Poet TC Tolbert.
TC holds up a book with a bridge on the cover.
Several people stand beside in a row, looking on to TC.
The people move, swapping places.
One starts to dance.
The others begin to dance, swaying arms and necks.
One seems hesitant, looking to a stage behind, and sits.
The hesitant dancer stands, sits again, and joins the others. The dancers move in strange rhythms, sometimes crawling and lying.
The dancers pause frequently, move uncertainly, sometimes imitating one another.
A dancer lies on the ground and sits up in a fetal position, feet in air, then leans forward.
Two dancers on the floor writhe against each other, sometimes coordinating movement. One wraps an arm around the other's back. They lean back together.
The dancers move independently, scattered. One is the person playing the violin.
One dancer sits back up on the stage. One lies on the stage. One stands frozen, looking up into nothing-- slowly arcs a hand to touch the ground -- moves around touching the ground. One crawls around on the ground like an insect. The dancer on the stage stands, then descends, twirling about the edge. The one on the ground slowly stands -- another moves in to touch but stops at the last minute, moves about the dancer coming close but never touching. The one lying on the stage steps down, holds a balanced, almost sitting position beside the stage, then leaps forward, sprawled on the ground in front. The one twirling about the edge of the stage crouches beside it, touching the ground, then ascends once more, standing tall on the stage.
The dancers continue to move semi-independently, sometimes imitating the each other or quasi-interacting with them.
One twirls about, pretends to pull a rope, twirls again.
Dancers lean against a stage on the opposite side of the floor.
The dancers continue their semi-independent interactions. One twirls about in the center -- another stands still at the front of the floor, then slowly holds out an open hand, then swaying arms and sidestepping around the center of the floor.
One dancer holds their hands high in the air, slowly collapsing to the floor. Another lies beside this dancer, the first standing and moving to the stage on the left side of the room. This dancer extends a foot which almost touches the face of another dancer, who sits on the floor and stares until the first dancer kneels down, with arms held out in a T shape, and move slowly across the floor.
Another dancer imitates the one walking on their knees across the floor, doing the same, but in a more dance-like motion, holding their hands to their heart and moving them back out again.
A dancer twirls by the edge of the stage, as one dancer stands and looks out into the distance -- another kneels and does the same. Two dancers in the center of the floor walk around each other in circles, arms crossed, peeking out of the corner of their eyes at the other but avoiding eye contact or other direct interaction.
These two finally, one after the other, make their way to the stage on the right side, leaning against it.
Two dancers on the other side extend their arms in uneven rhythms. Their movements intensify and quicken, as they twirl, squat, and do other erratic motions.
One of the dancers along the opposite stage lifts the other, who crawls upon the stage and down again beside the first dancer.
Two dancers along the left stage move and twirl about each other, sometimes sitting or crawling or lying on the floor. The dancers along the right stage repeat their motions -- one lifting the other on the stage, who crawls about and then descends. The two swirl about each other. One dancer along the left stage is largely alone -- kneeling and leaning on the floor, staring vacantly.
The two dancers along the left side of the stage move closer to the center. They move about each other, taking long steps back and forth. One of them moves away and begins to crawl toward the opposite stage -- the other leans on the ground and rhythmically reaches for the first, who rocks back and forth, never reaching where crawling. it looks as if one dancer is trying to pull the other.
The two dancers continue their push and pull ritual. Two other dancers swirl and step about a third who remains seated.
This dancer stands as one moves toward the pulling dancer, imitating their movements.
The crawling dancer reaches the opposite stage and writhes about their. The dancer who had been pulling moves with the one who came to imitate, stepping back against the stage on the right side of the room.
One dancer begins moving erratically, jerking and twisting and twirling and stepping, moving beside the one who had been crawling, who now crawls on the stage and rolls across it, descending.
One of the dancers crawls on the left side stage, lies on their back -- puts their feet in the air. Another dancer bows before this dancer, coming close to touching them but instead seems to grab some invisible item and hurl it away.
The dancer who had been on the stage takes a few steps forward, then turns around and kneels, hands raised in the air, head tilted back. They inch backward this way, as the other dancer steps backward, head arched down to the floor, standing when they reach the opposite stage.
A dancer drags another by their neck across the floor. The dancers sway slowly in place.
One dancer kneels before the left side stage, clutching the side of it, as the others sway to themselves.
This dancer sits with back to the side of the stage, finally kneeling as another dancer stands beside them. The others continue to sway.
All of the dancers now sway in a tight huddle, arms raised toward the ceiling.
The dancers begin to separate.
The dancers again move independently of one another. Three stand along the left side stage, one by one beginning to twirl up and down it and rock back and forth on it. The other two sway rapidly in the middle of the floor. The dancers continue these movements, sometimes seeming to imitate one another.
One dancer rolls about the floor by the left side stage. Two others rock back and forth on it. Two in the center sway, sometimes leaning against one another, sometimes imitating each other, sometimes lying down on the floor and standing again.
The dancers stand still, one against the right side stage, the others against the left side.
The dancers break character. The one on the right side moves to the left, and the one playing violin joins them, as does TC Tolbert. A woman steps to the microphone after TC leaves.
The dancers and TC all hold hands and take a bow.