Disguise as Dancefloor

2022-ongoing, Site-specific performance, copper tiles, sound

Disguise as Dancefloor reflects a confluence of influences: the wide range of experiences that can unfold on the dance floor, the subversive politics of bass, and the effects of sound on the body, including healing properties and other alchemical resonances.

At the center of the project, both spatially and figuratively, is a custom dance floor made of copper tiles. Copper is a material that transmits sound and bears a visible trace of every bare foot or hand that touches it, but it’s also a material that has been embraced over time, in various cultures, for its healing effects.

This copper dance floor is a super-charged platform. In this respect, it becomes a physical foundation on which someone can stand or move, and a surface that visibly reveals its own history, but also a shared space that is meant to be activated, a proposal that others can make their own.

By design, the project is intended to be presented repeatedly in different settings. In each location, new collaborators from different backgrounds are invited to understand and embody the project in their own ways. And their traces are etched into the copper floor tiles.

Performed at:
Portikus in Frankfurt Germany in 2022 with Emmilou Rößling (dance) and John Flindt (soundscape).

the Renaissance Society in Chicago USA in 2022 with Zachary Nicol (dance) and Ariel Zetina (DJ and producer); Cristal Sabbagh (dance) and Norman W. Long (electronics and field recordings); opening invocation recorded with Ahya Simone. Soundsystem by Bless This Mess.

Somerset House in London UK in 2023 with DJs Cõvco, Ain Bailey, Nihal El Aasar and Paul Purgas with movement artists Malik Nashad Sharpe, Alexandrina Hemsley (Yewande 103), Dove and Hannah Hernandez.

Disguise as Dancefloor is accompanied by a booklet with contributions by Uzma Z. Rizvi, Malak Helmy, Brian Kuan Wood, X.PER, Taylor LeMelle, Jaime Llopis. This “score in the form of a book,”explores the project’s underlying ideas, such as the resonance and bodily effects of copper, the connections between clubbing and art, and research into specific frequencies.

This project was supported through Mophradat's Consortium Commissions.