Spoken word and hip-hop filled the Nasher Museum of Art Oct. 16, with the American Dance Festival (ADF) commissioned hip-hop dance piece “The Xcope” by Raphael Xaxier. The title of “The Xcope” alludes to a kaleidoscope, and how the instrument distorts the viewer’s perception of their surroundings.
The performance and production of “The Xcope” is an impactful step for the return of the performing arts in a post-COVID Triangle, as it is the first ADF-sponsored event in the Nasher Museum of Art since March of 2020.
ADF, a Durham based dance organization, centers its work around local dance education and multi-site performances. During the pandemic, the ADF supported dance through virtual masterclasses and sparse, distanced outdoor performances.
Though the ADF was by no means dormant during the pandemic, the slow return to normalcy that began in the summer of 2021 has brought a plethora of experimental movement to North Carolina.
“The Xcope” is experimental at its core. The piece uses street dance (i.e. break-dancing) to create improvisational conversations between a cast of solely Durham-based dancers.
This piece isn’t just dance, though, it’s a multimedia collaboration. Xavier, a Philadelphia based choreographer, utilizes the art of words, in poetry, spoken word and hip hop music, as well as movement to create a critique on cultural relationships within America. Using street dance techniques such as breaking and locking, the dancers create both outward tension toward their sociocultural surroundings and feelings of release, as the dancers create musicality with spoken word about identity.
Local dance educator Elise Staub, who has danced in multiple ADF projects, says that the piece “had immense amounts of power within the way the dancers interacted with the music and prose… it depicted emotion, frustration and release in what it means to exist within American culture.”
An astounding return to live dance, “The Xcope” challenges the minds of its viewers and makes them question what dance is as a language of expression.
Photo courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art
