My choreographic work complicates and provokes questions surrounding colonialism, cultural amnesia, whiteness and privilege, and the tensions between the invisible/perceived/obvious structures of power. For this residency, I engaged with artists as co-interrogators to look closely at the role race plays in dance production and presentation. We asked how our work as artists functions in society and how the communities we engage with are considered, internalized, and reflected through our work. Employing a 'systems thinking' approach, I connected with sectors of the Bay Area dance ecology and beyond to engage in invigorated dialogue to better understand how all are interconnected.

We invited curators, critics, scholars, dance writers, grantors, collaborators, publicists, and audience members to come together to spark conversations around dance. We addressed systems of support, power and privilege, race and colorblind racial ideology, issues and problems around diversity, resilience and sustainability, and more. Working with the premise that all sectors are interdependent, we promoted a culture of empathy so that every part of the dance community feels more visible, heard, and understood. Finally, we identified issues that dancers, choreographers and their collaborators face and will try to create solutions to problems that may be attributed to misunderstandings, uninformed assumptions, and myths. 

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Members of the artist cohort for Gerald Casel’s Dancing Around Race were: Raissa Simpson, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Sammay Dizon, Yayoi Kambara and David Herrera.