(Excerpts) A Quarter Past Midnight reimagines Nijinsky's, Afternoon of a Fawn in a modern day house club setting. james morrow/ The Movement navigates queer spaces within the communal world of house while superimposing the original narrative of Nijinsky's masterpiece. I had the honor of collaborating with Shakia Johnson, Angie Wolfram, Brande Lee, Sean Bjerke, and Thron Lim on this project. Full length of this work is 25 minutes. This work was sponsored by the Boston Center for the Arts Choreographic Residency (2016) and The Boston Dance Alliance Rehearsal and Retreat Fellowship (2017)
(Excerpts) James Morrow explores the politics of identity in his solo triptych "11". Here he investigates the tensions between perfection and perdition as human beings evolve an intricate labyrinth to relate to their Gods. In this work, Morrow brings morality and sexuality into question while examining his relationship to both his upbringing in Christianity and the Chicago House community. This piece is 30 minutes in length.
(Excerpts) Stakes is high was commissioned by Chicago Dance Crash in 2015. The piece premiered at Columbia College for Crash's annual concert. The piece is separated into three sections. These excerpts explore the fragility of life. Created at a time in the Chicago Dance Community when we were losing amazing artist like Eric Eatherly, Nana Shinflug, and Paul Christiano, this piece was created with the intention of the dancers to be truly present, recognizing each other on stage and understanding that these few moments are a gift.
Switching Code is exploring gender identity, it's politics, how it shifts, bends and navigates throughout our lives. Meghan Mclyman and James Morrow are questioning the performance of gender and the idea of "switching" in between these codes.
Performed by the Joel Hall Dancers, Eleven Years After explores the dimensions of reality via the politics of identity. Morrow questions the belief systems of morality, sexuality, the body, and religion. Joel Hall Dancers express contemporary urban life through dance while educating, entertaining, and inspiring their audience. The signature dance style of JHD incorporates ballet, jazz, modern, funk, and “street dance” using contemporary jazz and house music to create an innovative and continuously evolving dance style that is appealing, relevant, and approachable for those frequently underserved by the arts. Both JHD and its audience exhibit a rare diversified spectrum of cultural, ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds.
AZEEMO SHAN SHEDIPLO is a piece I created in Mumbai, India during a residency at Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts. When using the music of Diplo a student mentioned that the beat sounded like a song from a famous Bollywood movie. When they showed me the song I knew I had to fuse the two together bridging these two cultures. This is the culmination of the students working extremely hard over the two week residency and filming gorilla style for three hours at the train stop across the street from the school where students arrive to take class. The two songs that merge were "AZEEMO SHAN SHEHESHAH" by Jodhaa Akbar and "Move Around" by Diplo.
Nate Odell and James Morrow collaborate in this exploration on memory. Endings and beginnings blur and unravel in this short solo. How are we imprinted by our past relationships?
James Morrow explores different ways that patriarchal culture keeps men from knowing themselves. Patriarchal culture continues to tell the male population that what is most valuable about them is their strength, aggression and ability to dominate their environment. Through moments of violence and vulnerability Morrow pushes through levels of conditioning in order to find ways of expression.