AISHA SASHA JOHN ~ DIANA ROSS DREAM - 2020/21
May 31 to July 3, 2021
Call for collaborators: Aisha Sasha John is seeking project collaborators for HER NEW WORK DIANA ROSS DREAM
“In the summer of 2015, I went to sleep with a question and woke up to the memory of a vivid dream of Diana Ross on Broadway, dancing in the center of a sea of other Black dancers, everyone wearing magnificent rose gold costumes of various materials. The vibe was exuberant, spirited, celebratory, joyful. It felt like an instruction—like a call. And now it is 2021, and this June the research for DIANA ROSS DREAM will involve (group) listening and embodied nonverbal conversations. We’ll be creating a tone, one composed of the possibilities of Black relaxedness, Black pleasure, Black laughter, Black vesselhood, and Black being-together: what are the creative and energetic consequences (including the movement qualities) of our distinct and variegated Black togethernesses? At its core, DIANA ROSS DREAM hopes to be a work about being, operating from the belief that the sensual imperative of arrival is rhythm. In and through our listening, we will meet ourselves and each other in beauty. Also, and importantly, as we’ll be working outside, we’ll therefore be working on working outside: that is, in intentional collaboration with the grass, breeze, trees, sky, sun and mist—with the earth. How did we get here? How is it feeling for us to be here? ”
Image: From LET’S UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HERE (TOGETHER) Performers clockwise from left: Jiva MacKay, Aisha Sasha John, Adjua Anthony Ito, Marvin Luvalu, Emerson Maxwell, Art Metropole, 2017 | Curated by Danielle St-Amour | Image by John Elammar
Who should apply
Movement artists of African descent with training in any dance vocabulary. Dancers of all genders and generations are encouraged to apply.
We are looking for performers with strong improvisational skills and a sense of their own personal movement language. We are looking for performers who practice listening seriously. We are looking for performers who are energized by connection. We are looking for performers interested in the power of their vulnerability and motivated by feeling.
Fees
Participants will be paid development, rehearsal and performance rates in accordance with CADA recommended fee structures.
Residency Details
In order to keep each other safe regarding Covid-19, this residency will take place outdoors, in a park, maintaining physical distancing. Participants will have access to the green room at Dancemakers to store personal belongings and access washrooms. There’s also a fridge to store food. Though this residency is a research period, there is a possibility of a visitation/showing if Covid-19 regulations make that possible.
The residency is four weeks and will take place during either end of the following period: May 31—July 3, 2021, pending participant availability. For additional context, note that there will be another residency period for this work in the 2021/2022 season that will culminate in a production. All details for this forthcoming period are pending.
To apply
Please fill out this Google form where you will be asked to provide the following (in more detail):
Bio (up to 250 words)
Video of you improvising (max 3 min)
Video of you telling a story (max 3 min)
Application Deadline
Applications are due April 18, 2021 11:59pm EST.
Accepted applicants will be contacted with further details.
Further Information
Please send any questions to dianarossdream [at] gmail.com
DOWNLOAD THE DIANA ROSS DREAM CALL HERE
ABOUT AISHA SASHA JOHN
Aisha Sasha John is interested in choreographing performances that are the occasion for real and multitudinous actions of love. John is the 2019-2022 Dancemakers Resident Artist. Her first full-length solo work debuted as the aisha of oz at the Whitney Museum in 2017. In 2018, iterations of the aisha of is were presented at Montreal, arts interculturels (MAI) and Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival. From 2015-2017, John choreographed, performed and curated as a member of the collective WIVES, presenting ACTION MOVIE at Montreal’s Théâtre La Chapelle (2017) and winning the 2016 Offta Festival ‘Audacity Prize’ for Feeled (2016). John’s video work and text art have been exhibited in galleries (Doris McCarthy, Oakville Galleries) and was commissioned by Art Metropole as part of Let’s understand what it means to be here (together), a public art residency during which John and four collaborators made performances in Union Station’s west wing. John is the author of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize nominated collection, I have to live. (McClelland & Stewart 2017), as well as THOU (Book*hug 2014), and the forthcoming chapbook TO STAND AT A PRECIPICE ALONE AND REPEAT WHAT IS WHISPERED (UDP 2021). With Alexa Solveig Mardon, John guest-edited The Capilano Review’s Winter 2021 issue I’m looking for a way to dance.