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Donald Byrd on Disruption and Using Dance as a Social Civic Instrument in (Im)Pulse

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Donald Byrd of Spectrum Dance Theater gives insight on theater of disruption and his new work (Im)Pulse, which is inspired by two artists’ works: David Wojnarowicz, a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and AIDS activist and playwright Brian Quirk. (Im)Pulse is a two-part dance theater work made in response to the Orlando Pulse Nightclub tragedy and the ongoing aggression towards LGBTQ people. { DIYdancer }, Alejandra Iannone: What inspired you to create (Im)Pulse? Donald Byrd: The LGBTQ community has long been marginalized. Members of the community have been asserting themselves for much of that time; in the last few years, it seems like they are also being heard.  Yet, discomfort about the LGBTQ community remains even in a “progressive” city like Seattle. And the shooting at PULSE shook my system. It was like 9/11, in many ways. Part of Spectrum Dance Theater’s mission is to use dance as a social civic instrument. Though our programming history reflected that mission, we weren’t leaning enough into that focus; some of our board members wanted us to be more like the ballet and wondered why we weren’t presenting programming that was “pretty.” That was frustrating to me. I was tired of “be like the ballet.” Either we were going to […]

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