Aquanova: Collapsing Time in the Lives of Sharon Bridgforth's Delta Dandi.” In Solo/Black/Woman: Scripts, Interviews, and Essays, edited by Patrick Johnson, E and Rivera-Servera, Ramón H, 238–254. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Bénichou, Anne, ed. 2015. Recréer/scripter: mémoires et transmissions desOeuvres performatives et chorégraphiques contemporaines. Dijon, FR: Les Presses du Réel.Google Scholar
Bey, Sadiq. 2010. “New Horizons (Follow the Molecule).” In Sun Ra: Interviews and Essays, edited by Sinclair, John, 80–82. London: Head Press.Google Scholar
Carrico, Rachel. 2020. “Second Line Choreographies in and beyond New Orleans.” In Futures of Dance Studies, edited by Manning, Susan, Ross, Janice, and Schneider, Rebecca, 191–208. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatterjea, Ananya. 2004. Butting Out: Reading Resistive Choreographies through Works by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Chandralekha. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Chi, Oxana. 2013. Interviewed by the author in the realm of doctoral research, September 17.Google Scholar
Chi, Oxana. 2015. “Von Hier Nach Dort—I Step on Air.” In Sisters and Souls: Inspirationen von May Ayim, edited by Kelly, Natasha A, 201–215. Berlin: Orlanda.Google Scholar
Chi, Oxana. 2020. “I Step On Air.” Accessed March 30, 2020. http://oxanachi.de/productions/i-step-on-air.html.Google Scholar
Commander, Michelle D. 2017. Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Croft, Clare, ed. 2017. Queer Dance: Meanings & Makings. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deepak, Sunil. 2016. “Queer Theatre & Short Films – DIQTFF.” Arre Kya Baat Hai (blog), December 13. Accessed April 10, 2020. http://kyabaat.blogspot.com/2016/12/queer-theatre-short-films-diqtff.html.Google Scholar
DeFrantz, Thomas. 2002. “Blacking Queer Dance.” Dance Research Journal 34 (2): 102–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downey, Kerry. 2015. “Audience Review: Oxana Chi in I Step on Air.“ The Dance Enthusiast, September 23. Accessed March 30, 2020. https://www.dance-enthusiast.com/get-involved/reviews/view/Oxana-Chi-in-I-Step-On-Air-Sept-23-2015.Google Scholar
Franko, Mark, ed. 2017. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Reenactment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaines, Malik. 2017. Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the Impossible. New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George-Graves, Nadine. 2014. “Diasporic Spidering: Constructing Contemporary Black Identities.” In Black Performance Theory, edited by DeFrantz, Thomas F. and Gonzalez, Anita, 33–44. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Gumbs, Alexis Pauline. 2020. DUB: Finding Ceremony. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Jakab, Gillian. 2020. “In Conversation: Oxana Chi and Layla Zami with Gillian Jakab.” The Brooklyn Rail, April, Dance. Accessed April 10, 2020. https://brooklynrail.org/2020/04/dance/OXANA-CHI-and-LAYLA-ZAMI-with-Gillian-Jakab.Google Scholar
Johnson, Amanda Walker. 2017. “Resituating the Crossroads: Theoretical Innovations in Black Feminist Ethnography.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society 19 (4): 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2018.1434350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Natasha A. 2016. Afrokultur: Der Raum Zwischen Gestern und Heute. Münster: Unrast Verlag.Google Scholar
Marquié, Hélène. 2016. Non, la danse n'est pas un truc de filles?! Essai sur le genre en danse. Toulouse, FR: Editions de l'Attribut.Google Scholar
McMillan, Uri. 2015. Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance. New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Rebecca. 2011. Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharpe, Christina Elizabeth. 2016. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. 2017. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinsley, Omise'eke Natasha. 2008. “Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic: Queer Imaginings of the Middle Passage.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 14 (2–3): 191–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murham: Wesleyan Wright, Michelle M. 2015. Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zami, Layla. 2017. “Dancing the Past in the Present Tense.” Lambda Nordica 22 (2–3): 126–150.Google Scholar
Zami, Layla. 2018. “Contemporary PerforMemory: Moving Through Diasporic Dancescapes in the 21st Century.” PhD diss., Humboldt-University: Berlin.Google Scholar
Zami, Layla. 2019. “Danser le passé au présent.” Recherches En Danse, no. 7. https://doi.org/10.4000/danse.2736.Google Scholar
Zami, Layla. 2020. Contemporary PerforMemory: Dancing Through Spacetime, Historical Trauma, and Diaspora in the 21st Century. Bielefeld: transcript; New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar