Sarah Waldron
Writer, Filmmaker
DANCING IDENTITY
An installation video exploring the problematics of a white gaze on a dancing woman of color.
Dancer: Vanessa Alamo
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Note: This video was originally installed in a small closet located in the basement of a theater. The video was projected onto a mirror, causing the reflection of the video to bounce on the surrounding walls and ceiling, and was installed in such a way that, regardless of where the viewer stood or sat, they were always obstructing the projection with both their body and their reflection.
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Description: This project seeks to not only explore dance as a method of story-telling, self-creation, and empowerment, but also to problematize the ways in which we categorize certain racialized dancing bodies into preconceived, stereotyped spaces. I specifically implicate myself, representative of a white gaze, as an intrusive force in the dancer’s self-creation, and an impediment to her full expression.
TO STAND ALONE
An installation video experimenting with gender-roles and "respectability"
Description: This non-narrative video work juxtaposes a man and a woman performing identical acts in a manner that seeks to call out the ways we are trained to view and understand gender-based narratives; most simply, the narrative of a man’s body as a source of power and respect and a woman’s body as a site of trauma on display.