Kia LaBeija's UNTITLED, THE BLACK ACT Comes to Performance Space New York

 

Performance Space New York and Performa present Kia LaBeija's first large scale performance, Untitled, The Black Act, as part of the Performa 19 Biennialand as part of Performance Space New York's Stages Series-inviting artists to propose new platforms and conditions that transgress the black box and its institutional walls (November 7-9 at 7pm). With Untitled, The Black Act, LaBeija proposes a contemporary interpretation of the third act of Oskar Schlemmer's early Bahuaus ballet piece Triadic Ballet (Das triadische Ballett), 1922. The final act of Schlemmer's work is often noted as the "black act," and relates to fantasy, mysticism, and the infinite void of the black stage. As an artist working with numerous disciplines-including dance, portraiture, film, and performance-LaBeija inserts herself into this work to investigate space, process, transformation and collective histories.

Working as a movement director for the first time, LaBeija here extends the autobiographical use of her own body to five movement artists, who each offer alternate representations of LaBeija herself. They create an overarching structure for the work-exploring a spectrum of movement from classic forms of voguing to contemporary ballet, and freestyle movement that defies labels. All performed in real time, Untitled, The Black Act will be performed on a stage that recalls the grid plan of New York City's streets, bringing the city's structure into dialogue with Schlemmer's penchant for rigid geometry.

The concept of community was one of the founding principles of the Bauhaus, which envisioned a social utopia through a multi-disciplinary school of applied arts. Schlemmers's Triadic Ballet became one of the most widely performed avant-garde artistic dances, famously known for its structural costumes, fluid movement and prompting new forms of expression. Bodies became walking architectural structures unable to move with autonomous ease. LaBeija responds with architectural costumes created by stylist Kyle Luu (known for her work with Solange and Travis Scott) that enable and provoke movement, alluding to expressive self-fashioning as a tool of emotional transformation within the house-ballroom community.

In a further nod to the autobiographic lens that connects her work across a variety of forms, LaBeija here collaborates with her brother, producer Kenn Michael-who composed the score and uses a software synthesizer he built that plays in frequencies related to modalities of healing-and her father, drummer Warren Benbow. As LaBeija says, "I've experienced my father play over the entirety of my life, but this is the first time I've truly understood him as an artist, not just 'dad on the drums'. It's one of the many ways in which this practice has shown me the power of transformation" At its 1922 premiere, the Triadic Ballet was set to a mélange of classical music by composers including Haydn, Mozart, and Debussy. Now, Michael's harmonic resonance and Benbow's punctuating beat patterns are collaged with a selection of hip hop, pop, R & B, 90's house sounds.

LaBeija adds, of the work as a whole, "I am creating a dance without a choreography. By leaving parts of the performance to chance I can produce something that does not mirror reality -- it is reality. We create a total work of art in real time, that is the task. There is a level of vulnerability and trust to the process that each performer and I have committed to. We are all on separate, but parallel journeys moving simultaneously, through possibility." LaBeija expands Schlemmer's stage, searching for belonging, freedom, and wholeness.

The assistant movement director for Untitled, The Black Act is Taína Larot, featuring movement artists Daniela Agosto, Selena Ettienne, Khristina Cayetano, Terry Lovette, and Taína Larot.

Performances of Untitled, The Black Act will take place at Performance Space New York (150 1st Avenue 4th floor, New York) on November 7, 8 & 9 at 7pm. Tickets are available at performacespacenewyork.org or by calling 212-352-3101.

 

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