Videography: Alex Shaw
Editing: Aidan Un
The short dance film Original Spaces capturing Black African and Pacific diasporic movement artists- Ojeya Cruz Banks and Lela Aisha Jones dancing on the shores of Te Waipounamu (South Island), Aotearoa/New Zealand will be screened. Dancers are robed in mud cloth, or bogolanfini from West Africa, the film inherently references a juxtaposition of land and culture through location, dress, music, and moves. The collaboration with Cruz Banks, Jones, Alex B. Shaw, and Aidan Un was inspired by Te Ao Māori and Chamoru worldview of land and dance (Perez 1997; Marsden 2003; Royal 2007, 2010, 2014; Salmond 2014; Potiki Bryant 2014; Cruz Banks 2010; 2014; 2015; 2017) and ruminations about the historical and social experiences of Black/African/Pacific people and their troubled/colonized relationships to the earth. The visual story aspires to invigorate contemporary Black and indigenous shared dialogues about identity and land. Relocating African diasporic dance has helped to process the continuum of embodying, reconceptualizing, and reapplying dance traditions. Restoring notions of Black/African/Pacific diasporic people and their relationship with the natural environment is sacred work of decolonization and an activation of Black Pacific joy. We call honor and call those needed to bring revival to fruition.
Editing: Aidan Un
The short dance film Original Spaces capturing Black African and Pacific diasporic movement artists- Ojeya Cruz Banks and Lela Aisha Jones dancing on the shores of Te Waipounamu (South Island), Aotearoa/New Zealand will be screened. Dancers are robed in mud cloth, or bogolanfini from West Africa, the film inherently references a juxtaposition of land and culture through location, dress, music, and moves. The collaboration with Cruz Banks, Jones, Alex B. Shaw, and Aidan Un was inspired by Te Ao Māori and Chamoru worldview of land and dance (Perez 1997; Marsden 2003; Royal 2007, 2010, 2014; Salmond 2014; Potiki Bryant 2014; Cruz Banks 2010; 2014; 2015; 2017) and ruminations about the historical and social experiences of Black/African/Pacific people and their troubled/colonized relationships to the earth. The visual story aspires to invigorate contemporary Black and indigenous shared dialogues about identity and land. Relocating African diasporic dance has helped to process the continuum of embodying, reconceptualizing, and reapplying dance traditions. Restoring notions of Black/African/Pacific diasporic people and their relationship with the natural environment is sacred work of decolonization and an activation of Black Pacific joy. We call honor and call those needed to bring revival to fruition.