About
A Study is the first performance work created for jumatatu m. poe and Jermone Donte Beacham’s Let ‘im Move You series. The artists used J-Sette movement and performance structures as jumping-off points for experimentation with the role of strategy in dance making and social design. Major interests for these explorations included rhythm, pattern, and attention. In addition to research within studios and domestic spaces within the German city of Neuss, where the artists were in residence, Jumatatu and Donte also used movement as a way to agitate social codes in gay bars and clubs in Köln.
Production History
2018 – Presented with Let ‘im Move You: This Is a Success. Part of American Realness: Hollins Edition at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.
2018 – Presented withLet ‘im Move You: This Is a Success and Let ‘im Move You: Installation. Part of American Realness festival at Abrons Arts Center, NYC.
2017 – Presented withLet ‘im Move You: This Is a Success and Let ‘im Move You: Installation. Part of Endless Shout exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.
2016 – Presented withLet ‘im Move You: This Is a Success. Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, CA.
2013 – Presented as a showing (then titled ‘Experimentations in Bucking’) through Tanzrecherche NRW residency. Kulturforum Alte Post, Neuss, Germany.
Project Credits
video portrait by Stefanie Suchy
artistic direction by jumatatu m. poe
choreography and performance by Jermone Donte Beacham and jumatatu m. poe
DJ and sound design by Zen Jefferson with music by Drake, Erykah Badu, Bob Telson with Lee Breuer & The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Lil Uzi Vert, and other artists depending on the performance
lighting design by Juan “Coel” Rodriguez
tour management by Marýa Wethers
Funding Credits
A Study was first developed in a residency through Kultursekretariat’s Tanzrecherche NRW program at Kulturforum Alte Post in Neuss, Germany. It has also been made possible through a residency at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica with support from a Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Creation Budget
Press
“On Artists and Audiences at American Realness.”
New York Times. Brian Seibert. 2018.
“Black Success, Black Joy, and Black Excellence Within the Theatrical Architecture of Whiteness – jumatatu m. poe & Donte Beacham: Let ‘im Move You… (2018).”
Cult Plastic: Dance And Culture In The Plastic Age. Anh Vo. 2018.
“Plieé Meets Twerk in a Performance of Black Queer Joy.” HYPERALLERGIC.
Meredith Sellers. 2017.
“Der getanzte Traum des Lebens”(translation “The Danced Dream of Life”).
NGZ Online. Dagmar Kann-Coomann. 2013. (in German and in English; on Jumatatu Poe and Jermone Donte Beacham residency in Neuss, Germany)
About the series Let ‘im Move You
Let ‘im Move You is a series born from the artistic relationship between artists jumatatu m. poe and Jermone “Donte” Beacham. The series centralizes J-Sette performance form and culture to address the artists’ search for satisfaction and subversion within J-Sette’s team-oriented call-and-response structure. While the artists see performance as an opportunity to communicate across various cultural distinctions, they see their work as chiefly in conversation with other Black queer alien artists.
