Private Places

jumatatu m. poe's work exists at an intersection of dance, theater, sociology, and psychology. A 2012 Pew Fellow in the Arts, Poe produced and premiered Private Places at the 2012 FringeArts Festival, his first evening-length dance. Private Places examined everyday interactions with service providers, such as flight attendants. The choreography for Private Places explored J-Sette, an underground dance style borne from Southern drill-team events and made popular in the gay African-American club scene. J-Sette is a tight and meticulous dance form, marked by extreme, explosive movements, which has the potential to elicit strong reactions from both audiences and performers. "I'm committed to discovering ways to respectfully ask performers to go to uncomfortable emotional and psychological places," Poe says. Prior to the performances, he presented a series of public events to engage local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender audiences, as well as African-American communities, and to bring attention to J-Sette and discuss its relevance in pop culture and contemporary dance.