Survival Tactic: A Dance Project

Campaign official close is January 31, 2015.

TACTIC: Recipes for Survival 
A BARETEETH, site-specific dance video project
starring our elders. 

We travel to Jennifer's ancestoral home in Portland Jamaica West Indies to dedicate two weeks in residence to this project in February 2015. We reach out to you for help to collectively back our self made creative residency. 

Inspiration:
During the Trayvon Martin case and the trial of George Zimmerman, Althea dreamt of a mass exodus of Philadelphians, marching with hoods up, away from the broken city, through a vast meadow, towards freedom. We were lead by wooden chariots, driven by our elders who taught us a new and future freedom song as we traveled; “ooooo we can make it, make it…..” 

Often times we focus on building youth leadership because it is critical for our future. However, as 20 and 30 something year old change makers we also crave mentorship and are hungry for wisdom. We need to seek out the lessons and dreams of our elders so as not to repeat mistakes and re-invent formulas for winning justice.

Process:
Part dream-narrative, part intergenerational movement exchange, we will dance with our elders to embody our histories and visions, and capture recipes for survival and getting free.

We will gather stories and witness the body memories of our grandparents, aunts, mothers, fathers, neighbors, fellow gardeners, community organizers, wise revolutionaries and artist mentors.
Background:
In January of 2014 we traveled to EarthDance in Plainfield, MA to participate in the WinterCilp dance residency to initiate our project. Elders of their community described the work as powerful. “It was like life insisting upon itself,” they said.

 Next Steps:
*  On January 11th and February 7th, our elders from through out the region will gather with us to share stories, generate more movement and choreography for the piece!
*  On February 16th we fly to Port Antonio, Jamaica to Jenny’s family home to dedicate 2 weeks to a self made, creative residency!
*  In the summer of 2015 we will compile our choreography, stories, and documentation to complete the project. We will shoot the final video in a tall grass meadow with Philadelphia’s skyline, as the backdrop only a few miles away. 

Why we are fundraising now:
Residency in Jamaica!
In February of 2015, BARETEETH, artistic partners and family will travel to Port Antonio, Jamaica to dedicate two weeks in creative residency to push our dreams to fruition. We will immerse ourselves in memories past and visions for the future, dancing with elders from Jenny’s family and leading a workshop with young people from a local High School.
With the stories we’ve gathered from our elders we will workshop, develop and document with collaborators while we cook, swim, sweat and use our hands to paint, restore walls, build beds, and bring life to this vacant ancestral home in Port Antonio.

BARETEETH, artistic partners & family have invested $5600 in plane tickets! But we need $6000 more to cover art-making and building materials, food and ground transportation while on site. We ask you, our friends, family & community to help us realize this part of our project, towards bringing TACTIC: Recipes for Survival  to fruition.

Collective Artistic Statement:
BARETEETH is a multi-disciplinary and experimental dance theater collective that pushes on pre-prescribed boundaries concerning identity, survival, and transcendence. As a multi-racial, predominantly women, and queer identified group, we are balancing the power of whose stories are told on stage and how OUR bodies and voices choose to amplify them.

Grounded in popular research, storytelling and reflection our work is liminal, moving images of power and struggle. Our movement magnifies the physical intricacies of everyday labor and habit, juxtaposed with the expansiveness of our dreaming bodies; dark, glowing, open heart, open lungs, skin on skin, tender, tenacious & prepared to fight.

BARETEETH provokes visceral response and dialogue from audience and community members and aims to contribute to social and cultural transformation. We dance to heal. We dance to embody A N D envision our own freedom, and the freedom of our people across time, space and dimension.
http://bareteethcrew.tumblr.com/about

 http://afterthereturn.blogspot.com/2014/08/portals-to-future-portals-to-past-site.html
**A note about the perks**
At the $300 and $500 level of giving, the 'massage' and 'custom workshop or performance' can be replaced with a package containing 1 photo, 1 art print, and 1 wellness basket.
To note an exchange AND for travel outside of Philadelphia, please contact us.

Thank you for Supporting us as we fix-up and hold space for this critical, social transformation research!!!