It’d be unusual for ALL of the artists and cultural practitioners represented in these pages to be in a room together (read: it does not happen).
Does this point to a kind of factionalism in our experimental performance community? Does it point to the era of late capitalism’s control of our choices—we do not have time for each other, we must make activity, money and careers? How does it relate to the everyday digital theater of social media’s hyper sharing?
What happens when we gather through printed texts (never to appear digitally) as opposed to actual bodies and institutions in space and time…
This points to the choreographic possibilities of print publication.
— Moriah
• • •
Early this summer, when we met with Reggie Wilson (and two members of his company, Rhetta Aleong and Raja Feather Kelly) at his home in Brooklyn to discuss the MRPJ portfolio, we considered what it meant to represent the career of an artist in a print publication. We had to cover the form of the portfolio itself before we could talk over any specifics. The unhurried atmosphere belied the thoroughness Reggie insists on from everyone with whom he works.
How do we put together a collection of writings on someone who “HATE[S] words”? It’s not, actually, that Reggie is averse to language, it’s that it’s not his practice. He makes dances, and doesn’t want to work in another medium. To that effect, you will not find any writings, drawings, notes, etc., produced directly by Reggie.
The absence of Reggie’s choreographic voice provided an opportunity for us to gather a collection of writings from people situated outside the work. Reggie’s practice engages the anthropological, the ethnographic—he observes and re-frames. This portfolio, in turn, could be seen as a study on multiple framings and perceptions of Reggie’s work. Alongside one another, the materials form a prismatic and intimate picture. In reading, we encourage you to consider the relationships produced among the viewpoints presented here.
We would also like to acknowledge the publication of TDR’s Spring 2015 Issue, which featured an extensive section, “On Reggie Wilson and Moses(es),” by dance scholar Susan Manning, and point you to that compilation for further exploration of Reggie’s work.
— Lauren Bakst and Buck Wanner
