Year of Graduation
2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MFA: Dance
Directing Professor
Jeffery Bullock
Abstract
This work is a multimedia live performance that simultaneously moves through a live archival process which captures the essence of the work. It asks: how can dance archives evolve into participatory, user-centered repositories that account for the embodied and ephemeral nature of dance, and how might screendance expand archives into interactive, co-curated spaces that sustain liveness beyond preservation? Grounded in archival theory, Africana Aesthesis over Euro-Western Aesthetics, and auto-ethnographic practice, this project responds to the historic limitations of Euro-Western archival systems, particularly their inability to hold the spiritual, cultural, and embodied dimensions of dance.
The objective of this research is to expand archival practice beyond static, object-centered preservation and toward participatory, artist-driven models that center the body as archive. Drawing from African American, Yoruba, and Fon/Ewe cosmologies, I propose Ibeji as a framework rooted in twinship, wherein live performance and screendance exist in reciprocal relation. Within this framework, screendance functions not as evidential capture, but as a performative manuscript for the (re)interpretation of dance, de-centering traditional archival authority. Methods include literature review, ethnographic and auto-ethnographic inquiry, and creative practice through the AAII (Africana Ancestral Improv Intelligence) framework.
This thesis, and its accompanying performance at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, weave these methods through the film triptych Haint, -/Rorshack, and Blu. Together, they argue that participatory, artist-driven practices, amplified through cellphones and social media as tools of self-documentation, can democratize preservation, positioning screendance as a living archival tool that resists erasure, reanimates memory, and restores agency to marginalized bodies and histories.
Recommended Citation
Sledge, Quentin W., "Ibeji: Screendance as Living Archive, a Manuscript for Live Performance" (2026). Dance (MFA) Theses, Hollins University. 53.
https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/dancetheses/53
Performance Access Statement
If you wish to see the creative piece or performance that accompanied this thesis, please complete the Request Form, and you should receive a response from the Dance Department within two weeks.