Dance Wrecking Performance at UGA Explores Issues of Racial Justice

Submitted by Camie on

The Georgia Review and other University of Georgia partners will host a unique performance experience that explores issues of destruction and racial justice through the medium of dance wrecking.

The free event brings dancers from around the nation to perform My body as the topic coming around again, by choreographer Rebecca Pappas. Attendees are invited to drop by some time between 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. to follow the choreographic process in action. The performance and conversation begin at 6 p.m., followed by a reception, all slated to be held at the Lamar Dodd School of Art atrium.

This presentation is part of a national tour that includes places like Wesleyan University, the Odyssey Dance Festival in Los Angeles, and the A.P.E. at Hawley Street in Northampton, Massachusetts. The experience invites attendees to question whether destruction can be an act of care, as the dance wrecking explores the possibilities of what decolonization can look like.

Georgia Review editor Gerald Maa says, “Since coming to UGA, I have been continually amazed by all the great work happening in all the art and humanities departments across the entire campus. I’m excited to bring an event that can bring some many of us into the same place to watch the performance together.” 

Pappas is assistant professor of dance at Trinity College and a guest artist in the Masters in Social Practice Art at University of Indianapolis. Her choreography has toured internationally, and her work has received recognition and funding from the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, the Mellon Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, The Clorox Foundation, and Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME).

The event is co-sponsored by the UGA Arts Collaborative and Department of Dance in addition to the Lamar Dodd School of Art and The Georgia Review, a unit of the UGA Libraries. For more information, visit thegeorgiareview.com/events.