Call it a bold move. In his five years as a choreographer, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd made blackbox theater dance and film dance. But after two years of isolated life in a pandemic, he wanted to do something else. It is a tribute to Bedford-Stuyvesant and his neighbors in Brooklyn’s neighborhood.
They “gave me a lot for two years while I was deeply isolated,” he said, “everything I need is here in my local neighborhood. On that list. I wanted to add a dance piece. “
That motivated him to independently produce Lloyd’s first night dance. He said he decided it had to be free outdoors — and made it for his neighbor, those who might sit next to him and start a conversation on a park bench. That dance “Jerome” It will be performed on June 2nd and 3rd in the school playground of Stephen Decatur Middle School 35.
28-year-old Lloyd works with a group of small spinning collaborators to create mostly narrative dances. He combines various forms of movement such as hip hop, West Africa, contemporary modern and release.
“Jordan is an artist, and most importantly, a black artist,” he said. Georgeiana Pickett, an art consultant who became Lloyd’s coach MAP fund scaffolding for practicing artistsPartnership program with Jerome Hill Fellowship.. Picket also became a fan.By email, she He praised him for breaking out of the traditional theater setting. “Our parks, school playgrounds, bodegas, street corners, and leaning forward must be places of joy, discovery, and comfort,” she said. “Jordan is one of the people who makes it happen.”
For the past five years, Lloyd has lived on the corner of Bed-Stuy’s Halsey Street and Lewis Avenue. In the early days of the pandemic, he said: “My parents didn’t want me to get on the train, so I spent time in the park. I got to know the people in the corner shop run by a male Yemeni crew and Gizmo, who runs her thrift shop. I did. “
When he left Bed-Stuy in the last few years, he returned to Albany, where he was born and his parents still live. (His parents are now retired and worked in the state.) On one trip, his mom helped him with an application from the Jerome Foundation.
Lloyd said he remembers seeing his mother in a West African dance class at the age of five. “At that time, I learned to do a show.” His parents supported his study of dance, and he earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY College in Blockport in 2016. After his graduation, he creates Beth Gill, Netta Yerushalmy, David Dorfman Dance, Monica Bill Barnes, others, and his own dance.
Since 2021, Lloyd has a series of face-to-face residency. Barishnikov Arts Center, Petroni Originity Center, Danspace Project. These gave him decisive support during the pandemic, even if they took him out of the neighborhood.
From the beginning, he said he wanted to perform “Jerome” in Bed-Stuy’s school playground. It needed to build a relationship and resolve the need for his logistical support with the city authorities. “I’m not used to navigating the city government,” he said — a different process on a different timeline than working for an arts organization. He spoke with lawmakers and city council representatives and was finally given permission to use the MS35 in the immediate vicinity of where he lived.
He paid his collaborators with money from the $ 50,000 Jerome Hill Fellowship for two years. Money also gave him the luxury of time.Lloyd is used to working fast — he did his first dance in four weeks I made two movies Since the pandemic started. But “Jerome” had enough time to go back and take a deeper look at it after it was over.
“In this piece, you can feel the various parts of yourself being formed and crystallized, literally in the middle of a concrete school playground that everyone can see,” he said. ..
Gray, one of Lloyd’s collaborators in Jerome, said he praised Lloyd’s diligence and his ability to do many things at once. “Jordan choreographs every moment of the work serving what the work needs. He is also interested in who we are and how we fit into the work. I have.”
For Gray, who has worked closely with Lloyd for five years, “Jerome” has become “a child, a mischievous, imaginative, sometimes real, living around me.”
Dancers dancing in sneakers take up space against the backdrop of the sky and the brick building. As a puck, and in a long rhythmic sequence, they move in and out all at once, making sharp angles and stopping with a reverberant impact from joint to joint. One or two may come off the pack, jog at full speed, slow down the rhythm of the group’s sequence in a solo or duet, riff, and rejoin later. Others may just turn over the open lawn chair, hold a seat, and just look.
And why that title? “The name Jerome continued to appear in the process,” Lloyd said. And while recognizing that “determining someone’s race based on their name is problematic or complicated,” he said. “I feel Jerome is black, and given the location and location of the work, I feel that black people are invited to this experience, and the work is about their brother, uncle, or friend. It’s important that there is a possibility. “
Lloyd, who described “Jerome” as an abstract and layered one, said he wanted the audience to understand seriousness and capriciousness. “I also hope they see the artist as a group of children on vacation.”
Lloyd has been performing for five years in the production of dance, just to dance the audience in a traditional theater.But for him, “Jerome” is more than a community engagement project. Concert dance relocation experiment.
“I told many neighbors that I was a dancer,” he said. “But they don’t necessarily see what I’m doing. My dream is to flood the park with blacks who have been in Bed-Stuy for years.”