THE BRUTAL JOY – Performative Lecture and Workshop

Presented in collaboration with Sunk City Festival
Saturday, May 16, 8:00 PM
Mellow Drama Studio, 54 Victoria Crescent

A live performance culminating in an interactive workshop exploring identity, self-expression, and Black culture through Fashion, music and dandyism.

The Brutal Joy – a performative lecture that speaks to and with the conceptual and historical underpinnings of Justine A. Chambers’ latest choreographic project, The Brutal Joy. Through the event, Chambers discusses dance and fashion as counter archives, the processes of ritualization and individuation, and the oscillation between the compositional structures of the riff, the vamp, and the break, letting provisional moments of self-actualization in the present surface through a dance of future possibilities. Emerging from traces of childhood memories of family gatherings on the South Side of Chicago, The Brutal Joy unfurls Black vernacular dance alongside sartorial gesture as intellectual discourse, reverie, and devotion to Black living.

The event segues to an Electric Slide Workshop.  Once it’s foundational steps are in place, Justine layers simple improvisational scores that invite the public to riff on the original steps while maintaining the structure of the dance. This workshop invites folks to use the form of the dance as a container for self-expression and collective care.

(An Electric Slide Workshop also takes place Saturday at 3:00 PM at The Backyard Venue.)

👉 No experience necessary. Everyone is welcome.

🎉 Presented by Crimson Coast Dance as part of Sunk City Festival

This performance is presented as part of Sunk City, a multi-venue festival in downtown Nanaimo celebrating music, art, and underground culture.

The best ticket options are the Festival Passes Or Festival Day Pass

Only Crimson Coast Dance Members have access to individual tickets for this show.
Membership $15,  Performance $20

Crimson Coast Members click here to order tickets (password required)

Not a Crimson Coast Member? Join Now for only $15 and receive the password to order tickets for this event.

🎯 Why Attend

• Experience a powerful live performative lecture
• Learn the Electric Slide in a fun and guided environment
• Explore movement, identity, and personal expression
• Be part of a shared, community experience

👥 Who This Is For

This event is open to:

• anyone curious about dance, Black culture, and movement
• people who enjoy interactive and social experiences
• those interested in identity, fashion, and self-expression
• festival-goers looking to try something different

👉 No dance experience required

🎬 What to Expect

• A live performative lecture
• Storytelling through movement and cultural context
• A guided Electric Slide workshop – by the end you will have made it your own!
• A relaxed, inclusive environment where participation is encouraged

👤 About the Artist

Justine A. Chambers is a dance artist and educator based in Vancouver, working on the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her practice is a collaboration with her Black matrilineal heritage, and extends from this continuum and its entanglements with Western contemporary dance and visual arts practices. Her research attends to individual and collective embodied archives, social choreographies of the everyday, and choreography and dance as otherwise ways of being in relation. Chambers’ work has been hosted at galleries, festivals, and theatres nationally and internationally, and she is the 2025 recipient of the VIVA Award. She is an Assistant Professor in the School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University and Associate Artist to The Dance Centre, Vancouver, BC. Chambers is August Tyler-Hite’s mother.

🎉 We recommend the day or weekend pass to take in all of The Sunk City Festival, otherwise tickets are available for members only. ($15 Membership, $20 Individual ticket)

This event is part of Sunk City, a multi-venue festival in downtown Nanaimo that brings together music, art, and community across shared gathering spaces.

Crimson Coast Members click here to order tickets (password required)

Not a Crimson Coast Member? Join Now for only $15 and receive the password to order tickets for this event.