Bates Dance Festival: Not About Race Dance

A collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance — a form developed in the 1960s whose tropes and aesthetics have endured in the dance field. Despite postmodernism’s popularity, its racial dynamics have gone largely unacknowledged. In Not About Race Dance, Gerald Casel and his collaborators occupy a space that has been historically defined by white artists to present a contrasting vision of where Black and Brown bodies belong.

“Vulnerable, cathartic, clever, and delivered with compelling rigor.” ––  Rachel Howard, The Fjord Review

Gerald Casel’s choreographic research complicates and provokes questions surrounding colonialism, collective cultural amnesia, whiteness and privilege, and the tensions between the invisible/perceived/obvious structures of power. To this end, Casel has led a community engagement program called Dancing Around Race, activating the community through candid discussions around racial equity.

Plus a free Long Table Discussion with Gerald Casel on Tuesday, July 11 at 7:30pm in The BDF Tent