Yinka Esi Graves was in residence at iC4C as part of Horizon‘s 2021 residency programme developing her new work, The Disappearing Act.

The Disappearing Act was a work in progress and Yinka Esi Graves shared the results of this initial week-long residency with a live audience in the studio as well as via livestream to an international delegation of industry professionals.

The dancer (inspired by the famous Black 19th Century trapeze artist Miss La La) proposes an experiment to explore the ways in which women of African descent navigate hypervisibility and invisibility today. Celebrating the use of shapeshifting and camouflage tactics as ways of survival in hostile environments, The Disappearing Act questions how insidious these can become when we learn to see ourselves through these detached optics.

Inspired by the format of Concert Parties, originating as Fante (Ghanaian) adaptations of 19th Century European variety style performances, Yinka crafts a piece that combines experimental Flamenco dance, live music, and text to stage the hypervisibility/invisibility conundrum.

Credits

Concept, Choreography and Dance: Yinka Esi Graves
Guitarist and Music: Raúl Cantizano
Drummer and poet: Remi Graves
Singer: Rosario Heredia
Filming: Miguel Angel Rosales

Yinka Esi Graves

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