mayfield brooks, photo by Emily Farthing
Tickets
General Ticket: $20
Member Ticket: $15
Join award-winning artist & performer mayfield brooks for an interactive presentation of dArK oXyGen, a sonic dance installation that explores the decomposed dances and choreographies of breath. In reference to the recent discovery of oxygen production in the deep ocean where sunlight cannot penetrate, dArK oXyGen examines the idea of entering darkness as a generative process, inspired by memories from brooks’ childhood of singing Black gospel music, primordial ocean myths, decomposed whales or whale falls, and dances that rely on breath to move the body and voice. Our audience can expect a passive yet immersive experience, bringing them into a sense of depth and submersion that examines how cycles of light and dark, life and death, are always entwined.
Of the performance, the artist has written “It is an exorcism of the machines that mine our minds, the machines that disconnect us from the depths of our own psyches, and how that disconnection might be connected to the machines that mine our deep-sea ocean ecosystems.” Made in concert with the movement to permanently ban deep-sea mining, brooks invites the audience to immerse themselves in an installation that conjures breath and breathlessness as spiritual and eco-conscious awakening. Are we listening when the ocean whispers our ancestors' names? Can we catch our breath and collectively catch the spirit in these trying times?
dArK oXyGen was presented at Judson Memorial Church, New York, in June 2025, and will be shown at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts on February 19 & 20, 2026. Its development has been supported by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts, a Pillow Lab Residency at Jacob’s Pillow, and a performance residency at The Church, Sag Harbor.
mayfield brooks has been scheduled as part of our 2026 Residency program. For more information, please visit thechurchsagharbor.org/residency
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mayfield brooks improvises while black and is based in Lenapehoking, the unceded land of the Lenape people, also known as New York City. brooks is a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. brooks teaches and performs practices that arise from Improvising While Black (IWB), their interdisciplinary dance methodology which explores the decomposed matter of Black life and engages in dance improvisation, disorientation, dissent, and ancestral healing. brooks is the 2021 recipient of the biennial Merce Cunningham Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a 2021 Bessie/New York Dance and Performance Award nominee for their experimental dance film, Whale Fall and a 2022 Danspace Project Platform artist. They were a 2022-3 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, the 2024 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair at UCLA with the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program, and a 2025 Creative Time Research and Development Fellow. They love living by the sea.