ELECTROGYNOUS

Dance for me is an important part of life. The language sound movement staging and design stimulates my thought process and informs my visual art in inexplicable ways. Dreamscapes the connection between the waking life and lucid dreaming are mirrored in dance, and vivified throughout this adventure. This evocation this tribal trance connects us to our ancestors.

For two weeks a wonderful group of 4 established Artist emerged onto the campus of Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida. It felt like a calling of sorts, like a divine collection of creative spirits were summed to exchange ideas not only between themselves but also, with every intricate experience and encounter along the way.

Electrogynous is the title of the trans-media dance performance orchestrated by Sabela Grimes. Well if you don’t know Sabela aka Oversoul 7, you should get to know his works, this dude is an established choreographer and composer as well as a Professor at USC Kaufman, teaching Hip Hop Dance. The first time I was introduced to his flow was through “pure movement” an outstanding performance produced by the renown Rene Harris dance company in Philadelphia PA. Sabela’s performance comprising of words and movement encapsulated everything I thought felt and experienced as a man, as an artist, it was personal. His work incited my spirit and enchanted the imagination I was like this brother is a problem his art speaks directly to the core.

Years later on the west coast we’d periodically run into each other and often talk about working together. February 2014 we crossed paths again at the Exact Science Art Gallery, in Los Angeles. My work was part of the group exhibition celebrating Black History Month. Upon my arrival one of the first cats I seen was Sabela, he was like yo Pose, what’s good? We chatted out front for a while then proceeded to go into the gallery. From the look in his eyes I could tell he was really digging the artwork. The place was packed and it was hard to have a conversation inside. Amidst the crowd we eventually stopped in front of one of my paintings. Sabela didn’t no it was my work. He leaned over and said, yo man this show is dope and I’m really feeling the artwork of this cat Maxx Moses. So I looked him in his face to see if he was joking. But no he was for real he wasn’t hip to the Mr. Maxx Moses persona, that I created in 2006.I laughed and responded come on man you know that’s me? Sabela was like dam I’ve been looking at these works all night thinking I’ve got to collaborate with this dude. I was like guess the time has finally come? We laughed shook hands and the process began.

He started sharing video clips of previous Electrogynous performances and talking about how he wanted to expand the vision further by incorporating video painting and poetry. Then he told me he was including Meena Murugesan and Ursula Rucker I was like oh shit this is project is going to be baddass!

The MANCC residency at Florida State University is designed to provide space and time for professional dancers to develop and expand their visions, so Sabela brought a crew. We all landed in Tallahassee, Florida around the 27th of July and none of us really had any idea how this was all going work out. Prior to the trip we brainstormed about painting live and how to incorporate it into the show. But the idea of stretching beyond the known territory of our crafts was what this calling was really about. Sabela’s wanted to use this opportunity to push his collaborators and himself beyond what we’ve already learned. So for me there was no paint only an Ipad and Apple pen and an app called procreate.

Deep inside the Black Box studio we sat divided, two Pisces’s on one side and two Virgos on the other. It was interesting listening to Sabela and Ursula speak about their rich creative history and fond memories of Philadelphia. While across the room Meena and I were learning how to successfully combine video and what I now call “light painting” into a story. Listening to Sabela’s sound tracks while video is being projected and digitally painted literally provided the backdrop for project.
Half way through our time a MANCC we all got on stage and sat inside the copper pyramid, which is part of the set. Here we talked about our progress and our developing creative process together. We all were being in challenged, Ursula to freestyle, Meena and Myself working with new technology and Sabela learning to work with us all.

We enjoyed conversations about what Black Joy looks like? Asking that question to people throughout the city and Capturing, their smiles on film. Watching Sabela’s body dance interpreting Electrogynous, which explores the notion of black male gender and questions what defines Black masculinity and the contradictions thereof? Creating imagery that visually expresses boundlessness within gender. Highlighted with the eloquent energy and magic spit that uttered from Ursula’s mouth at the end of every session made it all complete. Her poetry captured every morsel of exchange throughout the day and repurposed it with a new rhythm. My most memorable moment is when she said Pose create some Art that I can write to!
As she said this I projected what I was working on to the big screen. Instantly She began to write… “Make Me A Planet… My Own Mother Fucking Planet”…

Electrogynous will be performed in Los Angeles in November 2016. Theater will be announced soon. We are all super excited to bring this to the stage. And for the grand opportunity to be working along side such greatness. Tallahassee is Magical trust.