Processes
BLACK SPACE
I (Leslie Parker) define Black Space as a form of consciousness not limited to or bound by place, time, energy, or geographic location. It is, and can be shared as a way of thinking/being in time, energy, and geographic location; an interwoven construct of lived experience and conduct. Black Space is neither exclusive or inclusive to any one person, people, place, or thing. It exists in the unknown, the subconscious, the mystical/magical, and infinitely here and now with deep cultural roots in Black Pan-African and transatlantic African diasporic cultures and communities.
Video courtesy of Leslie Parker
LPDP goes beyond dance technique only, our training includes experimentation, conjuring, and remembering as part of ecstatic dance practice. We gather as independent performing artists through collective learning and creative research using improvisation as a model that is decolonizing and cumulative - taking necessary risks in collaboration, dialogue, and action. By living with dance art daily, LPDP cross-pollinates across sectors furthering anti-racism to embrace indigeneity for the sake of holistic well-being.​ These liberative and reflective experiences, initiated by Leslie Parker - a Black femme of Black diasporic heritage; a descendant of the historical transatlantic African passage are also cultivated by Leslie Parker Dance Project - a small organization with a team of 4 folks!​
Leslie Parker Dance Project, LPDP, is driven to move Black culture(s) into the future through dance-art. The exploration, research and development of 'Black Space' unique to LPDP draws from Black consciousness. Our intersectional and collaborative practices include live music, story-telling, visual art, text, film, and dance grounded in themes of spirituality, gender, and ethnicity.
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LPDP recognizes performance as daily-life for (extra)ordinary exchanges with audience, participants, witnesses, and observers, elevating the embodiment of ideas to transform, to enable more intercultural experiences, to claim personal narratives more authentically; and to co-exist more holistically.
​To call upon ancestral knowledge while digging into both individual and cultural memory goes beyond linear timelines. Inspired by folkloric and contemporary thought simultaneously, Leslie Parker created LPDP to make original dances that shape-shift, improvising with spaces to exceed barriers, advocating for connectivity and real change for the benefit of all.
Photograph by Bobby Rogers (featuring Leslie Parker)