Choreographer Tristian Griffin’s star-crossed lovers interpretation The Unexpected: Within the Red Lines premieres Aug. 10

Dancers Josue Villa and Claude Alexander III star in The Unexpected: Within the Red Lines. Photo by Ryan Bruce.

Kansas City-born dancer and choreographer Tristian Griffin typically avoids lacing his work with personal meaning. His latest dance piece, The Unexpected: Within the Red Lines, is a rare exception. 

Griffin began work on the project over the course of 10 days in 2023 during his stint as a Choreography Fellow for Jacob’s Pillow Dance School in Massachusetts.

The piece—directed and choreographed entirely by Griffin—is a duet between a Black man and a Latino man attempting to surmount the barriers that exist within their communities because of redlining. It is currently being rehearsed and will premiere as part of the Tristian Griffin Dance Company’s 2024-25 season on Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Gem Theater. Tickets for the show can be purchased here. 

We spoke with Griffin about the project’s origins, struggles, and vulnerability ahead of its premiere. 

The Pitch: Tell us about how you came up with the narrative and choreography for this piece. 

Tristan Griffin: This is a personal memoir of my life. I feel like I’ve been put into environments and situations where I felt ‘in-between.’ People’s expectations were put upon me based on who I was or what I did for a career.

A year ago, I was preparing for the Jacob’s Pillow choreography fellowship, in which only eight choreographers get selected to go to Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts to work on an idea, theme, or narrative that they want to explore. We had 10 days to come up with the material. I choreographed 20 minutes of it in 10 days. Right now, as well as in August, we’ll be completing the work in 50 minutes. 

What was it like working under that time constraint?

It was stressful, wanting it to be perfect. But once I let go of that mentality of wanting it to be perfect and everything following what I envisioned, it became more liberating. I started to rely more on my dance artists as collaborators versus just dance artists. That was a big relief, and I’ve taken that lesson into process more. 

What made you want to explore the topic of redlining?

I’d heard about redlining from my family. It seemed like a myth, because it was so far removed. It seemed like it happened in the Jim Crow era, and now we’re in better times. I wanted to explore performing in certain areas outside of the red line, and I noticed this tension. It’s not something that is said or even done sometimes, but it’s thick in the air. I realized there was something to this, so I started to trace it back to systemic racism. Redlining came up, and I was like, “Man, this is crazy.” I didn’t know this was so engraved in history. I started to think about the areas where I was having trouble with performing in Kansas City, and I was like, “This makes so much sense. These are the areas where it’s hard to establish myself as an artist or as a Black man.”

Photo by Ryan Bruce.

Tell us more about the research you did during the writing process and how this is reflected in the piece.

I did a lot of research on James Baldwin and Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and relied on their texts on injustice in Brown and Black communities. I also considered Kansas City’s history of redlining, racial inequality, and systemic racism. For an audience member watching this, they’re going to see a lot more raw, visceral movement than usual, as well as familiar movement. A lot of pedestrian motifs will be represented. 

I saw I Am Not Your Negro and read the book (by James Baldwin). It was a really poignant memoir that got me thinking about how my work could make a difference in the community, in myself, and in my collaborators. I started on this tangent of how my work can be valued as social justice work and artwork. From that, I’ve grown so much personally. 

How is this piece different from your past work?

In my other works, I’ve avoided involving my personal story. My work tries to take a general idea and open it up, so it becomes more universal. Through that, it becomes more removed from me personally. This work is like a moth to a flame. I wanted to stay as close as I could to it without getting burnt. I’ve really opened up this new movement language that portrays the narrative and does it justice.