mayfield brooks

mayfield brooks improvises while black, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York working as a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. mayfield studied contemporary dance at the School for New Dance in Amsterdam, NL, Moving on Center in Oakland, CA, holds a MFA in Theater and Dance from UC Davis, and a Masters in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. mayfield was a 2017 artist in residence at Movement Research NYC, a 2019 Dance and Process artist at The Kitchen NYC and is currently an artist in residence at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, NY and Abrons Arts Center. mayfield teaches urban farming courses for Farm School, New York City and teaches & performs dance and vocal improvisation nationally and internationally from their life/art/movement practice Improvising While Black/IWB.

Work

Video Title: An Alchemy, 

mayfield dancing at Weidlinger House October 2020, land of the Nauset people, Wellfleet, Massachusetts

Description of work submitted: 

I am dancing an Autumn meditation. A contemplation. A transformation of matter. 

A golden leaf responds to a soft shift in the breeze. An elixir of color satisfies the moment. 

A coyote came and went. 

Open the door. Pause. 

A dance for the pond and the otters who play there.

A dance for the rain.

A dance for the endless windows that frame this house.

Weidlinger rested here. 

Enter each portal and lean into gravity.

Meld with the landscape and become the falling leaf.