NextLOOK Creative Residency
Gatekeepers/All that you touch,
You Change.
Photo by Idris Solomon
“Gatekeepers/All that you touch, You Change" is immersive dance-theater that explores the roles of artists in communities as everyday gatekeepers. A gatekeeper in a social system decides which of a certain commodity – materials, goods, and information – may enter the system. Individuals, single institutions or multiple organizations can be gatekeepers. The gatekeeper’s choices are a complex web of influences, preferences, motives and common values. With transformational dance dialogue as the container, “Gatekeepers/All that you touch, You Change” seeks to unearth this web of influences, preferences, motives and common values from the perspectives of womyn choreographers of the African Diaspora.
This iteration of the work culminates a NextLOOK residency co-presented by Joe's Movement Emporium and The Clarice. It is a creative exploration of the themes from youcanplayinthesun, commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 2017 Local Dance Commissioning Project.