Performing with the Dead

Proposes a methodology forincorporating concepts drawn from ancestor trancein Afrolatinx ritual for actors trained in Westernmethods. Danowski created four new works of theatricalperformance, writing the play texts, andincorporating acting exercises from Afrolatinxrituals adapted for non-practitioners. Workingtoward a phenomenological understanding of whatis happening when a performer incorporates acharacter, drawing on the ritual knowledge of trancepossession in Lukumí and Palo Monte to examinehow ontologies might speak to each other. Constructing a methodology called kanga (from theBantu for tying and untying), using three methodsbased on aspects of Afrolatinx ritual, and modifiedfor performance contexts: spell, charm, andtrance. This methodology enacts and complicatesdistinctions between performance and ritual,serving as a contribution to respectful andresponsible intercultural performance practices. The methodology is bricoleur, drawing fromethnography, psychoanalytic theory, andphenomenology. Kanga in practice leads to a stateof consciousness that Danowski calls hauntological. Thisborrows from Derrida but is redefined to refer tothe study of haunted states of consciousness, where reality is co-constituted by the living andthe dead, where ancestral spirits are invoked to dothe work once reserved for characters.