Concourse (2022-2023)
Concourse, created by choreographers Barbie Diewald and myself, was a dance project that extended the duet form. Together, we facilitated a live dialogue in performance, joined by our mentors and emerging artists who were former students. By bringing vision and legacy into conversation through the body, this confluence formed an intergenerational community of inquiry. It affirmed that mentorship is multidirectional—we gleaned as much from our mentees as from our mentors. Concourse celebrated the feedback loops that occur when the boundaries between self, student, teacher, and material collapse.
The meaning of the work was shaped by our respective creative and ancestral bibliographies. We viewed the body as an archive: a valid site for research, analysis, and discovery. Our creative process was intertextual and rooted in the belief that the strength of the work lay in its relationship to various tools, traditions, and lineages. My contributions came through the tools of the African Diaspora, including Jazz, Hip-Hop, West African and House dance, and spoken word. Barbie drew from her experiences in improvisation, ballet, Cunningham technique, traditional Hungarian diasporic dances, and singing, that is shaped by the vast, open landscape of the American Midwest. We brought together an ecology of communal practices from the Cipher to Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening scores, and research frameworks like the Kongo Cosmogram and the syntax of Virginia Woolf’s writing.
Created during a moment of cultural and political reckoning, Concourse invited us to look back as we looked forward, and to revise and reimagine. We brought our legacies into the studio through the body, inviting our mentors, Rennie Harris and Jennifer Nugent, to join the process. In addition to our mentors, we also worked with four emerging professionals who had studied with both of us. This confluence became a living archive—an intergenerational, collaborative space that resisted hierarchical and linear notions of knowledge production. Concourse centered dialogue and celebrated the generative feedback that arises when roles shift and overlap in the studio.
It is an absolute pleasure to dance for Shakia Barron. She is dedicated, passionate, and joyous in her work and her rehearsal process. While working with her on Concourse, her continuous guidance and support helped strengthen my confidence and individuality. She challenged me because she saw my potential that I didn’t see in myself. ~Katherine Kain
Creative Residencies
Bates Dance Festival Showing (2022)
Jacob’s Pillow Showing (2021)
High Street Studios Showing (2021)
Funders
