THE SWITCHING | SATURDAY May 7, 2022
A special workshop facilitated by Jumatatu Poe
The Switching - A Workshop facilitated by Jumatatu Poe
Saturday, May 7, 2022
10:30am-1:30pm
In Person in the Workroom Studio Theater at 33 Hawley St.
Sliding Scale $25-50
I like to imagine that this practice in performance improvisation, The Switching, is a strategy in immediate evolution, rapid-fire shifting, sublime learning of and in the moment. I began this practice while dealing with my curiosities around a question I obsessed over: “Can I change myself?”
Our practice will deal with strategic essentialization – through the immediate re-design of ourselves into other creatures, or other ways of being our innate creatures – and working with immediately identifying the restrictions/limitations that are inescapable. It’s round about, and ideally will come full circle.
Now, in this moment, it’s circle/curve through my distals, and my distals are everywhere, and my desire travels in orbits, in cycles, and my vision is a limb.
And now, in this moment, my vision is a limb, and I am comprised of everything
that I can sense that I cannot see, and I am composed of the same
material all throughout my body, and my voice is flat.
And now, in this moment, my voice is flat, and my rhythm is insistently
percussive, and my organs erupt to propel me into movement, and
then they recompose themselves, and I am responsible for all of the sound I can
hear, and I am feeling overwhelmed at all of my responsibility, and my
erotic desire is piercing through my pores.
For me, there is something deeply spiritual about it, something confusing, something humbling/humiliating about it. I feel like it has theoretical links to code switching, especially as it has to do with my Blackness and queerness, experiences of immediate compartmentalization/contextualization as a defense mechanism, as a means of survival.
“It kinda asks the “safe space” academic overuse and misuse to reexamine itself cause not only am I accountable for what I’m choosing to put into the room, but I’m acknowledging that there are things about my makeup/training/culture/privilege/unconscious/blind spots that can also cause a shift in the room or the community or the world for better or for worse or who knows really what the effect will be. Something about this philosophy is great to me because it doesn’t make me feel like I have to fret. It doesn’t make me feel totally paralyzed to choose or move. It does make me hyper-diligent about the messiness of it all, the plurality of it all.“
—Christina Gesualdi
photo by: Tayarisha Poe
Artist Bio:
I am a choreographer and performer based between Philadelphia and New York City who grew up dancing around the living room and at parties with my siblings and cousins. My early exposure to concert dance was through African dance and capoeira performances on California college campuses where my Pan-Africanist parents studied and worked, but I did not start “formal” dance training until college with Umfundalai, Kariamu Welsh’s contemporary African dance technique. My work continues to be influenced by various sources, including my foundations in those living rooms and parties, my early technical training in contemporary African dance, my continued study of contemporary dance and performance, my movement trainings with dancer and anatomist Irene Dowd around anatomy and proprioception, my sociological research of and technical training in J-sette performance with Donte Beacham. Through my artistic work, I strive to engage in and further dialogues with Black queer folks, create lovingly agitating performance work that recognizes History as only one option for the contextualization of the present, and continue to imagine options for artists’ economic and emotional sustainability.
I produce dance and performance work independently, as well as in collaboration with idiosynCrazy productions, a company I founded in 2008 and now co-direct with Shannon Murphy. Most recently, the company serves as a resource to produce public dialogues around the integrations of art into society, and the social responsibility of the artist. Collaboration is often essential for my work, and for the past several years I have worked collaboratively with J-Sette artist Jermone Donte Beacham on a series of visual and performance works called Let ‘im Move You. Previously, I have danced with Marianela Boán, Silvana Cardell, devynn emory, Emmanuelle Hunyh, Tania Isaac, Kun- Yang Lin, C. Kemal Nance, Marissa Perel, Leah Stein, Keith Thompson, Kate Watson-Wallace, Reggie Wilson, Jesse Zaritt, and Kariamu Welsh (as a member of Kariamu & Company). As a performer, I also collaborate with Merián Soto. From 2009-2018, I was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Swarthmore College.
I have performed my work in various cities around the US and in Europe, and I have received various awards including: a 2010-2011 Live Arts Brewery Fellowship (Philadelphia), 2010-2012 and 2017 annual Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Performance Grants, a 2011-2013 Community Education Center Residency Fellowship (Philadelphia), a 2012 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship (Philadelphia), a 2013 NRW Tanzrecherche Fellowship (Germany), a 2013 New York Live Arts Studio Series residency with Jesse Zaritt (NYC), a 2016 Independence Fellowship (Philadelphia), a 2016 18th Street Arts Center creative residency (Santa Monica), a 2017 Rocky Dance Award (Philadelphia), a 2017 Sacatar Residency Fellowship (Bahia, Brazil), a 2017 MAP Fund award with Jermone Donte Beacham, a 2017 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant with Jermone Donte Beacham, a 2018 MANCC residency, three Swarthmore College Cooper Foundation grants for presenting other artists (Swarthmore, PA).
Incidentally, my middle name is Mtafuta-Ukweli, which means “one who searches for the truth” in Kiswahili.
A special workshop facilitated by Jumatatu Poe
The Switching - A Workshop facilitated by Jumatatu Poe
Saturday, May 7, 2022
10:30am-1:30pm
In Person in the Workroom Studio Theater at 33 Hawley St.
Sliding Scale $25-50
I like to imagine that this practice in performance improvisation, The Switching, is a strategy in immediate evolution, rapid-fire shifting, sublime learning of and in the moment. I began this practice while dealing with my curiosities around a question I obsessed over: “Can I change myself?”
Our practice will deal with strategic essentialization – through the immediate re-design of ourselves into other creatures, or other ways of being our innate creatures – and working with immediately identifying the restrictions/limitations that are inescapable. It’s round about, and ideally will come full circle.
Now, in this moment, it’s circle/curve through my distals, and my distals are everywhere, and my desire travels in orbits, in cycles, and my vision is a limb.
And now, in this moment, my vision is a limb, and I am comprised of everything
that I can sense that I cannot see, and I am composed of the same
material all throughout my body, and my voice is flat.
And now, in this moment, my voice is flat, and my rhythm is insistently
percussive, and my organs erupt to propel me into movement, and
then they recompose themselves, and I am responsible for all of the sound I can
hear, and I am feeling overwhelmed at all of my responsibility, and my
erotic desire is piercing through my pores.
For me, there is something deeply spiritual about it, something confusing, something humbling/humiliating about it. I feel like it has theoretical links to code switching, especially as it has to do with my Blackness and queerness, experiences of immediate compartmentalization/contextualization as a defense mechanism, as a means of survival.
“It kinda asks the “safe space” academic overuse and misuse to reexamine itself cause not only am I accountable for what I’m choosing to put into the room, but I’m acknowledging that there are things about my makeup/training/culture/privilege/unconscious/blind spots that can also cause a shift in the room or the community or the world for better or for worse or who knows really what the effect will be. Something about this philosophy is great to me because it doesn’t make me feel like I have to fret. It doesn’t make me feel totally paralyzed to choose or move. It does make me hyper-diligent about the messiness of it all, the plurality of it all.“
—Christina Gesualdi
photo by: Tayarisha Poe
Artist Bio:
I am a choreographer and performer based between Philadelphia and New York City who grew up dancing around the living room and at parties with my siblings and cousins. My early exposure to concert dance was through African dance and capoeira performances on California college campuses where my Pan-Africanist parents studied and worked, but I did not start “formal” dance training until college with Umfundalai, Kariamu Welsh’s contemporary African dance technique. My work continues to be influenced by various sources, including my foundations in those living rooms and parties, my early technical training in contemporary African dance, my continued study of contemporary dance and performance, my movement trainings with dancer and anatomist Irene Dowd around anatomy and proprioception, my sociological research of and technical training in J-sette performance with Donte Beacham. Through my artistic work, I strive to engage in and further dialogues with Black queer folks, create lovingly agitating performance work that recognizes History as only one option for the contextualization of the present, and continue to imagine options for artists’ economic and emotional sustainability.
I produce dance and performance work independently, as well as in collaboration with idiosynCrazy productions, a company I founded in 2008 and now co-direct with Shannon Murphy. Most recently, the company serves as a resource to produce public dialogues around the integrations of art into society, and the social responsibility of the artist. Collaboration is often essential for my work, and for the past several years I have worked collaboratively with J-Sette artist Jermone Donte Beacham on a series of visual and performance works called Let ‘im Move You. Previously, I have danced with Marianela Boán, Silvana Cardell, devynn emory, Emmanuelle Hunyh, Tania Isaac, Kun- Yang Lin, C. Kemal Nance, Marissa Perel, Leah Stein, Keith Thompson, Kate Watson-Wallace, Reggie Wilson, Jesse Zaritt, and Kariamu Welsh (as a member of Kariamu & Company). As a performer, I also collaborate with Merián Soto. From 2009-2018, I was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Swarthmore College.
I have performed my work in various cities around the US and in Europe, and I have received various awards including: a 2010-2011 Live Arts Brewery Fellowship (Philadelphia), 2010-2012 and 2017 annual Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Performance Grants, a 2011-2013 Community Education Center Residency Fellowship (Philadelphia), a 2012 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship (Philadelphia), a 2013 NRW Tanzrecherche Fellowship (Germany), a 2013 New York Live Arts Studio Series residency with Jesse Zaritt (NYC), a 2016 Independence Fellowship (Philadelphia), a 2016 18th Street Arts Center creative residency (Santa Monica), a 2017 Rocky Dance Award (Philadelphia), a 2017 Sacatar Residency Fellowship (Bahia, Brazil), a 2017 MAP Fund award with Jermone Donte Beacham, a 2017 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant with Jermone Donte Beacham, a 2018 MANCC residency, three Swarthmore College Cooper Foundation grants for presenting other artists (Swarthmore, PA).
Incidentally, my middle name is Mtafuta-Ukweli, which means “one who searches for the truth” in Kiswahili.
