2017 Marcus Artist-in-Residence
Washington University Performing Arts Department Presents :
Sydnie L. Mosley,
2017 Marcus Artist-in-Residence
Lecture/Demonstration:
What does FREEDOM mean? How do we think about freedom with/through our bodies?
Free and Open to the Public
Wednesday, February 1 at 7:30pm
Annelise Mertz Dance Studio
Mallinckrodt Center, Room 207
This lecture/demonstration will explore the notion of freedom through the body, specifically looking at how Black women are (not) able to experience joy in their own physicality. Using Mosley’s collaboratively-devised choreographies CAKE and THE WINDOW SEX PROJECT as examples which deal with respectability politics and street harassment respectively, we will examine shame and sexuality to interrogate how Black women’s bodies are policed. We will consider how doing away with shame around our bodies can activate us to be constructive and create.
Some Washington University Dance students will perform with Ms. Mosley in this event.
Biography:
Sydnie L. Mosley is an artist-activist and educator who produces experiential dance works with her all-women company Sydnie L. Mosley Dances. She graduated from Barnard College in Dance and Africana Studies and earned an MFA in Dance Choreography from the University of Iowa. Recent performance projects include the skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa and Gainin' On Ya in collaboration with Aisha Cousins. Mosley danced with Christal Brown’s INSPIRIT and continues to appear as a guest artist with the Brooklyn Ballet. As a result of her work, The Window Sex Project, she was appointed the inaugural Barnard Center for Research on Women Alumnae Fellow and went on to design the college’s Dance in the City Pre-College Program, which she continues to teach. She is a recipient of the Dancing While Black Fellowship and the Artist Residency at University Settlement in addition to support from The Field Leadership Fund, CUNY Dance Initiative and BAM. An advocate for the field, she sits on the Dance/NYC Advisory Committee.
The Marcus Residency is made possible by a fund established by the late Dr. Morris D. Marcus in memory of his wife, Margaret.