Open Rehearsal & Open Conversation with Nubian Néné / A Lady In The House Dance  

Open Rehearsal & Open Conversation
with Nubian Néné / A Lady In The House Dance 
Saturday May 9, 2-3:30PM
*Content Transparency: This program contains mature themes and topics. Parental discretion advised.*

The open rehearsal format allows the choreographer and dancers to simply exist in the space while audiences witness how the work is created. I invite viewers to keep an open mind, not just observing rehearsal, but also how we relate to one another. 

This cast of Black W*ackers/Punkers is here to express our contemporary movement within this culture. The conversation centers on sharing process and exchanging what the audience perceives, understands, or questions. This is not a performance. 

We invite you into our space of Punkness—to witness, be inspired, and see how W*acking/Punking has shaped us. We hope to encourage more Black bodies, especially younger generations, to find themselves in this practice. 

Wacking/Punking is activism: a tool against oppression, and a force of resistance. Dare to Wack. Dare to fight back. Dare to be a Punk. Dare to protect one another. 

This event is open to all, and we intentionally invite Black bodies to be present —Queer, Cis, Women, Men, Trans, teenagers, and multiple generations. This is not exclusionary, but about being both the representation and the represented.   

Initial Ideation [circa 2024]
W*acking/Punking, an American social justice dance form, emerged in the gay clubs of Los Angeles during the disco era and was predominantly expressed by Black bodies. The DJ Michelangelo, a central force in its formation, cultivated it as something shared among those who needed it—never for sale. Today, the erasure of Black bodies within this dance form is both flagrant and violent. Its global evolution has created space for expression, visibility, and livelihood elsewhere—opportunities that remain largely unseen and under-supported in the United States. 

With this work, I’m interested in exploring how different Black bodies connect with W*acking—what it means to us now, more than 40 years after its inception. I ask: what is the Queer, Black, American evolution of this movement today? How can this dance form help us confront the challenges we face as Black Queer bodies? How do we reclaim its power and have it recognized and celebrated on American soil? 

At its core, this work is about visibility—centering Black bodies, and in particular Black Queer bodies, while holding space for Black women and non-queer Black bodies whose contributions and presence remain essential. It is about how we use W*acking to express, to take up space, and to empower. There is also an opportunity to reach both teens and adults—to use this movement as a force against prejudice, queerphobia, racism, and more. 

Through dance and conversation, this work unfolds in three parts: a performance, a film, and a graphic novel. At its center is the question: what happens when W*ackers and Punkers are imagined as super-humans? What are the superpowers we carry that allow us to express, activate, and empower? And how can this dance form support us in meeting the challenges of the present moment? 

Present Day Flow [circa April 2026]
Now that the residency process has begun, the exploration is taking shape through the imagining of W*ackers and Punkers as super-humans. 

The quest: to find personal and collective freedom. To build an army of Black W*ackers and Punkers. To examine our specific strengths—how they have been used, misused, or exploited—and how they can live fully in our expression of W*acking/Punking. What defines our personal and collective arsenal of superpowers within this culture? 

Their powers emerge from the elements of our culture. Poses and stances become sites of protection, confidence, and armor. We are Punking our way through—digging deeper to understand what we give to the culture, and what it has given to us. 

We invoke our ancestors in the way we walk; the vibration of our weight meeting the earth. A return to self unfolds through 360-degree motion: spinning, turning, pivoting, pirouetting. The W*acks call us to strike with force, these are our weapons, a vital part of our arsenal. 

The villain remains uncertain. Is it erasure? Internalized belief—buying into the hype? Is it the tension of yin and yang, or the imbalance between them? Can a world of super-humans, of super W*ackers and super Punkers, exist without a villain, or is oppression an ever-present force we must continually name and resist? 

Alongside this, we are developing a film with filmmaker Kristina Moorer, and envisioning a graphic novel as a lookbook, featuring Punkers posed in bold, fashionably outrageous forms. 

This is the flow we stepped into just days ago. By the time we arrive at Bethany in May, more questions will emerge; some answered, some abandoned, some tested, failed, or held for another time. 

——– 

This event is an Artist Residency Community Program. As part of a residency at BAC, we ask each artist to build and facilitate a Community Program. Community Programs are a unique opportunity for both artists-in-residence and our local community to gather, engage, and be in conversation with one another through art. Community Programs are free engagements open to the public and/or in collaboration with a local community partner.

This Residency and Community Program are made possible through BAC’s partnership with Works & Process at the Guggenheim. BAC is proud to partner with Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim to support creators of the performing arts and incubate new works. As two organizations committed to supporting artists across disciplines and in various stages of their artistic process, the partnership is a natural fit. 

Image Credit: Courtesy of Nubian Néné / A Lady In The House Dance, Credit: Jerick ‘Anyo’ Collantes  
Video Credit: Courtesy of Nubian Néné / A Lady In The House Dance, Video credit: The Nubian Dancers: Cruella, Jennuine, NYX, Amethyst at Queens College through the CUNY Dance Initiative