Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic

Live film screening centering 6 dances written inside Norco Prison during the covid lockdown, a 37-minute dance film, 12 formerly incarcerated and “free world” artists conversing on dance and choreography in carceral spaces

In 2016, choreographer and educator, Suchi Branfman, began a five-year choreographic residency inside the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security state men’s prison in Norco, California. The project, dubbed “Dancing Through Prison Walls,” developed into a critical dialogue about freedom, confinement, and ways for surviving restriction, limitations, and denial of liberty through the act of dancing. The dancing abruptly ended in March 2020, when the California state prison system shut down programming and visitation due to Covid-19. The work was rapidly revised, and the incarcerated dancers began sending out written choreographies from their bunks to the outside world. The resulting collection of deeply imagined choreographic pieces, written between March and May of 2020, became Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic.

It is an honor to dance these works into the “free” world. Highlighting six of the dances written/choreographed inside the prison by Brandon Alexander, Richie Martinez, Landon Reynolds and Terry Sakamoto Jr., including a film of the written work transformed into
embodied dances in sites throughout the Santa Monica civic center area, drawing focus to the nation’s school to prison nexus (Meiners, 2007), followed by a conversation with the artists involved.

With artistic direction by Suchi Branfman and cinematography by Tom Tsai, the dances are powerfully narrated by Marc Antoni Charcas, Ernst Fenelon Jr., Richie Martinez and Romarilyn Ralston (all formerly incarcerated movers and organizers) and choreographically interpreted by a group of brilliant choreographers: Bernard Brown, Jay Carlon, Irvin Gonzalez, Kenji Igus, Brianna Mims and Tom Tsai (all of whom have joined Branfman dancing inside the Norco prison). Each team was entrusted with bringing one of the written dances to action. Between them, they are steeped in hip hop, tap, breaking, performance art, quebradita, spoken word,
butoh and contemporary dance forms. Released from prison during the summer of 2020, Richie Martinez joins the cast as he narrates and performs in “Richie’s Disappearing Acts” which he wrote while incarcerated at the Norco prison during the pandemic. And having been released in the spring of 2021, Terry Sakamoto Jr., who authored three of the dances, joins the project to share his experiences dancing on the inside, and now, outside of prison walls.

In December 2020, Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic was published by the inimitable Sming Sming Books. Benefiting the authors, Critical Resistance and California Coalition for Women Prisoners, now out in the 2nd edition.

“Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic is a virtual performance space of embodied liberation.”

                    Autre

“…a beautiful, unique and important way for these men to have their voices heard and to let people know that they were still here… truly inspiring to watch”

                    LA Dance Chronicle

“…when the pandemic shut down dance studios and theaters, artists quickly adapted to Zoom. But incarcerated movers had no access to Zoom…when the prison locked down, the men had to spend nearly all their time in their bunks… and so they started sending written dances to Branfman.”

                    Dance Magazine

This live, in-person presentation of the film, Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic includes a screening of the 37-minute film, live conversation amongst participating artists, updates on education/activism around ending mass incarceration, and a conversation with the filmmakers, artists and audience.