Joyous Jamettes: Laboring Fuh Di Wine
Moved to Annelise Mertz Dance Studio (Mallinckrodt 207)!
This interactive performance centers the tales that circumscribe our “ITs”—note: here, the “IT” refers to one’s pelvis region and all of its constituent parts. In particular, Adanna, alongside the audience, will examine the embodied/danced practices, traditions, and beliefs of the 19th Century Jamette figure, who participated in and reconfigured the carnivals of post-emancipation Trinidad. By mapping the tales that remain written into our tails, we will work to decode the value systems, practices, traditions, and beliefs systems of our ancestors that shape how we come to know, understand, and engage with a sense of Self through the very act of rolling our “ITs”.
Adanna Kai Jones (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Dance Studies in the Department of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College. She received her Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and her BFA in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts—Rutgers University. She has performed in professional dance companies based in NYC and New Jersey, including the Julia Ritter Performance Group and Souloworks with Andrea E. Woods. As a scholar, her research generally focuses on Caribbean dance and identity politics within the Diaspora, paying particular focus to Trini-styled Carnivals and the rolling hip dance known as winin’. Nicknamed the “Doctor of Winin’,” her artistic and scholarly work remains rooted in the many dances of the Caribbean, paying particular attention to the multiple ways we roll our sweet waistlines! With regards to her own creative pursuits, she has choreographed dance-theater pieces that were not only based on her research but were also used as tools for generating more research questions. Upon moving to Maine, she brought her research on the Trinidadian Carnival and intimacy onto the stage with her piece “Navigating the Borders of Silence” as part of the Maine Moves performance series. Lastly, as an educator, she remains committed to anti-racist pedagogic praxes. In addition to being a member of the Un/Commoning Pedagogies Collective, she is a current Steering Committee Member of the Coalition of Diasporan Scholars Moving. Both organizations aim to tackle, endure, unravel, and combat the pangs of white supremacy within academia and beyond.