Choreographer Jonathan González (b. 1991, New York, NY) premieres Spectral Dances in the Library, Members’ Room, hallways, and stairwells of Arts and Letters—spaces historically open only to Arts and Letters members. To make the work, González collaborated with a cast of six Black performers (Rena Anakwe, Wayne Arthur, Chazz Giovanni, Kris Lee, Lysis, and Katrina Reid). It continues his artistic exploration of the afterlives of slavery, the built environment, and Blackness as non-performance.
Spectral Dances, which refers to ghostlike dance or dance with ghosts, is an improvisational work that asks its cast to respond to unseen aspects of Arts and Letters—what González thinks of as its hauntings. Performers react to windows, doors, and gaps between bodies; they shadow one another and the audience. What is absent, excluded, and unseen finds visibility through their movements.
In Spectral Dances and other works, González is interested in how Black performance can swerve—move around, beside, and underneath––conventional entertainment. González’s score for Spectral Dances encourages improvisation and gives his dancer-collaborators creative autonomy to experiment with subtlety, deadpan, and absence, as opposed to availability, theatricality, and linear plot. Performers switch between legibly expressing themselves and more ambivalent, coded messaging. They improvise on lower frequencies of physical activity, with heightened attention to minutiae. González’s impulse to scale back also aims to situate Black performers within the language of abstraction.
The performance runs for four hours and moves between spaces on the second floor of Arts and Letters. The audience may enter and exit as they please at any point during the performance.
González will be in conversation with architect Mario Gooden following the performance on Saturday, October 26, 2024.
Spectral Dances is organized by Kristin Poor, Curator, and supported by a grant from the MAP Fund. Additional support is provided by the Wolf Kahn Foundation and the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Thanks to The Kitchen for lending equipment for the performance.