Samantha Speis performing. (Photo Credit: Ian Douglas, via The Dance Enthusiast)

Samantha Spies: The way it Was, and Now

We see a young black woman with dreads. She wears a long skirt and a sports bra. The light comes on as she stands in the middle of the altar at St. Marks Church. It is March 23rd, a Friday night, and we are watching Samantha Speis.

She moves her arms, her torso, and her legs. Her facial expression looks pained.  She dances from the altar to the main floor of the church. Clothes are scattered everywhere. I am getting chills. After Speis dances for a while she drops onto a pile of clothes.  She gets up and falls many times. We are seeing her struggles in life. She tries and fails but never gives up.

Then – something we do not expect – Speis starts putting on the clothes. When she finishes she looks stuffed. She then gathers the clothes on the floor into a big pile. As she gathers, she keeps falling; I see this as her battle, trying to get her life together. Even though she messes up along the way (many times), she keeps on trying until she gets it right.

Marjane A. Forte: Here…

A white woman is on the floor of the church and a black man is on the altar. The white woman looks pained until a black lady with dreads walks in. This lady looks like she wants to help but she hesitates. Then another lady enters and they all look like they wanted to help the white lady, but they all hesitate. They look confused and scared. I jumped when a voice came out of nowhere saying “we all the same, what is really black?”

Everyone was dancing by then, looking like they were being pulled by a rope – a rope that wouldn’t let them move forward. What I understood from this is that the characters felt stuck, stuck in a past when people weren’t considered equal. They try to move passed it but something keeps pulling them back. Racism is still in motion.

Kyle Abraham: Boyz N’ The Hood: Pavement

Kyle Abraham’s presentation starts with a black man dancing in the middle of the stage. Then others join him. A white man enters and a short while after he makes motions as if he is killing the black men. The black men don’t fall on the floor for long though; every time he kills them they get up. I thought that meant that no matter how much whites put blacks through they never give up: they always got back on their feet. After the men keep on getting up, the white man gives up and leaves the stage. After a while he returns and they all start running together: black men, white men and a black woman. Everyone becomes equal running together.

A voice in the background says, “These niggas right here.” We hear shooting noises, and a little kid says, “They shot my brother.” A white cop says, “You niggas ain’t shit.” He was arresting a black teenager because he was black.

Those are the things that go through black people’s lives every day. Abraham shows us the roll of racism in people’s lives. Blacks get arrested for being black.

The dancers keep moving but stop abruptly when a white man breaks a black man’s neck and then kills himself. The blacks die on top of whites and as the scene ends they are all piled together.

What I understood from this piece is that black people and white people have a history. Whites have killed blacks for their skin color. There are places where blacks are discriminated against for being black. But, what is really black? When we die we all end up in the same place. So we might as well be equal. This message really got through to me.

[“New Work: Samantha Speis, Marjani A. Forte, and Kyle Abraham” was presented as part of “Parallels 2012″ at Danspace Project on Friday, March 23, 2012 at 8pm.]