Bumpa

This documentary will explore the Afro-Caribbean dance, ‘whining’ alongside the practice of twerking to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and gendered criticism of sexual expression within the Black diaspora. Using archival footage of West African dance, expert opinion from dancing and gender studies professors, and the active participation of partygoers in a dance experiment, Watkins will paint the picture of the defiance, autonomy, and ancestral veneration intrinsic to these traditional movement styles.

• dance
• dancer
• sexuality
• autonomy
• gender
• sensuality
• exploring sexuality
• female sexuality
• west african
• west africa
• twerking
• whining
• defiance
• black community
• social experiment
• ancestral
• cultures of west africa
• whiteness
• safe spaces
• black women
• suppression of sexual expression
• caribbean studies and caribbean disapora
• afro-caribbean
• respectability politics
• hypersexualization
• desexualization
• bodily autonomy