UNTAMED SPACE

category: art, caribbean, diaspora, short films

UNTAMED SPACE

In Untamed Space, Renegade Performance Group artistic director and choreographer André M. Zachery calls upon his familial lineage in the Southern United States and Haiti and his
upbringing on the southside of Chicago to construct an interdisciplinary performance about “marooning” in the 21st Century. Historically, maroon colonies were liberated communities of
Africans who escaped to hills, mountains, and forests upon their arrival to the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries. Untamed Space considers the spiritual dimensions of maroon
colonies and, in Zachery's own words, "how the creation of those impassible spaces has influenced contemporary identities of African-blooded people in the Americas."

As a dance film the work captures the movement of Black bodies in meditative, conversational, mundane, stoic and joyous conversations. Many of the tableaus are inspired by visual artists
John Biggers and Kerry James Marshall and the sound score features original creations by Afrofuturism artists Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and the iconic King Britt.

by ANDRÉ M. ZACHERY
André M. Zachery (b.1981, Chicago, United States) is a Brooklyn, NY based interdisciplinary artist. He holds a BFA from the Ailey/Fordham University program and a MFA in Performance &
Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College. His artistic practice is grounded in devising choreographic, performative and multimedia projects exploring contemporary Black cultural
aesthetics and practices.

He is the artistic director of Renegade Performance Group and a founding member of the collective Wildcat! His works have received favorable reviews from many critics and publications
including the New York Times and have been presented in several leading institutions in New York City. Zachery is a Jerome Foundation supported 2015-17 Movement Research A-I-R and
is a recipient of the 2016 NYFA Fellowship (Gregory Millard Fellow) in Choreography. He also was a guest faculty artist-in-residence in Fall 2016 at the School of Dance at Florida State
University and is currently a guest faculty artist for 2017-2018 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.

André has been a creative lead on collaborative teams ranging from music videos, theatre works, films and operas. His media work and film work has been featured in collaborations with
independent artist and as part of design teams from 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York. Zachery has presented research and been a panelist during conferences at Duke University,
Brooklyn College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has curated performance platforms and artists’ panels at Danspace Project and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York.

US || 2017 || 12 MINS