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
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.
To call upon ancestral knowledge while digging into both individual and cultural memory goes beyond linear timelines because it is inspired by folkloric and contemporary thought simultaneously. LPDP, as an entity, creates dances that shape-shift, improvising with spaces to exceed barriers, advocating for connectivity and real change that benefits all.
Our approach to performance as daily-life for (extra)ordinary exchanges with audience, participants, witnesses, and observers, elevates the embodiment of ideas to transform, to enable more intercultural experiences, to claim personal narratives more authentically; and to co-exist more holistically.
LPDP goes beyond notions of dance technique only, experimenting, conjuring an ecstatic dance practice.
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LPDP gathers independent performing artists for collective practice, and continues decolonizing dance performance. Our work is a continuum - connected and cumulative - to take necessary risks in collaboration, dialogue, and action. By living with dance art, LPDP cross-pollinates across sectors furthering anti-racism; and to elevate indigeneity for the sake of well-being for all.
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This liberative, risk-taking, and reflective experience, initiated by Leslie Parker - a Black femme of Black diasporic heritage; a descendant of the historical transatlantic African passage is also practiced by Leslie Parker Dance Project - a small organization with a team of just 4 folks!​
Photograph by Bobby Rogers (featuring Leslie Parker)
