ACCESSIBILITY

This performance is outdoors with sidewalk surfaces. Please stay tuned for more information upon release of the location. The route of this performance is approximately 1.2 miles long and does not end where it started. If you are unable to walk that distance back, we recommend that you plan to arrange for a ride back to the starting point. If you need to know the route more than a day in advance for accessibility purposes you can reach out to the Box Office by email at BoxOffice@pica.org or by calling 503-⁠224-⁠PICA.

jumatatu m. poe & Jermone Donte Beacham

(Philadelphia, PA/Durham, NC & Dallas, TX) 

Let ‘im Move You: Intervention

Co-presented with On the Boards and REDCAT. 

Premiered in three Philadelphia neighborhoods in June 2016

Part of the duo’s decade-long collaborative research into J-Sette performance, Intervention activates historically and/or predominantly Black neighborhoods, as it uses rhythm and precision as vehicles into subversion and satisfaction. On sidewalks and in alleyways, jumatatu m. poe and Jermone Donte Beacham draw on J-Sette’s call-and-response structure to reveal the powerfully singular expression that can emerge within this highly regimented dance. J-Sette originated among drill teams and majorette lines of historically Black southern universities and continues to grab the attention of half-time stadium crowds—while having a parallel life, and alternate political meanings, in the Southern "Black gay club scene." Performance routes are announced only hours before their intervention, freeing the performers to agitate the boundaries of propriety and belonging, and confront the historic imaginations and limitations of these spaces.

DESCRIPTION

Let ‘im Move You is a series of works choreographed by jumatatu m. poe and Jermone Donte Beacham that stem from their decade-long research into J-Sette performance. Initial research for the series absorbed the artists’ curiosity about the performance of joy and the conundrum of Black joy. The series began in the summer of 2013 while jumatatu and Donte were at a residency through Tanzrecherche NRW. The series currently consists of four live performance works and an installation. Intervention brings together a group of Black dancers for a live outdoor performance work on sidewalks and in alleyways in historically or predominantly Black neighborhoods.

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT FROM THE ARTISTS

We have been nurturing a creative and social process that prioritizes an ethic of care.  Proceeding at paces that allow us to really get to know one another…. Again… In these new bodies and in this new moment.  Proceeding at the metaphysical speed of slow - even when we are moving quickly. Proceeding at paces that allow us to be known by one another.  To trust one another and to be trustworthy for one another.  For ourselves.  We uplift the sanctity of our group of primarily Black queer folx, knowing that we are bringing so many of us with us, even if not in these immediate real-time moments.

The act of touring for public professionalized performance is always inherently risky.  Being in contact, among other things that it is, is risky. And being a group of primarily Black queer folks engaged in touring professionalized performance is particularly risky because Black queer folx exist at the intersections of so many public health pandemics - of state-sanctioned violence, of historic and contemporary displacement and housing insecurity, of persecutions by religious doctrine. And, of course, in this moment, we are all contending with the COVID-19 pandemic, and trying to protect our safety in the face of it.

The following are specific protocols that our touring group of collaborators has designed to help keep us and others safe in this dangerous moment:

• We are making informed decisions about health and safety related to COVID-19 by learning from ethical consultants, research gathering (articles, podcasts, etc), honoring personal health and racial histories, and consulting national, state, local, and venue guidelines
  • Each of us will decide individually if we are unmasked outdoors, and we will consistently be masked indoors for rehearsals, performances, and larger social gatherings of four or more outside of our touring group. Our decisions will at minimum be aligned with venue, city, and state mandates.
  • Our touring group be tested for COVID-19 every five days at minimum, with some people opting for more frequent testing. Audience Infiltrators will be tested every three days (beginning three days before work with us).
  • If someone tests positive for COVID-19, that person will quarantine in accordance with CDC and local guidelines.  We will organize with each venue, making sure our colleague is taken care of with respect to wage, housing, food, social interaction, and medical consultation

We invite you, as witness participants, to engage in our ethic of care with us.  We invite you to know how we are caring for ourselves.  We invite you to yield sublime attention to the ways that we can care for one another, with constant respect to how we need and want to be cared for. 

See you on the dance floors…. All of them. —Let ‘im Move You team

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

jumatatu m. poe - I am a choreographer and performer based between Philadelphia, PA and Durham, NC who grew up dancing around the living room and at parties with my siblings and cousins. My early exposure to concert dance was through African dance and capoeira performances on California college campuses where my Pan-Africanist parents studied and worked, but I did not start “formal” dance training until college with Umfundalai, Kariamu Welsh’s contemporary African dance technique. My work continues to be influenced by various sources, including my foundations in those living rooms and parties, my early technical training in contemporary African dance, my continued study of contemporary dance and performance, my movement trainings with dancer and anatomist Irene Dowd around anatomy and proprioception, and my sociological research of and technical training in J-sette performance with Jermone Donte Beacham. Through my artistic work, I strive to engage in and further dialogues with Black queer folks, create lovingly agitating performance work that recognizes History as only one option for the contextualization of the present, and continue to imagine options for artists’ economic and emotional sustainability.

Jermone Donte Beacham - Dancing has been in my blood since I can remember. It started off with hip hop dancing for my high school -- I began to recognize my skill and talent. After four years of that, I was introduced to the world of J-Sette by women. J-Sette historically refers to Jackson State University’s female drill team that began in the 1970s. They “created” the dance style, and thus far have made it a distinctive form of dance. I was interested in this type of dance, but not entirely until I saw a group of males performing it. At that point, I claimed the style for myself and perfected it on my body. Currently, I have my own J-Sette line, Mystic Force, and plan to increase our already considerable renown in this style of dance in our community, and eventually internationally. Previously, I served as co-captain of Dallas’ Texas Teasers. I have participated and competed in several events and competitions, including 2 SetteItOff video challenges, Atlanta Pride 2010, Tennessee Classics 2009, and Memphis Pride 2008. In 2015, I was named New Legendary by the Meet Me on the Dance Floor J-Sette council, and have gained many titles since then, such as Best Dancer and Most Entertaining. Since then my biggest artist work has been a collaborative co-choreographed performance with jumatatu m. poe. This work, the Let im' Move You series, has been awarded the 2019 Queer Art Prize, and nominated for the Bessies in 2020. Currently, I lead the renovated Texas Teasers queer male J-Sette team. Our mission is to provides opportunities and guidance in pursuing dance careers for our younger generation of queer male dancers and providing scholarships to two of those young folks per dance (majorette) season.

Additional Notes

First performed in June of 2016 by jumatatu m. poe and William Robinson (also performing with the duo in Portland), Intervention was a small intervening street performance that traveled through three respective Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The work screamed out in response to the Pulse Nightclub massacre that happened just two weeks prior in Orlando, FL. While it was originally funded independently, performed out of aching necessity, the work has been developed alongside other work of jumatatu and Donte’s Let ‘im Move You series of performance and visual works.

SPONSORSHIP

This project received support from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for the Commission and its programs is provided by WESTAF and the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is supported by the National Performance Network (NPN) Community Fund. The NPN Community Fund is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.

The presentation of Let ‘im Move You: Intervention was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.