Transforming Kubota Garden into a divine landscape, this work imagines what utopia would look like if Black bodies were free to imagine.

Book II is a performance piece that combines live and recorded music. This offering centers around Black and brown bodies leaving this world and entering the "afterlife," Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst humans. Book II brings the club to heaven and imagines what heaven or utopia would look like if Black bodies were free to imagine.

The piece explores ideas around death, the afterlife, and the pageantry and parade of religious ceremony. It also examines what it means to bear witness in the streets and how to bring people to "God" outside of a traditional church setting.

The performance connects the pomp and circumstance of the church to the pomp and circumstance of the club. The club setting represents a place where God can live in a community that embraces "sin" and welcomes those who are not traditionally considered "worthy" of God's grace. Although the club had rules, there was a sense of freedom in that space that was indescribable.

Artists

Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS! was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS! is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center, Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, Risk/Reward and NPN.

Additional funding from Arts in Parks Program by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Elysium: Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS ~ Book II

OtB & CD Forum Co-Commission & World Premiere
Presented in partnership with CD Forum, Kubota Garden, and Velocity Dance Center

May 29 - 31, 2025
Thursday, May 29 | 6:30pm
Friday, May 30 | 1pm
Saturday | May 31 | 5pm

Free and open to the public