In the 1978 film The Wiz, Diana Ross plays Dorothy to Michael Jackson’s Scarecrow. For these new friends—along with the others they meet along the way—getting what they need is facilitated by these chance fellowships that reveal themselves as vital. In DIANA ROSS DREAM, Black being-together is sanctuary. Our togetherness, precious and fortifying, creates the condition for the total expression characterizing the aliveness to which we’ve been called.
Aisha Sasha John [Tkaronto]: "Montreal, summer 2015: I fell asleep to a question and was answered in the form of a dream: Diana Ross on Broadway in a sea of rose gold costumed dancers—a dream of spiritedness and belonging so vivid as to announce itself as instruction, as a call."
presented in partnership with the Electric Company Theatre
credits
- choreography and concept Aisha Sasha John
- performance Aisha Sasha John and Devon
- lighting design Karine Gauthier
- music Amy Manusov
- costumes Nyda Kwasowsky, Devon Snell
- outside eyes Ellen Furey, Evan Webber
- co-produced by Danse-cité and Dancemakers
- first presented by Danse-cité
biographies
Aisha Sasha John is interested in choreographing performances that occasion real love. She’s passionate about the creative potential of surrender, and through her choreographic work builds structures that allow for experiences of entrancement. The expressive possibilities exclusive to Black being-together is her ongoing research interest. John’s duet DIANA ROSS DREAM (Danse-cité) premiered in fall 2022 and was developed during a 2019-2022 Dancemakers choreographic residency. Her first full-length solo work debuted as the aisha of oz at the Whitney Museum in 2017, and in 2018, iterations of the aisha of is were presented at MAI and Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival. From 2015-2017, John choreographed, performed and curated as a member of the collective WIVES, presenting ACTION MOVIE at Théâtre La Chapelle (2017). With Julia Thomas, John choreographed and performed WE ARE HANGING OUT RIGHT NOW (Videofag and Buddies 2016). John’s video work and text art have been exhibited in galleries (Doris McCarthy, Oakville Galleries) and was commissioned by Art Metropole as part of Let’s understand what it means to be here (together), a public art residency in which John and four collaborators made performances in Union Station’s west wing. A celebrated poet, John is the author of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize nominated collection, I have to live. (McClelland & Stewart 2017), THOU (Book*hug 2014), TO STAND AT A PRECIPICE ALONE AND REPEAT WHAT IS WHISPERED (UDP 2021), and is currently at work on her fourth collection, total.
Devon is a Black queer dance artist in Tkaronto/Toronto. He’s been a Toronto Dance Theatre company dancer for the past six seasons. He’s currently in a transitional period in which his creative practice is coming to know itself—an explorative stage with unlimited possibility. As a mover, Devon was trained predominantly in western dance traditions, but recently has trained and performed in Black dance vocabularies such as Vogue, House, Waacking, Jazz, Dancehall and traditional West African dances. These experiences have allowed him to recognize the viability of a creative practice centring Black communities and exploring African expressive technologies— including fashion. As a transracial adoptee, Devon grew up imagining Black life through depictions of Black dress in popular culture. Fashion has served as an important access point for his articulation of Black selfhood. Devon is passionate about making work that marries fashion with performance in order to animate archetypes of Black North American life.
