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TDR: Te Drama Review 58:3 (T223) Fall 2014. ©2014
New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brooklyn’s Experimental
Frontiers
A Performance Geography
Jasmine Mahmoud
A female dancer swings her torso forwards and backwards, arching and contracting. Her right
arm, sheathed in a white glove, lifts up and extends an orange stick toward the ceiling. Her
left arm, enveloped by foot-long white feathers, arches downward towards the foor. With the
orange “beak” in one hand and white feathers on the other, she is the swan. She moves with
delicately punctuated steps; her torso continues to undulate. When she snaps her wrist, the
orange beak stick is actually a clacker, two sticks that clap together to make the water bird’s
call. Nearby, another swan dancer crouches, enveloped by the stage’s set: tall, ridged clumps of
brown paper that resemble a tree trunk and a dusty stage that evokes the forest foor. The two
eventually dance together, undulating their torsos, delicately stepping onstage and clacking their
beaks.
This dance, Soul’s Migration, was part of Winter in the Woods, vignettes about fairytales cre-
ated by choreographer Djahari Clark and other collaborators. The event was presented during
Figure 1. Te exterior of Te Bushwick Starr, 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY. April 2014. (Photo by
Jasmine Mahmoud)