Brother(hood) Dance (sponsored event)

Ohio University School of Dance Presents

BROTHER(HOOD) Dance!

Black Jones & Afro/Solo/Man

FRIDAY, DEC 6TH AT 7 PM
SHIRLEY WIMMER DANCE THEATER - PUTNAM HALL

FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC 
MATURE CONTENT: LANGUAGE AND NUDITY

Brother(hood) Dance! is a 2020 Bessies Honoree of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies for Afro/Solo/Man, and MFA in Dance graduates from The Ohio State University. An interdisciplinary duo that seeks to inform its audiences on the socio-political and environmental injustices from a global perspective, bringing clarity to the same-gender-loving African-American experience in the 21st century. Brother(hood) Dance! was formed in April 2014 as a duo that researches, creates, and performs dances of freedom by Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine. We have performed our works at FiveMyles, Center for Performance Research, B.A.A.D! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), VCU-The Grace Street Theater, DraftWork at St. Mark's Church, JACK, Movement Research at Judson Church, Colby College, Denmark Arts Center, Universidad de las Américas Puebla/Performatíca(MX), Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán/Viso Festival (MX), Jean-Rene Delsolins Institute (HT) and other venues. 

Black Jones

Through a ritualistic process, we intend to create and dream of a safe space for black men to activate their emotional and spiritual selves that is denied in contemporary religious dogma. Black Jones is an exploration of manhood through the naked lens of two same-gender loving men.  Inspired by ShiKeith’s #Blackmendream project, this work will investigate the humanistic and emotional connection that is viciously suffocated by the lack of societal images of black male intimacy. We question the notion of vulnerability when connecting with ones self and others. How does one detach from their fears and insecurities to live authentically under hetronormative standards? What does black male intimacy look like in different spaces globally and how are those bodies navigating, connecting, and/or resisting in a society with harshly strict perceptions?

Afro/Solo/Man

A multi-disciplinary mediation exploring the identities of individual Black men relating to provocative themes like origins, nourishment, heritage, nature, sexuality and technology in the 21st century.  It is a bio-mythography that uses multi-media, dance and storytelling to engage the audience in the personal journeys of two men who questions and investigates the memory, life, death and connection to their ancestors.  This work lies at the nexus of environmental justice, the degradation of the Black family identity, and the government’s role in agricultural and media production. Ultimately, the omnipresence of the men’s mothers slip through time and space in unexpected ways, guiding the men in very different directions. These are not stories of Black men that we think we know. We challenge assumptions, provoke rethinking and are unafraid to take on all of our demons around race, gender, sexuality and “brotherhood”.