This documentary will explore the Afro-Caribbean dance, ‘whining’ alongside the practice of twerking to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and gendered criticism of sexual expression within the Black diaspora. Using archival footage of West African dance, expert opinion from dancing and gender studies professors, and the active participation of partygoers in a dance experiment, Watkins will paint the picture of the defiance, autonomy, and ancestral veneration intrinsic to these traditional movement styles.
Checking...Scrape Manually
Director
Kayla Naomi Watkins
Director of Photography
Simone Holland
Producer
Ja'Rel Ivory
Editor
Aidan M. Un
Lighting Design
Carmel Berg
Lighting Design
Cullen "Cloud" Askew
dancedancersexualityautonomygendersensualityexploring sexualityfemale sexualitywest africanwest africatwerkingwhiningdefianceblack communitysocial experimentancestralcultures of west africawhitenesssafe spacesblack womensuppression of sexual expressionfemmearchival footagecaribbean studies and caribbean disaporaafro-caribbeanrespectability politicshypersexualizationdesexualizationbodily autonomy