Inspired by the “Authentic Movement” dance practice and the site of the body as a form of collective care, Paul Makehe’s performance titled Seeking After the Fully Grown Dancer *deep within* initiates an authentic embodied dialogue with his audience. Following principles of Authentic Movement—including closing his eyes, engaging in mindfulness, and trying to move un-self-consciously in the presence of a witness— Makehe creates a unique performance that draws authenticity from spontaneity. While Authentic Movement typically involves a single mover and a single witness, Maheke addresses a broader audience, inviting an intimate form or spectatorship from a collective viewership.

While embracing the instructions of Authentic Movement, the performance both takes up the practice’s promise and engages with troubled notions of reaching a true, unconscious self. In doing so, this work explores tensions between vulnerability, multi-sensory information, visibility and invisibility, authenticity, and improvisation, considering the “Authentic Movement” dance style, as performed by a queer Black artist. As in Mutual Survival, Lorde’s Manifesto, this work explores dance and movement practices as forms of emergent social relation between bodies, and recognizes dance as an embodied site for addressing identity, race, and gender through fluid narrative and performance practices.