Not About Race Dance

Not About Race Dance is an evening-length work that critiques the unmarked predominance of whiteness in US postmodernism. It cites Neil Greenberg’s Not About AIDS Dance (1994) to draw a connection between the silence around the AIDS epidemic and the unacknowledged racial politics of postmodern dance. Occupying a space that has been historically defined by white artists, Casel and his collaborators present a contrasting vision that contests the structural endurance of white postmodern dance by centering Black and Brown dance artists. The work also disidentifies with the aesthetic tropes of postmodern dance such as white abstraction as in the white cube activated by Trisha Brown’s Locus and the ‘ordinariness’ of Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A. The work asks how these differences can be made visible through choreographic structures that do not historically make space for Black and Brown bodies.

As part of these performances and as a complementary experience that deepens audience engagement with Not About Race Dance, the company invites audiences to Dancing Around Race, a longtable discussion on racial equity. Since 2018, Casel has been developing Dancing Around Race, a community-engaged participatory gathering that holds space for candid conversations about race and racism.

Dancing Around Race began in 2018 when I was invited by Hope Mohr’s Bridge Project to conduct a Community Engagement Residency. Rather than creating a performance or a mentorship platform, I wanted to ask questions about issues of racial equity in the dance ecology in the Bay Area. I wondered why there was such an over-representation of white-led organizations, white teachers, and white decision-makers in the middle of what was supposed to be a diverse and progressive part of the country. I wanted to bring people together to be in dialogue about the harmful effects of systemic racism, especially for people of color. Using a systems-thinking approach, I brought together a cohort of Black and Brown dance artists to hold space for difficult conversations with everyone from the field including dance artists, presenters, funders, dance writers, and educators so that we can understand the interdependent nature of our practices and so that we can see how our words and actions (or silence and inaction) affect the material conditions of our livelihoods.” – Gerald Casel

Dancing Around Race will take place on Tuesday, December 7 at 7:00 pm at CounterPulse’s Main Stage Theater and is free of charge.

On-demand streaming of the performance will be available for online viewing from December 15-31, 2021. More information to follow.

Choreography and Direction by Gerald Casel (in collaboration with the performers)

Performed by Styles Alexander, Gerald Casel, Audrey Johnson, Karla Quintero, and Cauveri Suresh

Live Sound Design by Tim Russell

Lighting and Media Design by Aron Altmark

Dramaturgy by Rebecca Chaleff