Nov 3-5: TELL

CircoZero and Dance Mission Theater present
TELL
Nov 3-5: Fri-Sat 8pm, Sun 5pm
at Dance Mission Theater

Bringing together anti-racist tactics and politically-engaged dance, Tell deals with the messiness, beauty, and necessity of multi-racial collaboration. The work is charged, always evolving, and will invite you to interact. Come be in process with us. Snacks will be served.

Creating a space where ancestors are welcome and multi-generational healing must be addressed, Tell is an experimental process-based approach to both racial healing and dance performance.

Co-directed by Sarah Crowell and Keith Hennessy in collaboration with Larry Arrington, Samara Atkins, Amber Julian, Sheila Russell, Ainsley Tharp, and Shaunna Vella.

Tickets: Sliding Scale $0-30. 
Please choose a ticket price based on your financial capacity. Buy now

The Story:
In 2020, after crossing paths for 30 years in the Bay Area dance community, Sarah and Keith performed together in the short powerful film The Space Between Us directed by Gabriel Diamond. Responding with words and dance to racially-charged questions of trust and safety, the film documents an intimate moment of negotiating power, race, gender, age, queerness, risk, love, and friendship. The film has been seen at over 15 festivals worldwide and has served in anti-racist DEI trainings and world building conferences.

Inspired by the film Keith and Sarah decided to gather two teams of dancers, one Black and one white, to explore potentials for racial healing through dancing and community process. The making of Tell has involved working separately in racially-caucused groups and then coming together as a multi-racial ensemble to build relationships through shared dancing, rituals, meals, conversation, and rural retreats. When we began we didn’t know if the two groups would remain separated or come together to create a single work, with the decision in the hands of the Black dancers. We recognized the possibility of both failure and conflict. Holding space for the nuanced intricacies of our identities to understand racial harm and pursue racial healing, Tell approaches cross-racial collaboration through honesty, consent, and care.

Tell is supported by grants from The San Francisco Arts Commission, The California Arts Council, The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, The Creative Work Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation