What can students expect from this class?
Inspired by libraries holding story hours with LGBTQIA+ communities, Peter and Public Displays of Motion created this workshop where any grouping of people who consider themselves family could create a version of their queer family story.
Participants will be led through creative processes that will lead to possible translations of their story into written and/or spoken words, images, movement/dance within the workshop. There is no performing experience required. The only requirement is a willingness to express why your family – whether it has queer members, or is family of choice, or just lives life in a unique “queer” kind of way – through a story. All ages are welcome, with youth being joined by an adult important in their lives. Single participants are welcome as well. |
Registration:
Registration available through The DC’s Mindbody system. |
Cost of Class
Free. Registration required.
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What is the legacy of the genre/form/style you are teaching?
The workshop is derived from identity and community based performance works that emerged in the 1970/80’s as many individual artists in all mediums turned to self-expression of identity vs. the canon of mostly heteronormative, white-led or -inspired stories. Community engagement practices developing over the last 40 years included the facilitation of circles of like minded/like identifying people to bring their stories to the fore in multiple mediums. |
What background, training, and or relationship do you have with this style/technique/class subject?
My solo performances created in the 1980’s explored my identity as a gay man coming of age with an effort to bridge understanding between the (then) very binal world of gay and straight. Over the last 3 decades, I have continued to evolve my role and skills set in working with core collaborators, focusing on intersectionality of all kinds. Public Display of Motion is intergenerational, inter-abled and a range of ancestry and race. We have been invited to other circles to help illuminate the unique nature of those communities. |
Finish this statement: I am passionate about teaching this style because…
…Community engagement is the reason my body of creative work exists. The more I work helping to cultivate and illuminate stories (in movement, text, sound…) of others, I know more about myself. Observers and audiences of this work, as well as community members engaged in the process are affected in exponential ways due to the multiple modes of communication – verbal, visual, non-verbal, human contact – present in the process and in the sharing of the work publicly. Storytelling through movement and other creative means is an act of reconciliation among disparate human beings. |
How can students learn more about this offering?
Website: www.publicdisplaysofmotion.com Instagram: @peterdimuro Facebook (Peter): Peter DiMuro | Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion |
Contact Information
Contact Peter DiMuro: 202 905 4662 | peterdimuro@gmail.com | www.publicdisplaysofmotion.com |
Studio 7
Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion
Street shoes are not allowed in the studio at any time.