encuentrx 33  is a choreographic experiment that brings together a cohort of (8) Black, indigenous, queer, trans, two-spirit, non-binary Creatives who have connections to the following geographies that were revealed to me via dreams: Ireland, Morocco, Guåhan, Panama, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Philippines. 

encuentrx 33 is a nomadic queer club space and movement installation that weaves itself through these ancestral territories with reverence, play, and erotically potent choreographic interventions. Through a process of embodied accumulation that will be excavated using an iterative residency cycle, each geographic context will be activated using elements from an emergent queericulum that includes: somatic research, death doula improvisational scores, Earth-centered rituals, and more. Spiritually, EncuentrX 33 is an incubator for attending to local issues through choreographic frameworks that invite stillness as a collaborator. 

encuentrx 33 asks, "How do we work with what we have to redesign how we do everything?"

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encuentrx 33 is a series of performative and healing based encounters centering ecology, ancestral and corporeal technologies, and celebratory-healing rituals. These encounters are set with the intention to manifest intra-activity and collective liberation (through performances, dinners, town halls, club nights, grief parties) via the emergence of a rhizomatic-nomadic-queer club space. The goal is to spiritually commune with each of the respective geographies and from this meditative space, devise and curate activities that invite the emergence of healing frequencies between performer, audiences, Indigenous stewards, Earth, and the ancestral realm. The core questions of EncuentrX 33 are, “How can implementing choreographic and corporeal technologies support us with materializing equitable, queer, AfroIndigenous, abundant futures? How can the notions of quantum entanglement and divergent simultaneity support us with honing in on the power of our differences as a way to construct bridges towards a new paradigm?” 

As we move from one place to the next, a queericulum will emerge that will become a living archive and a heart-centered compass from which to deviate and return home to. The queericulum is already under development via a healing-based artist residency container I've launched this past month called Residencias Rhizomaticas, which will ground the core team into each geographic context with reverence, cultural humility, and spaciousness. encuentrx 33 will be constructed using this queericulum and residency model that includes internal rehearsal sessions (designed solely for the core team), public interventions and activations, and intimate public facing offerings for local BIQTPOC audiences to attend and engage with. 

During the rehearsal process (which will take the form of 2-4 week residencies with the core team), encuentrx 33 will implement a physicality that includes Qi Energetics, club dancing, improvisational scores, endurance art, and queer ritual-making. Dance, durational choreographic scores, set design, and sound composition will combine to create an alternative “club” space that blurs the roles between performers and audiences, between witnessing and participating, and this practice will be rehearsed within the studio first. In summary, encuentrx 33 will spend 2-3 months in each specific geographic context with culminating nomadic club offerings offered at the end of each cycle,  followed by a 1 month integration and feedback period.

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encuentrx 33 requires intimate dialogue between the core team and myself to devise the map of locations and activities that will take place within each site. I will interview each core performer to identify prevalent issues within each geography, sacred sites and public spaces to ethically activate, and identify connections to BIQTPOC stewards working locally. I will be using the principles found within beehives (specifically their unified consciousness template) to devise this work which means ensuring everyone understands the significance of their role whilst attending to the bigger picture of holistic wellness and Earth-centered BIQTPOC liberation.

As a queer AfroIndigenous choreographer who has survived sexual violence, I am understanding that what we are facing today (climate crisis, white supremacy) all share a common root: shame, hyper-individualization, and neglect of the Spirit. encuentrx 33 seeks to uncover the truth of what we have inherited, individually and collectively, via what choreographer Michael Kliën has defined as an excavation site: "to form knowledge through the process of embodied digging as a way to reveal the thicket of mental relations that bind us." In order for any pattern to shift, it is essential that it be brought to the surface, be thoroughly acknowledged, and transmuted through movement and compassionate witnessing. This is at the heart-root of what encuentrx 33 is seeking to achieve through the iterative nomadic club space offerings.

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