PROJECT

blackmilk is the first part of a trilogy titled trompoppies. Trompoppies is Afrikaans and describes drum majorettes performing a formation dance in uniform. blackmilk examines one of the choreographic elements of these dances: the precise hand gestures. By merging trompoppies movements with the melodramatic gestures of divas and the gestures associated with black male rap stars, the choreography investigates the distance between African and African American male identity. blackmilk invites a performative dimension into cultural representation of black masculinity and opens it up to a different complexity and sensitivity, which the artist describes as black male melancholia.