Akeim Toussaint Buck Workshop
Windows of Displacement
Dancing
Autobiographical stories of memories and movement
Working with his body and voice at the core, Akeim Toussain Buck explores narratives of migration and contemporary social issues through a sophisticated blend of ancestral inspired movement and spoken word.
His workshop broken down into three parts:
Movement and the body
p1. Concentrating on the spine and pelvis we rotate grind our hips forwards, back round- splaying are chests from our core: Pulling inward we fold, protective of ourself, our vulnerable bodies we hide our chest, our belly button to our spine.
In a moment we revolt and move out, pelvis sliding forwards our shoulders pull back, our arms widen and we embrace that which we face- straight on and tall. Tall. Tall we stand until we stretch and then our elastic around ourselves starts to shrink. Oscillating movement controlled form our centre.
p.2
We sit down and we discuss, race, patriarchy and capitalist system.
The system: we differentiate ourself from the hard iron walls that stand to define the space we find ourselves within. the structure exists, we see it above, the ground that we walk on, the opportunities it hides from us the windows into other worlds it ties onto us. But we as people within this maze like system seek to change it brick for brick. Pulling it down and constructing it from our own truths. That we are one and we are more than all of this. The concrete grounding that we stand upon. We are one.
p.3
Automatic writing
We write automatically:
P.4
Selecting 1 sentence from our work we create movement to define it. Devising a short piece.
What I learned:likes:disliked:
I enjoyed how Akeim has found his style of movement by retracing his own personal history to uncover his social and political identity. Born in Jamaica, training in the UK, Akeim turned towards a narrative of migration and ancestry to inform his work.
Sharing his research with us inspired me. Through dance you learn to respect experience and the different expressions that they take.
Our discussion though key issues to the agenda: race, class, and power structures. What is our utopian unity? We dissolve race, the concept that serves to separate, define and order thereby the the system serves those in positions of power.This excessive showed the importance of inclusion and discussion. Hearing from all voices and all experience.
Discussion field our writing tasks. Converting writing to movement, together we came together and collaborated in the final two minute piece.
The workshop demonstrated the powerful ways in which art and culture can move people toward one another to enter conversation: listening to one anothers stories. boundaries of otherness break down as we enter and share the safe space. Leanrning to trust one another. Teaching us that everywhere should feel like a safe space. Every can and will be a safe space. Highlighting the importance of efficacy in art for social impact.