DraftWork: Victoria Lynn Awkward + JOYBOY
Saturday, October 24 | 3PM
Facilitated by Ishmael Houston-Jones since the ’90s and currently co-curated by Houston-Jones with Danspace curators, DraftWork presents work-in-development showings by artists at all stages of their career. This afternoon features performances by Victoria Lynn Awkward and JOYBOY.
DraftWork is free, open to all, and followed by questions and conversation between the artists, curator, and audience.
Before you visit:
Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project
Victoria Lynn Awkward is a multidisciplinary creator, educator, producer, and the Director of VLA DANCE. She pursued her multiple interests at Goucher College and graduated with high honors in Dance, Visual Art and Secondary Education. As the Director of VLA DANCE she is currently directing projects: “For Nina” – a multidisciplinary show celebrating the lineage of Nina Simone, “In The Space Between” – a production where dance, textile, and audio brings audiences into a world of queer imagination, and “Harnessing our Gardens” – a book celebrating the stories of Black femme movement artists. Notably, Victoria is a Brother Thomas Fellow as well as a recipient of the Queer (Re)public Theater Offensive Residency. Additionally, Victoria is a producer of Performance and Live Art for MoMA.
JOYBOY, also known as Joy-Marie Thompson, is a Bessie Award nominated performing artist, writer, and educator from a small town in Western Pennsylvania. Melding physical theater, clowning, and comedy together, they aim to create stories that explore themes surrounding identity and power dynamics. By blending comedy, physical theater, and surreal imagery, JoyBoy transcends and challenges narrative norms while offering a more imaginative and emergent future.
As a performer, they have worked with choreographers such as Sidra Bell, Staycee Pearl, Shamel Pitts, Stephanie Batten Bland, Maxine Doyle, and Damani Pompey. They have appeared in The Mckittrick Hotel’s Sleep No More, The Public Theater for Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s shadow/land, The Metropolitan Opera’s El Niño and Aida and Geoff Sobelle’s HOME. Their commercial credits include performing in music videos for Chloe Flower and The Kills. JOYBOY has performed dance comedy shows in night life venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, NY.
As a choreographer and creative director, they have presented work for PRISMA Festival, Derida Stage, PearlDiving Movement Residency, Arts on Site, The Brick Theater, Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The August Wilson Center for African-American Culture, and The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. As an educator, JOYBOY teaches improvisation and contemporary dance as an adjunct lecturer at SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance. Their writing has been published by thINKingDANCE and Imagining: A Gibney Journal. Awards include the 2018 Vert Terborgh Award presented by the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase and the 2019 Investing in Professional Artist Grant presented by The Pittsburgh Foundation.