O B S E R V A T I O N S : CHRISTOPHER - RASHEEM MCMILLAN

DANIELLE RUSSO & GUESTS

A R T S O N S I T E 12 ST. MARKS PLACE NYC

J U L Y 1 4 & 1 5 AT 7 : 3 0 P M

A N E V E N I N G O F W I T N E S S I N G D A N C E 

ritual, resistance & desire as catalysts for locating the

catharsis of grief between-in-through the body

FEATURING   KEVIN SHANNON    JARUAM XAVIER

CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN

WITH GUEST ARTIST INSTALLATIONS BY

RENA ANAKWE TIFFANY MERRITT-BROWN

TICKETS: ARTSONSITE.ORG/TICKETS

FULL PRICE: $30  |  $10 OFF WITH DISCOUNT CODE: Studio3Rdiscount

STUDENT DISCOUNT: $15

DRINKS SERVED – SUGGESTED DONATION  |  PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT

THE COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS

SINCE THOU WAST PRECIOUS IN MY SIGHT, VOL. 2 and The Pew both use ritual, resistance, and desire as catalysts for locating the catharsis of grief between, in, and through the body. In Russo’s SINCE THOU WAST PRECIOUS IN MY SIGHT, VOL. 2, Kevin Shannon and Jaruam Xavier engage in a highly athletic duel confronting habits, desires, and grievances to submit. When cycles of will and expectation transcend into the ritualized, what is the endurance, the ceiling, the surrender of trust and conviction? She draws upon themes of original sin, obedience, penance, and absolution from her own experience with Catholic devotions. In Mcmillan’s The Pew, religious in nature, stages the black body as a site for resistance, regeneration, and reconstruction by mobilising the intertextual residue left behind by/in Talley Beatty's The Mourners Bench (1947). By investigating his own spiritual background and that of other black queer people, he created an autobiographical performance inspired by the embodiment of spiritual release that one can find in black religiosity and the evangelical church. The works together question presence and absence of religious iconography and martyrdom in the bodily archive.  

Guest artists Jaruam Xavier, Rena Anakwe, and Tiffany Merritt-Brown echo these themes. The word Ori means "head" in Yoruba, which is used in Candomblé rituals to honor the African diasporic religion and its deities in Brazil. Xavier perceives this dance as an embodied, performative expression deeply rooted in his memories and in his body to convey sacredness, spirituality, and to reach a higher state of mind. Tiffany Merritt-Brown’s Therapié Au Chocolat focuses on rituals of healing in water. Experienced as a prayer or meditation the work occurs site-specifically by the ocean. The duet performed by Melissa Cobblah-Gutierrez and Denzel Williams explores water as a site for cleaning, revival, restoration, and renewal. The work considers how water can reset emotional, physiological, and spiritual systems in the body. Rena Anakwe’s Let Me Be Soft is a breath, sound, and spirit reflection meandering through the dark. An incantation that asks for a moment in which we all can shed the unnecessary parts and emerge.

Ori

Choreographer & Performer: Jaruam Xavier

Music: “O Berimbau” by Naná Vasconcelos

Costume: Jaruam Xavier

The Pew

Choreographer & Performer: Christopher-Rasheem McMillan

Music: M Deeney

Costume: Christopher-Rasheem McMillan

SINCE THOU WAST PRECIOUS IN MY SIGHT, VOL. 2

Choreographer: Danielle Russo

Performers: Kevin J. Shannon, Jaruam Xavier

Text: Samuel Beckett, as arranged by Danielle Russo under fair use guidelines

Costumes: Danielle Russo, Kevin J. Shannon, Jaruam Xavier

Click here for DRPP Press Kit

Let Me Be Soft

Soundscore & Words: Rena Anakwe

Therapié Au Chocolat 

Choreographer: Tiffany Merritt-Brown 

Performers: Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez, Denzel Williams 

Music: Rokia Traoré

Videographer: Chadwick Gaspard 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

As a choreographer, Danielle Russo has been presented nationally at American Dance Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, and The Yard; and internationally in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Mexico, Panama, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden. Residency and fellowship awards have included C.N.N. - Ballet de Lorraine (FR), Danscentrum Jette (BE), Nadine Laboratory for the Contemporary Arts (BE), Independent Artists Initiative WUK (AT), Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation (US), LEIMAY (US), Mana Contemporary (US), Performing Arts Forum (FR), and Springboard Danse Montréal (CA), among others. She is a multi-year grant recipient of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs through the Brooklyn Arts Council, Carnegie, Dance/NYC, Harkness Foundation for Dance, One Brooklyn Fund, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Highlights include Armory Arts Week, Julian Schnabel’s Casa del Popolo, Governors Island, HERE Arts Center, The High Line Nine, Lincoln Center for Performing Arts at Damrosch Park, Moynihan Station, The Oculus at the World Trade Center, Place des Arts, and Solange Knowles’s Saint Heron. Her work concentrates on performance and interactive technologies for unconventional ‘stages’ and environments, frequently in the public realm and through socially engaged praxes. (For more information, please visit www.drpp.nyc.) Outside of her own devising, Danielle performed for several seasons with The Metropolitan Opera. She holds BFA in Dance and a BA in Anthropology from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University/ADF. As a scholar and an educator, Danielle has served on faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase, University of Iowa, CUNY Queens College, and The Joffrey Ballet School BFA and Professional Divisions. Most recently, she was appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. 

The interdisciplinary artist, choreographer and scholar Christopher-Rasheem McMillan is an assistant professor of dance theory and practice and of gender, women’s and sexuality studies at the University of Iowa. McMillan earned a BA from Hampshire College, an MFA in experimental choreography from the Laban Conservatoire, London and a PhD in theology and religious studies from King’s College London. In 2020, McMillan was appointed a fellow at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in Theology and the Arts, and he was named a Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts in 2021. Currently, he is completing a fellowship at the Center for Afrofuturist Studies. McMillan’s performance works have been featured at venues such as the Bates Dance Festival of Bates College, Providence International Arts Festival (PVD), the Dance Complex and Green Street Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts as well as in performance platforms such as the participatory event Beyond Text, London (2011). He has performed and collaborated with artist such as T. J. Dedeaux-Norris, Wendy Woodson, Netta Yerushalmy, Cathy Nicoli and Jonathan Gonzalez. His writing has appeared in multiple journals, including The Journal of Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, Liminalities and Contact Quarterly.

Kevin J. Shannon is a potter, dancer, and teacher living in Chicago. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. He received additional training from the School of American Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Paul Taylor, and Springboard Danse Montréal. After receiving his BFA from The Juilliard School, Kevin was invited to join Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. While a company dancer with Hubbard Street from 2007 to 2022, he had the privilege to perform works by Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Alejandro Cerrudo, Peter Chu, Sharon Eyal, William Forsythe, Jirí Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Twyla Tharp, Robyn Mineko Williams, among many others. As an educator, he has led and programmed the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Summer Intensive and is currently a guest teacher for Hubbard Street’s main company and José Limón Dance Company. He has been a visiting artist for the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and has served as faculty for The Joffrey Ballet School, Gibney Dance NYC, Chicago Movement Collective, Youth American Grand Prix, and Peridance Center. In addition, Kevin is a certified IMAGE TECH for dancers™ teacher. Kevin is currently dancing with Flockworks Dance, Brian Brooks/Moving Company, and Danielle Russo. 

Jaruam Xavier is a professional dancer of Brazilian heritage who has performed for numerous companies and choreographers in Belgium, Brazil, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Uruguay, and the United States. He was a company member of Brazil’s preeminent Balé da Cidade de São Paulo from 2008 to 2018, where he was featured in the works of Mauro Bigonzetti, Alexander Ekman, Andonis Foniadakis, Itzik Galili, Francesca Harper, André Mesquita, Ohad Naharin, and Cayetano Soto. As a choreographer, he delves into the exploration of Anthropophagic Body Formation, a methodology he employs to articulate the assimilation of knowledge through the embodiment of dance and cultural hybridity. His works bear the influence of Candomblé, Capoeira, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, evident in their distinctive traits. He has received prestigious fellowships, scholarships, and grants, enabling him to conduct research on Capoeira and Candomblé, both African-Brazilian diasporic embodied practices. Jaruam has been actively involved as a teaching assistant for the Brazilian Cultural and Carnival, sharing his expertise and passion. In his artistic journey, he has collaborated with renowned programs such as the International Writing Program and the Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa, where he was also appointed rehearsal director for Flockworks Dance. Most recently, he was invited as an Artist in Residence at Art Omi and is working for Stephanie Miracle, Danielle Russo, and Kieron Dwayne Sargeant. Currently, he is an MFA candidate in Dance with a focus on Choreography at the University of Iowa. 

Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. Rena is a graduate of: the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (MPS), The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University (MFA) and New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business (BS.) Most recently, she was awarded a 2022 Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship, a 2021-2022 MacDowell Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Arts, a 2022 Jack Nusbaum Artist Residency at BAM and the 2021 Canadian Women Artists’ Award from NYFA & the CWC of New York. Rena has collaborated, produced, and shown work at (select list): The Guggenheim Museum, SCAD Museum of Art, Counterpublic, The Momentary, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Basilica Hudson, TFNA (Theatre for a New Audience), Park Avenue Armory/NY Live Arts, En Garde Arts/Brookfield Place, Weeksville Heritage Center and the Dia Foundation. Under the moniker A Space for Sound, Rena released the first in an ongoing audio series titled “Sound Bath Mixtape vol. 1”, through New York City-based label and collective PTP. In Fall 2021, her album "Sometimes underwater (feels like home)" was released through RVNG Intl's Commend THERE series. She is based in Brooklyn, New York, by way of Nigeria and Canada. For more information, visit www.aspaceforsound.com.

Tiffany Merritt-Brown a native of Miami, Florida, is a choreographer, performer, scholar, and educator. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.F.A. in Dance Social Justice from the University of Texas-Austin.  As a daughter of the Atlantic and the Caribbean Ocean, she engages in scholarly and choreographic research that critically explores the socio-political ramifications of identity and its impact on marginalized communities. Her current research interests are Water & Ecocriticism, Black Feminist Performance, and the Black Radical Imagination as a creative praxis. Described by Isthmus Magazine as "a coolly elegant performer and choreographer that reveals keen intelligence and maturity" Tiffany has presented her work internationally and nationally at the Linebreaks Festival, the American College Dance Association Conferences, the Detroit Dance City Festival, Jacob's Pillow, the Woodshed Dance Platform, the Cohen New Works Festival, Dougherty Arts Center, AIR Dance Conference, CADD (Collegium for African Diaspora Dance) and internationally at the WDA-A (World Dance Alliance-Americas Conference) in Puebla, Mexico and Tanara Public School in Chepo, Panama. Tiffany’s choreography has been praised for its "clear vision, smart craftsmanship [and] fierce performance...[it] is both structurally and choreographically satisfying." She is a 2019 alumna of the Jacob’s Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographers Fellows Program and a co-founder of the Florida Black Dance Artists Organization. 

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Thank you to the dancers who live/ed inside of the duet presented in tonight’s showcase; its doing is personal and each performer has given it felt definition and direction over the years, notably Jaruam Xavier, Kevin Shannon, Jason Collins, Joshua Stansbury, Maxwell Perkins, and James Morrow.

Thank you to Amber Sloan, and the entire curatorial and production teams at Arts on Site for supporting and presenting our work, and fostering community within and around it. (Russo)

Thanks goes out to my partner Derrick Clark and the little people. My family at large. Thank you to Amber Sloan and the Arts on Site team. (MCMILLAN)

Special Thanks to the Departments of Dance at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the University of Iowa, and Studio 22 High Tek in Chicago for the invaluable gift of rehearsal space for this event.  And for all the guest artists who have so generously shared their research and explorations with us this evening.