Allison Minto

ON-GOING...."Dance Project" (working title) with Reginald Dwayne Betts

After watching a viral clip of the late Michael K. Williams dancing in a park, Reginald Dwayne Betts felt overcome with sadness about never learning how to dance. And then after he was assigned to write an essay about the actor, Dwayne was forced to rewatch the clip and reckon with why such a beautiful clip devastated him so. A consideration of Williams led Dwayne to a moment of middle-school trauma involving a dance circle and a girlfriend who eventually went on to become a professional dancer, as well as all of the learning opportunities he missed as an incarcerated youth. In this piece, Dwayne investigates the connection between Black masculinity and dancing, and why the two have come to be perceived as mutually exclusive. From the Golden Age of Hip Hop to the Tik Tok era, Dwayne looks at what it means to be a Black man dancing, especially one, like himself, who never learned how. With courage, determination—and the help of a dance teacher—Dwayne sets out to learn how to do the boogie in the park.

Video by Allison Minto
Words written by Jackie Bates/Niela Orr