How Choreography and Movement Act as Forms of Resistance and Defiance.
“The stoicism that Black people have held in the face of adversity throughout history is amazing, but can also be a ticking time bomb…”
Throughout history, dance and choreography has always meant more than just movement in Black communities. It has been used as a tool for resistance, resilience, and identity. From the West African ceremonial rituals to the coded survival and joy in equal measure.
For Black men, movement can be used as a counter-narrative to the stereotypes imposed on them, to reclaim space, and celebrate their complexity and humanity. In contemporary theatre, this tradition lives on. Productions like TRAPLORD, created by Ivan Michael Blackstock exemplify how movement continues to evolve as a mode of Black male expression. TRAPLORD combines defiance, spirituality, and storytelling into performance. In this context, choreography is not just about aesthetics; it is a political and cultural movement.
“Sometimes we’d turn off all the lights…in that darkness, we were just being; there was no character to play.”
In pre-colonial Africa, dance was a prominent part of everyday life, with multiple purposes linked to spirituality, cultural preservation, social cohesion and education. During the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans used dance to maintain a sense of identity, community, and culture in such hostile, dehumanising environments. This included overt celebrations as well as covert acts of resistance. Capoeira was created by enslaved Africans in Brazil, who developed this type of martial art and self defence, but disguised it as a dance. This allowed them to train under the watchful eyes of the Portuguese slave owners, who were oblivious to the true purpose of this dance.
Caribbean Carnival is deeply rooted in resistance and liberation, originating from enslaved Africans mimicking and mocking their European oppressors while expressing their own cultural traditions. The music, costumes, and dance of Carnival evolved into a celebration of freedom which challenged colonial powers.
Narratives around Black masculinity are often rooted in colonialism and systemic racism, as they reduce Black men to tropes: hypermasculine, violent, and emotionally unavailable. Dance offers a space where these stereotypes can be challenged and torn apart. Through choreography, Black men have the opportunity to express tenderness, rage, sensuality, and grief: the full range of emotion that society often denies them. Street dance styles such as krumping and breaking emerged in oppressed communities in response to violence, displacement, and systemic marginalisation. The raw physicality of these forms of movement highlights struggle but also to transcendence - Black bodies asserting their presence and power on their own terms, transforming rage into rhythm, and grief into grace. In this historical and cultural timeline, TRAPLORD emerges as a compelling case study which embodies this philosophy.
TRAPLORD began in 2015 as a therapeutic space for Black men to express their emotions. Ivan Michael Blackstock was dealing with his own mental health struggles, and decided to gather a group of male friends and dancers to open up about his experience. As the space grew and more men started opening up, Ivan began encouraging them to express themselves and their experiences through modes such as rapping and dancing. This ultimately evolved into a performance piece, including narratives that we don’t always see in the mainstream. Drawing from hip-hop, spiritual iconography, and lived experience, Traplord explores Black masculinity as something divine, fractured, and sacred all at once.
This emotional vulnerability is central to TRAPLORD. The production moves through themes of trauma, vulnerability, faith and transformation, blending street dance with contemporary movement. The dancers in TRAPLORD embody ancestors and avatars, confronting systems of oppression while reclaiming their spiritual and emotional identity.
For Ivan, a pivotal part of his own journey has been realising that stoicism, often celebrated as a strength in black communities, can also be a form of emotional repression.
“As an adult, I’m learning that it’s okay to be upset. The stoicism that Black people have held in the face of adversity throughout history is amazing, but can also be a ticking time bomb […] we are still working out how to use this built up energy in a productive way.”
It can feel as though there and less and less places for Black boys to openly express themselves. “With the internet and AI becoming integral parts of life, their minds are going to places that we’ve never been to. However, the body still needs to move just as much as the mind, and even more than before”. This led to Ivan exploring Krump in the world of TRAPLORD. Characterised by raw, explosive movements, Krump emerged in Los Angeles in response to police brutality, as a way for young Black people to reclaim agency over their bodies and emotions.
“What’s beautiful about Krump is that it’s all about storytelling; I want men to remember that they are the hero in their own story, and they can rise up.”
In TRAPLORD, Krump is integrated into the performance not just for its dynamic energy, but for its deep origins in resistance and release. While the audience experiences the final output of Ivan’s vision, what we don’t see is the journey to get there. For a piece that aims to flip ideals about black masculinity on its head, much of the work must be done in the rehearsal room with the cast. Ivan was faced with the challenge of building trust amongst the cast members in order to work with their emotions safely. He did this by offering his emotions, his heart, and his personal experiences to those involved in the production.
What sets TRAPLORD apart is how it makes space for complexity. Black masculinity is not a monolith here; it is interrogated, exposed and uplifted. Through the choreography in TRAPLORD, we witness bodies move with beauty, care and rage, whilst carrying the weight of generational pain. In the sense, Ivan is clear that this performance isn’t just for pure entertainment.
“I don’t want to create a dance show. I think we’re passed that. We can be a lot more intentional and intellectual with the message we want to send out, especially when it comes to hip hop dance.”
In TRAPLORD, Ivan Michael Blackstock doesn't just choreograph movement: he choreographs memory, grief, resistance, and rebirth. The production reclaims space for Black men to be complex, emotional, divine, and broken all at once. As audiences watch bodies move through darkness and light, what they’re witnessing is not just dance. It’s a reminder that resistance doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it weeps. But always, it moves.
As Black choreography continues to evolve, its future lies not just in theatres, but in the spaces where truth is told without apology.
In Ivan’s words and work, there is a call: to keep making room for stories that have too long gone unheard - and to let the body speak when language fails.
TRAPLORD is showing at the Sadler’s Wells East from 28 - 31 May 2025.