Hands Performance

Hands Performance takes its title from the well known element of vogue fem, highlighting a dancer’s ability to tell a story with their hands and showcasing their musicality. Hands Performance continues Rashaad’s exploration of mapping Black cultural production as a form of movement research, data storage, and collective way finding. Working with a team of Black Queer ASL interpreters, various vogue fem performers, flex dancers, and motion capture technologists, Newsome translated his original poetry into a movement dataset exhibiting the uniquely Black and Queer aspects of sign language. The film combines stunning visuals from a speculative future with a highly energetic score filled with booming bass, synthetic snares, snaps, claps, and glitchy computer sounds, resulting in a futuristic sonic experience. As Being performs, they move seamlessly between signing and dance, exhibiting uniquely Black and Queer kinesics that signal the immaterial expressivity inherent to Black American life.