Film Screening and Conversation with Reggie Wilson: Some Reflections on Prayerful Platforms
Saturday, April 26 | 6:30–8:30PM
Danspace Project’s Platform 2018: Dancing Grounds curated by Reggie Wilson inspired an extensive Philadelphia project which featured eight Philly choreographers at three historic churches in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia project resulted in a documentary film entitled GROUNDS THAT SHOUT!… and others merely shaking produced by Deborah Thomas, directed by Gordon Divine Asaan, and curated by Reggie Wilson.
As part of Danspace 50th celebration, we are revisiting Platform 2018: Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and Downtown Dance, which emerged from Wilson’s ongoing research into religion, dance, and race—specifically the history of our site, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery. Wilson and a team of artists and curators researched the history of the Church, revealing its completion in 1799, the year of the New York State Gradual Emancipation Act, a fact which is now incorporated into Danspace Project’s land and site acknowledgements. St. Mark’s history is summarized in Hussie-Taylor’s essay for Wilson’s Platform.
Soon after the Danspace Platform, Wilson was invited by Philadelphia Contemporary and Partners for Sacred Spaces to recreate a new version of his Danspace Platform at historic churches in downtown Philadelphia. Grounds that Shout! (and others merely shaking) was a series of performances in May 2019 that responded to the layered histories of Philadelphia’s religious spaces and race through contemporary dance. A documentary film captures the process of working in community, using history and choreography as a point of departure.
This program will include reflections on the Danspace Platform in 2018 and a screening of the documentary of the 2019 Philadelphia series.
Before you visit:
Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project