In For Coloured Girls: Out of the Womb Marion Landers responds to Ntozake Shange’s famous choreopoem. It examines the cycle of life from an intergenerational perspective in a family with roots in the ‘Coloured’ Community of Cape Town, South Africa. Through the beat of the drum and the conjuring of memories with her grandmother, grandfather, father and mother, Landers examines the trauma and triumphs of confronting systemic racism.
Embracing the gift of structure the choreopoem endows and the right to sit honestly with that complicated label – ‘Coloured’, Landers concocts her own shade of Blue.
A consideration of birth and a woman’s choice to assert herself in hierarchies of race, class and prejudice, are at the root of this contemporary dance-theatre story that dives deep into one family’s struggle to negotiate mixed heritage and to survive the damaging legacy of apartheid.
What does it mean that Black folks can dance? It’s how we remember what cannot be said.
-Ntozake Shange
Marion Landers Artistic Statement:
I am a multi-faceted artist, dancer/actor/choreographer/academic, that never rests in performing linear interpretations of identity. As a mixed person of African, Indonesian and European decent, I am always searching for ways to interpret my history and find its footprints in the present, in order to create the equitable future I see as fully possible. I have a great interest in diaspora, collaborative creation and evolution in my artistic work. This is evident in the work I have helped develop as a Creative Team member, choreographer and collaborator.
I acknowledge my gratitude at being able to live, work and play on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Watuth. I am dedicated, at this time, to following Indigenous leadership and direction, with regard to matters directly affecting them and the current climate of changing Canadian frameworks.
Creator/Writer/Performer: Marion Landers
Musical Direction/Percussion: Ezeadi Onukwulu
Dance Mentor: Barbara Bourget
Writer Mentor: Chantal Gibson
