Material Men is a two-man show in which the political emerges out of the coming together of two different dance styles, classical Indian from one dancer and hip-hop from the other. It made me think of Shobana Jeyasingh’s Material Men redux, another excellent recent dance production that uses hip-hop and references colonial history. In one sense, the silent scream embodies this idea: through its lack of a narrative voice, it guides spectators but does not seek to determine the outcome of their journey. “It is your experience in life that will determine how you see the political value in what you are watching,” says Asante. This is intended as a way of giving power to the spectators. Spectator powerĪt other times, Blak Whyte Gray’s imagery remains intentionally abstract and cryptic. Thus it is not only repressed people in the present that are part of this movement for liberation and survival, but those from the past, too. The masks are another visually striking image, which Asante explains are used in traditional ceremonies in Ghana as vessels for ancestors. Ghanaian masks tower over the dancers’ heads. It culminates in a joyous celebration with eight dancers falling in and out of formation as if finally gaining control over their own lives and bodies. While that opening segment was all about restriction set to an electronic accompaniment, the show takes us on a journey towards what Asante calls more “organic” movements and music. ![]() Think colonialism, slavery, segregation, Trump and Black Lives Matter – a powerful message in uncertain times, particularly in the wake of the recent violent scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia. The screams feel like a reference to oppression, incarceration and the lack of safe spaces for minorities in the past and present. They have been doing a robot-like dance, old-skool hip-hop style, limbs moving mechanically as if controlled by an outside force. It is the closing moment of “Whyte”, the first part of the production, featuring three dancers in oversize straitjackets (see main image). This is ten minutes into Blak Whyte Gray, the hip-hop dance production by east London collective Boy Blue Entertainment showing at the Edinburgh International Festival. We only see it in the dancers’ gaping mouths against a looping sound of white noise – and then: utter silence. The 2016 rap song Juju On Dat Beat by Zay Hilfigerrr and Zayion McCall was created to emulate other popular instructive hip hop dance songs from the past. But this is a scream we do not actually hear. Reduced to a state of shivering, their faces contort until what emerges is a scream. ![]() ![]() Suddenly the dancers’ bodies freeze, caught in a white rectangle of light.
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