Rhea Speights
Dance Performance and Video
Welcome
Let's continue to examine how our behaviors and institutions uphold white supremacy, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and other forms of oppression. How do these expressions of dominance and exploitation drive our world in ways we might not be aware? We are capable of deconstucting these systems and rebuilding our communities in order that everyone can live with dignity and be treated with respect.
Art is a central component of this process. And I believe we are all artists.
what's new
DEMON LEGION
I am collaborating with KJ Dahlaw, artistic director of Unruly Body Tanztheater, on a videodance titled Demon Legion. In July 2021, we had a production shoot in the SF Bay Area with our fellow dance artists Qilo Matzen, Jesselito Bie, LoRee Kenagy, James Washington, Bhumi B. Patel, Kevin Wong, Hannah Varga, Sarah Bush, Raven Malouf-Renning, Julianna Cressman, Frances Teves Sedayao, Anand Jay Kalra, with special appearances by the Unicorns Unite club. Music by stevie may and Jenno Snyder. Demon Legion is a queer horror tale of becoming. We will have a private screening for our collaborating artists and funders before submitting to festivals in the fall.
A performance of Reading in Berkeley, California, in 2016.
PERFORMING
If you missed seeing me perform with Michael Glaser at Magic City Arts Connection in April, there will be more opportunities to see my work this fall and spring. Updates will be posted here.
a biography
Rhea is an artist and teacher, working primarily in dance and video. Her work has been presented in backyards, galleries, and theatre spaces across the United States, as well as in Colombia and New Zealand, with support from the Puffin Foundation, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and the National Society of Arts and Letters. Rhea has taught at Birmingham-Southern College (Alabama), the University of Alabama, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Danza Común (Bogotá, Colombia), and various other institutions, festivals, and art centers. She has had the pleasure of performing with Sanspointe and Corpus Euphonium in Birmingham, Alabama, with Steamroller Dance Company in San Francisco, and with April Sellers Dance Collective in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rhea holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BA in Telecommunication and Film from the University of Alabama. Rhea's creative practice is influenced by her experience studying and creating with artists she admires, including Jennifer Monson, Niklas Vollmer, Jessie Young, and Sycamore Toffel. In making her work, Rhea uses ballet and contemporary dance forms, video, and her desire to fully integrate the imagination with the body. Some of her thoughts about the relationship between dance and video are published in a performative essay titled "The Carpet" in Undisciplining Dance (2018), edited by Carol Brown and Alys Longley.
selected creative work
2019-2020. Made in collaboration with the performers Alexa Manalansan, Chelsea Van Billiard, and Jenna Valez. First a live performance at SAFEhouse Arts (San Francisco, CA), then a videodance to share with you.
2019. Made in collaboration with the performers Alexa Manalansan, Chelsea Van Billiard, Jenna Valez, and KJ Dahlaw. Presented at West Wave Dance Festival (San Francisco, CA) and Summer Performance Festival 12 (San Francisco, CA).
making and teaching
My making and teaching practices are motivated by the idea that art elevates consciousness and awakens the imagination. I am drawn to dance and video because both are composite forms, which reflect the additive and collaborative methods I use to know the world, and because they lend themselves to making expressions of the world that are recognizable but reformed through fantasy. I believe in the importance of cultivating the imagination and practicing creativity as we try to understand ourselves, connect to one another, and address the challenges of being alive. The art that I make is driven by a desire to interrogate the cultural systems I have inherited and to experiment with new ways of being.
I share my creative practice through classes and workshops that examine theories of moving and making through processes of moving and making. My areas of specialty are composition for performance and video, somatic approaches to ballet and contemporary dance styles, and ballet history re-examined through practice. As we research established methods, we also experiment with possible futures. My desire is for the classroom to be a place where we pursue our own research interests in conversation with one another. I adapt methods and materials for the people in the room.
in the news
"...brought to mind images of Lake Michigan on a cold, rainy day. I could have watched and listened to this piece for hours."
"this potent work left nerves and emotions exposed, due not only to Speights' choreography, but to her riveting performance."