IN THE PROFESSIONAL ARENAbecause she was
Choreography and Text by Cynthia Oliver
Music Composed and Performed by Jason Finkelman and Geoff Gersh
Costumes by Adrienne McDonald
Premiered at The Kitchen (New York, NY), 2001
because she was is the solo iteration of the larger evening-length work SHEMAD, a meditation on black womanhood and madness. In it, I summon the worlds of women where our critique of one another can move from vicious to tender to humorous. I evoke the myth of the Djablesse and call madness diagnoses into question, perhaps considering its deployment a container for women's supernatural powers.
A brief sample of because she was as I lose my cool as the Djablesse, that mythical female seductress indeed inhabits me. Video by Jake-ann Jones.
Photo by Brad DeCecco at The Kitchen, NYC. Premiere.
Photo by Brad DeCecco at The Kitchen, NYC. Premiere.
Photo by Brad DeCecco at The Kitchen, NYC. Premiere.