Who Fears Not Death: For My Son's Father (2018)
This solo work asks questions about how we mourn, let go of the fear and stigma surrounding death and locate the edges of how we lose those dear to us. Equally, this work asks why some die and others live in Africa. It questions the ways that certain lives are privileged over others. Drawing from Ndedi Okorafor's textual landscape of post-apocalyptic Africa, the work excavates outsiderness, the destabilization and re-centering of self that mourning requires and finding home in one's own body in order to mourn. The project draws upon African and Caribbean movement materials in an experimental contemporary dance work that incorporates aspects of theater.
Choreography: Celia Weiss Bambara Dance: Celia Weiss Bambara Musical Collaboration: Kimathi Moore Lighting Design: Rob Bowen Length: 30 minutes with props
This work received Dean of Humanities Funding for Musical Collaboration at UNC Asheville in 2017 and benefited from a Summer 2017 Residency at TanzArt in Kirchau, Germany. The work has been shared at CIE Téné's Contemporary Dance Festival Les Deux Terres in Cannes France, at Flox Galleries in Kirchau, Germany, in San Francisco at Byb Bibene's Mbongui Square Dance Festival, at Danspace through Draftwork (curated by Ishmael Houston Jones), at UNCA Asheville's BELK Theater and informally at UNC Asheville's studio during the artist studio series.