Kassichana Okene-Jameson

Yielding in Space is an ongoing research project inspired by my experiences of institutional racism. As a dance artist, I have a heightened sensitivity to how experiences of alienation and oppression physically manifest in my body. Having access to the space at Filed Works would be instrumental in allowing me to further develop and investigate this movement language. Using this research I will make a visceral dance film sewn from my experiences of moving through White spaces as a Black, mixed-race woman.


Yielding in Space. By Kassichana Okene-Jameson
‘Yielding in Space’ is a research project I am currently working on. Through dancing, I realised that I had been ‘yielding’ to the space; to the socio-political macro space of my environment and the institutions I operate in as a person; specifically, a Black, mixed-race female and the political weight this carries. I am investigating how institutional racism can and has physically affected my body, and my sense of embodiment. I’m interested in questioning how I move through different social spaces, with an attention to my physicality and my embodiment as a physiological, emotional being.

I can yield to the space, making myself smaller, giving way and perhaps sacrificing part of myself to adapt. I could also yield, soften and find pleasure in allowing layers of tension or ambitions to fall away. Yielding can be transformative. Through work, time and patience I can create a yield, not only capital but cultural or social; I could yield a safe space. 

Yielding in Space is a multi-disciplinary research project. I have been collating stories and interviews with Black and mixed-race dancers and non-dance artists, of different ages and cultural backgrounds of their experience of race in society as Black people. Do they feel the need to make themselves smaller in certain spaces, more palatable? When do they feel comfortable to take up space? What makes them feel supported and comfortable in their body? 

I hope to create a visceral dance film inspired by my experiences of overt and covert racism. The film will journey the audience through varying emotional, physical states which can be both chaotic and fleeting. I want to show humanness and the multiplicity of feelings of being a Black, mixed-race woman; challenging the mega-narratives taught to us. Through my time at the Field Works, I would develop the movement and dramaturgy for the film. How do feelings of alienation or empowerment manifest in my body physically, and how to do they move me in space? 

The majority of my time at Field Works would be spent moving, researching physical and text, voice focused material. Field Work’s intimate nature would thus complement these solo explorations.