'Born to Manifest'- Just Us Dance Theatre
Founded in 2007, Just Us Dance Theatre are an emerging dance company, fusing hip-hop and contemporary to create a rawness and relatable energy in their work. Their most recent piece ‘Born to Manifest’, choreographed by Joseph Toonga, challenges racial stigmas and champions black identity, embarking on a journey of real memory and experience of both dancers, and public. There was an extremely powerful quality throughout, and the experiences were beautifully portrayed and poignant. The choreography, which initially began as a solo, detailed the particular stereotypes placed upon the black dancers, with significant emphasis on an ape-like motif, which conveyed perhaps a view of them being primal, underdeveloped, and even less than human from an especially racist perspective. Taking part in the after show discussion however, lessened the value of these moments for me, as they revealed it held a very literal meaning, from experiences of physically being called ‘monkey’. It is understa...