WASHINGTON, DC: Edisa Weeks / DELIRIOUS Dances presents "3 RITES: Life, Liberty, Happiness"
Company:
Edisa Weeks / DELIRIOUS Dances
3 RITES: Life, Liberty, Happiness by DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks is a trilogy featuring three interactive performance rituals that integrate dance, live music, text, visual installations, community discussions and shared meals to humorously and poignantly interrogate why life, liberty and happiness were included as unalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence. 3 RITES explores what the right to life, liberty, and happiness means today, who has access to these rights, and how they manifest in the body.
The Liberty rite begins with an installation of roots made out of paper and twine that hang from the ceiling to floor. The audience moves through the maze of roots to eventually meet the Liberty character (Weeks), whose hair is braided to resemble the Statue of Liberty’s crown. Each spoke of the hair crown is connected via tie-lines and pulleys to specific objects, (Bible, black dick, blonde wig, gun, lightbulb, sneakers, watermelon) that represent the Black experience in America. In this rite, Weeks alternates between black face, white face, storytelling and visceral dance to dig into the pathologizing of African-Americans and the foundations of Liberty in America.
3 RITES is produced by Marýa Wethers, and commissioned and presented by 651 ARTS, with co-commissioners Billie Holiday Theater, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Mount Tremper Arts, and National Performance Network.
This performance contains mature themes and potentially triggering content about psychological and sexual violence. Not appropriate for children under the age of 13.
This engagement of Edisa Weeks / DELIRIOUS Dances is made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Share Your Audience Review. Your Words Are Valuable to Dance.
Are you going to see this show, or have you seen it? Share "your" review here on The Dance Enthusiast. Your words are valuable. They help artists, educate audiences, and support the dance field in general. There is no need to be a professional critic. Just click through to our Audience Review Section and you will have the option to write free-form, or answer our helpful Enthusiast Review Questionnaire, or if you feel creative, even write a haiku review. So join the conversation.
