SKID. January 25-26, 2019

“It comes as a great shock to discover the country which is your birthplace and to which you owe your life and your identity has not in its whole system of reality evolved any place for you.”

— James Baldwin

 

Komansé Dance Theater uses art to challenge, create, and cultivate. The company utilizes the medium of Black cultural expression to unpack current issues surrounding social activism. Nina Simone once said, “An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.” By reflecting the current American zeitgeist, Skid creates work that speaks to people’s experiences and the innate human connection.

This show is for everyone. Through the medium of Black cultural expression, we unpack the dehumanization of a people. The story of homeless people in America parallels the story of African American people in the United States. African Americans are a homeless people; their home country won’t claim them wholeheartedly, and the spaces they make for themselves are often seen as less than in the eyes of mainstream society. Since its inception, America has been unwilling to fully acknowledge the humanity of countless people. 

The title of the show is a reference to “skid row,” which in some cities is an actual place but in most is a term used to refer to the area of town where people experiencing homelessness congregate. Typically, skid row is not located in the middle of the town or city, but rather these people are pushed to the side and ignored. Skid focuses on those whose stories are otherwise ignored by others on both a large scale as a society and a smaller scale when it comes to individual interactions. 

KDT is focused on the issue of the dehumanization of different groups of people and what that classification does to their mind, body and soul. Often when people are given this “subhuman” classification, their story and existence is forced into a box, the myth of the monolith: the idea that marginalized people are one dimensional, and therefore not deserving of basic human rights and compassion. 

By pushing not only people’s stories to the side, but also their physical bodies, in the case of skid row, it allows for them to be ignored in both mind body and spirit. 

This show is for everyone. When working on this show, we chose to explore the impact of injustice on the individual, on the person. How does the unique history of oppression in the United States influence one person today? How does it affect the way that person lives, creates, and inhabits their physical environment? How does the classification of a person as less than human affect both the classified and the classifier?

The goal of this show is to combat this dehumanization to bring to light the many different layers and facets that marginalized people have and highlight the strength, vulnerability, and divine nature of a struggle for liberation and assertion of one’s humanity.

We chose to not censor the music during the show. It is important to focus on the feeling behind the words. Why has the language shifted, why is it not always docile. We specifically chose to leave the n-word uncensored in the music. There is a complicated relationship between use of the words as a racial slur and its current use as a term of endearment. Recently, the Hip Hop community drew connections between the n-word and the Ethiopian word negus, which means royalty. In this production we reclaim our humanity and, therefore, our regality.


KDT birthed Skid to bring light to voices and stories that are otherwise silenced or ignored. We embody the African tradition of the griot, the storyteller, with our MC’s guiding you through Skid. This is uncompromising storytelling for the culture.

SKID Sizzler, Ryn Productions

SKID Promotional Video, Daka David

images courtesy of Kemi Griffen Photography

SKID Dancers

images courtesy of CDNB Photography

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SKID : Revisited