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| ABOUT TRaC |
MultiTRaC Winter 2003
This Diva Can Dance "She's an AfroSocialiteLifeDiva!" Cynthia Oliver doesn't try to represent the entire black community. Rather, with AfroSocialiteLifeDiva, she takes an event specific to one race and expands it to cross all racial borders. Specifically, Diva gears itself toward the essence of a black woman her strength, her experiences, her relationships with her mother, her daughter, her sister. Generally, though, Diva serves as a point of familial reference for people of all races and genders. Through commanding text and gyrating dance movements, Ms. Oliver, along with co-performers Renee' Redding-Jones, Cynthia Bueschel, Blossom Leilani, and Maria Earle, embodies characters familiar to any person. For people not familiar with dance, like this critic, Ms. Oliver's show is at first abstract, unfamiliar, and hard to grasp. And the first scene, "Introduction she is &" in which one performer describes the qualities of a woman while the other four loudly, repeatedly shriek doesn't make the experience much easier. But the text, which is straightforward and sharp, helps, and as the show continues and the viewer becomes gradually comfortable with the material, the "I don't get it" turns into, "Yeah, my grandmother is like that." Ms. Oliver's ethnically diverse background her father is West Indian and her mother is from Harlem definitely is reflected in her work. "I had been in the habit of storytelling and focusing more on my Caribbean side." After watching this brilliantly unusual show, you'll agree that Ms. Oliver is a triple threat strong actress, superb playwright, and a gifted choreographer.
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