d. Sabela
grimes

d. Sabela Grimes is a choreographer, writer, composer and educator whose interdisciplinary performance work and pedagogical approach reveal a vested interest in the physical and meta-physical efficacies of Afro-diasporic cultural practices. Sabela’s AfroFuturistic dance theater projects, like World War WhatEver, 40 Acres & A Microchip, BulletProof Deli, and ELECTROGYNOUS, consider invisibilized histories and grapple with constructed notions of masculinity and manhood while conceiving a womynist consciousness. Using a mix of socio-historical observation, self-examination and exploration, each creative chronicle manifests and exists through layers of non-linear arrangements that sonically, visually and kinesthetically blur the line between our most precious and protected binaries. Audio sampling as citation is a critical compositional tool used in Sabela’s dance and music making endeavors. His compositions employ technology to create unusual sound-shapes that twist the form and function of modern sound design and maintain the custom of “versioning” found in Afro-diasporic music traditions.

Portrait photo courtesy the artist.