The Motion State Dance Festival finally returns! After the successful inaugural festival in March 2020—and a pandemic pause—the second “annual” Motion State Dance Festival is back with a dazzling array of boundary-pushing contemporary dance performances, dance films and artist/audience interactions, and our headliner: celebrated choreographer Edisa Weeks performing her solo work-in-progress 3 RITES: Liberty before it tours nationally.

Live performances from Edisa Weeks (NYC), Shura Baryshnikov (Providence), Olivier Besson (Boston), Assitan “Sita” Coulibaly (Providence), Heidi Henderson (Wakefield, RI), Lila Hurwitz (Providence), Alexandra James (Portland, ME), Joshua Tuason (Providence) and Cathy Nicoli (Tiverton, RI).

Dance films by Kate Corby (WI), Tori Lawrence (MA), Anabella Lenzu (NY), Katie Beard and Naomi Turner (UK), and Esther Dganit Zimmerman (Tel Aviv).

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FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MARCH 11 & 12, 7:30pm
WaterFire Arts Center – 3 RITES: Liberty

The show contains mature themes and potentially triggering content about psychological and sexual violence. 

Connected like a puppet to objects that have informed the Black experience in America (bible, black dick, blonde wig, watermelon, gun, lightbulb, sneakers), multi-media artist Edisa Weeks alternates between black face, white face, storytelling and visceral dance to dig into the pathologization of African-Americans and the foundations of Liberty in America. As our nation grapples with confederate monuments, the lynching of Black lives, fake news and economic stratification, 3 RITES: Liberty humorously and poignantly insists on a reckoning with our past and present.

The full work, 3 RITES: Life, Liberty, Happiness, will premiere at 651 ARTS in Brooklyn, NY in Fall 2023. It is a seven-hour interdisciplinary interactive experience that integrates dance, live music, text, visual installations, shared meals, and community conversations to examine how America has protected, promoted and pursued life, liberty and happiness, and how these rights manifest in the body.

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• Presented By: WaterFire Providence
• Dates: 3/5/2022, 3/9/2022, 3/10/2022, 3/12/2022
• Location: WaterFire Art Center
• Address: Providence, RI 02908
• Time: Various Times
• Visit The Event Website for a Complete Schedule @ WWW.MOTIONSTATEARTS.COM