In collaboration with DJ TearDrop, 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow, J. Bouey, will present an excerpt of a new work, entitled Chiron in Leo, hosted by Movement Research at their 9th St Studio (CC122). In Greek mythology, Chiron is known as the ‘wounded healer.” Informed by an astrological aspect in their chart, Chiron in Leo is a performance addressing trauma and healing through storytelling and movement-based ritual. Bouey writes, “My artistic practice is most concerned with addressing systems of oppression through a lens of healing centered around the body and movement.” Working within a space of care (for themselves as an artist and dancer, and for the audience as witnesses), Chiron in Leo brings together storytelling and dance to transform past traumas into new revelations of possibility. The finished work will receive its world premiere at JACK in Brooklyn, Spring 2020.
Performance followed by discussion and Q+A with J. Bouey and their Mentor, David Thomson.
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This event is part of the 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship Annual, curated by current Fellow Jeanne Vaccaro and titled “How do we know what we need you to know: Intimate access and collective care.” The exhibition will present across multiple formats and locations (including The LGBT Community Center, Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, Movement Research, and La MaMa E.T.C.) new work by the graduating Fellows of the 2018-2019 Queer|Art|Mentorship program: J. Bouey, Candystore, Daniel Chew, Xandra Clark, Sarah Creagen, Cristóbal Guerra, Russell Perkins, Ripley Soprano, and Natalie Tsui. Learn more at www.queer-art.org/qam-annual
About J. Bouey
J. Bouey is a current member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and founder and co-host of The Dance Union Podcast with Melanie Greene. J. performed with Elisa Monte Dance as an apprentice, Christal Brown’s INSPIRIT Dance Company, AntonioBrownDance, Germaul Barnes’ Viwesic Dance, Dante Brown | Warehouse Dance, and Maria Bauman’s MBDance. As a choreographer, J. Bouey has shown their original work at The Chocolate Factory, New York Live Arts, Judson Church, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Gibney Dance, BAAD!, CPR – Center for Performance Research, La Mama Experimental Theatre and South Mountain Center for Performing Arts. J. Bouey received a BFA in Dance from Arizona State University.
Artist Statement
I am an artist because I’ve found it is a practice that has the closest relationship to ritual healing in my life. I began a journey of healing from the oppressive nature of white supremacy and toxic patriarchal conditioning as well as mentally and spiritually healing from, and becoming resilient to, my anxiety and depression linked to the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder rooted in childhood trauma. This purpose and ritualistic healing directly inform the research I engage with which shapes and reinforces the subject matter of my work.
This research and these rituals have called me to reimagine what performance is and how inviting audiences to a ritual changes the contexts of performance spaces. My physical practice is related to post-modern contemporary dance and Africanist movement practices because of training, and have become innate forms of catharsis necessary for ritual healing. The involvement of spoken word and text calls on forms of prayer and meditation that communicates the intentions for the space for the witness. In my work, I prioritize making myself as vulnerable as needed to both call my traumatic experiences by name and show the tumultuous and, albeit, disconcerting healing work. I do all of this while staying within the boundaries of traditional proscenium performance by asking how expansive and successful can my rituals be within that context.
I am at the early stages of what my artistic purpose is, how my healing rituals and practices are communicated in my art, and how performance can be a container or a meeting place for the rituals of healing. So, I am grappling with the questions of how do my healing practices invite others to discover or strengthen their own healing practices? What responsibilities do I have to the witnesses that have been invited to the rituals and their emotional and spiritual safety? How do I care for the witnesses? How do I care for myself and collaborators in these rituals both private and public? And is this work sustainable?