Concrete Walls (6:00) Canada
Choreographed by: Angela Josephine
Performers: Angela Josephine
Videographers: Andrew Livingstone
Music: Fever Ray – Concrete Walls
Additional Credits: My teacher Audra Simmons, who organized the project Living Ghosts for which this video was originally made.
What dance styles are being fused?
Raqs Sharqi (part of my lineage), Fusion Bellydance, Modern Dance, Experimental Dance and Creative Movement Concepts
Artist Statement:
This piece, titled Concrete Walls, is about an artist’s struggle with mental health while in isolation. Created during the Covid-19 pandemic, this work also examines the relationship between the creator and their home. Two binaries, repression and projection were used as the basis for movement creation and concept in order to explore my struggle with anxiety and depression. On one end of the spectrum, I use repression as a tool to avoid and bury feelings that scare me. At the other end, I project beyond the physical walls of my home to create assumptions about how people see me and how I fit in to the outside world. As the projection passes through my mind and the layers of protection from the outside, it becomes blurred and distorted. What once might have been a reasonable concern turns into something misshapen and make-believe, which fuels and feeds my anxieties. I used the words repression and projection to form my movement base through abstraction and experimentation. I used this movement base, or series of motifs, to create choreography based on my concept. The movement repertoire incorporates raqs sharqi and fusion bellydance vocabulary as well as modern and experimental dance movement and concepts. Originally this piece was made as part of a project called Living Ghosts, which collectively examined how we haunt our homes and our minds. This project was organized by Audra Simmons and also featured artists Stacie Clarke and Vanessa Matthews.