Beauty is not a luxury, rather it is a way of creating possibility in the space of enclosure, a radical act of subsistence, an embrace of our terribleness, a transfiguration of the given. It is a will to adorn, a proclivity for the baroque, and the love of too much. 
–Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

The Brutal Joy unfurls Black vernacular line dance and sartorial gesture as intellectual

discourse, reverie, and devotion to Black-living. As a scored improvisation for dance,

light, and sound, The Brutal Joy explores these diasporic practices as knowledge

reservoirs and outward facing, physically dialogic activations that allow for

actualizing oneself at present in a dance of future possibilities. The performers’

attention oscillates between compositional structures of the riff, the vamp, and the

break, while attending to the mutually dependent processes of individuation and

ritualization. Gesture, gait, gaze, rhythm, textural sound, shadow, and light are the

materials for proposing “What if?” and “Now what?” as provisional questions

towards imagining otherwise. Centering dance and attire as relational and living

counter-archives, the work considers movement and personal style as tools for

self-determination and the collective reclamation of Black humanitarian value.

Choreography and performance: Justine A. Chambers
Sound design and performance: Mauricio Pauly
Lighting design and performance: James Proudfoot
Dramaturgy: Vanessa Kwan
Garments by: Old Fashioned Standards
Hair by: Liam Murley

The Brutal Joy has been created with the support of the Periculum Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, The Can Dance Network, Agora de la Danse, The Dance Centre, The National Arts Centre, and Toronto Dance Theatre.

Upcoming Performances of The Brutal Joy:
The National Arts Centre – November 22-24, 2025
PuSH Festival / The Dance Centre – February 5-7, 2026
Mile Zero Dance Society – April 23-25, 2026