Year of Graduation

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MFA: Dance

Directing Professor

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Abstract

I am creating a world, a futuristic world that imagines all Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) as royalty. Please note that I understand the very concept of royalty is a construct and reflects images of power, hierarchy, and capitalistic rhetoric and, also, not exclusive to a European monarchy alone. I am revising and reclaiming these concepts as superpowers for the world's women of color to redirect and embody them as metaphors and tools to inspire, uplift and carry us through life. I also want to acknowledge the many cultures with different standards of royal practice and ways of being. I'm away that this does apply to men of color but have decided to focus on the women. I embrace other indigenous and cultural platforms as imagination/recreation. Whatever society has pinned against you can be used as a power and an entry point to self-realization. I want to perform the act of becoming, confirming, and transforming a sense of belonging through movement and identity-a connection to the Black lineage of Africanist ancestral energy, inspired by deities. My actions through my research and performance aims to cater to those who may not see themselves with their own powerful privilege. It becomes challenging because I understand that not every Black woman or girl has the same background as me, but I can only hope this concept of inner strength reveals itself through each person as they go through their lives. This is a story of performing a growing sense of self-awareness, strength and power, a connection to pride within ancestral lineage.

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