Photo by Tayarisha Poe
This is a move. This is a deep spinal curve on top of a high booty. This is a game, and the rhythm is key. This is luminous black and smooth brown and hard yellow skin tones. This is an alien, and that is a fairy. This is a movement; we did not start it. This is a stomp through the floor, and a buck across the universe. This is an invitation for you to amplify the respect, curiosity, and love you find in our shared space. This is exquisitely normal. This is so queer, it’s inside out. This is a show for the family, with nudity and sexual themes. This is rigorous beauty. This is a formation.
THIS IS A FORMATION is the latest project in the LET ‘IM MOVE YOU series and is a performance work being designed to tour to sidewalk and alleyway sites within historically Black neighborhoods, institutional art spaces, and queer niteclub spaces. The project is the only larger group project in the current series, bringing together 7 Black dancers, a DJ, and a lighting designer as performers for the work. Audiences travel within performance spaces with relative freedom, sharing the same spaces as performers. Live captured video design elements will focus on close-up capture of the performers to reference both hyper-surveillance of Black people’s bodies, and pop-star scale megalomania.
Let ‘im Move You stems from jumatatu m. poe (r) and Jermone “Donte” Beacham (l)’s artistic relationship and is rooted in the J-Sette dance form, a call-and-response dance form originated in the early 80’s by Black southern US majorette lines at various historically Black colleges.
Please follow the project on instagram at @_move_you_ for additional performance events that will happen in various historically and/or predominantly Black neighborhoods on February 6th (around rush hour) and February 9th (around noon) in Philadelphia.
