Nacera Belaza asks a dancer to “be sound.” This is not a metaphor, nor is it a request for the dancer to produce sound, talk, or sing. It is a task given with little explanation but meant to unlock a way of performing without pretending, stirring up questions about the historically racialized possibility of realness, transparency, and transmission, and drawing attention to profound sensory experiences that might never be clear. Here, performing one impossible task (being sound) becomes instructive in doing another (writing dance).

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