re-OrientationS Showcases The Work Of Interdisciplinary Artists


re-OrientationS Showcases The Work Of Interdisciplinary Artists

By Tia Carol Jones

An initiative that looks at performance, research and technology is set to host an event, which connects the three elements, along with storytelling. SLIPPAGE will host re-OrientationS at 7 p.m. from Thursday through Saturday, May 16th through 18th, at Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave.

SLIPPAGE was founded by well-known dance scholar Thomas F. DeFrantz in 2002 on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The initiative looks at performance and research.

DeFrantz was also interested in how technology could help people move beyond societal, cultural and personal issues.

 SLIPPAGE’s work involves performance, research and how all these things interconnect. The initiative hosts conferences and symposiums. Its most recent research looks at Black social dance and regional dance practices in Chicago, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles. 

SLIPPAGE looks at how curators and museums approach addressing the needs of communities of color, and how those curators look at Black people who create art, in between traditional performance and visual arts, and how they program those shows.

SLIPPAGE Lab has moved from MIT to Durham, North Carolina and is now at Northwestern University, where it has been for two years. SLIPPAGE Lab came to Northwestern when DeFrantz became a professor there.

Shireen Dickson is the Managing Director at SLIPPAGE Lab. It does work on a national level and partners with local dance companies that include Red Clay Dance Theatre and M.A.D.D. Rhythms.

re-OrientationS will feature the work of DeFrantz, Kate Alexandrite, Ayan Felix and MX Oops coming together in a performance that showcases their different approaches to the arts and Black identity in different ways, with different mediums.

Dickson hopes people take away a sense of wonderment about the possibilities in their own life and take what materials they have at their disposal to use as technological tools for transformation.

 Dickson said that oftentimes when she asks people what they do artistically, some people will say they do not do anything artistically, but upon asking further questions, she discovers they do something artistic, but the people don’t consider it artistic because of the way it is valued by society.

“I’m hoping that through the everyday, through simple devices that are at our hands and at our disposal, we can access other parts of ourselves, and other ways of how we relate to each other,” she said.

Dickson said there is an openness to authenticity and alternative ways to finding how that authenticity connects with other people now since the pandemic. She said re-OrientationS speaks to the urgency of wanting authenticity and community.

When it comes to SLIPPAGE Lab, Dickson said in Chicago there are so many different pockets of people doing the work around the performing arts and social justice in small enclaves. Those people are making it happen in neighborhoods across the city and that energy is dynamic.

“SLIPPAGE is really curious about placement and how they can support what is already happening in an environment where things are already going on. Here, we’re really interested in using this performance as a platform to understand a little bit more deeply about how Chicago moves and how we can support all of the ways Chicago is moving,” Dickson said.

For more information about SLIPPAGE Lab, visit http://sites.northwestern.edu/slippagelab/.

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

STARR Community Services International, Inc.