Dead White Zombies (DWZ) is a post-disciplinary performance collective based in Dallas, Texas. In its ten years of existence, DWZ has experimented with a variety of site-specific events, creating a distinct identity, form of expression, and position within its community. The Dead White Zombies apply and re-mix the vocabularies of the theatre, performance art, installation, video and audio art, dance, ritual, and drama therapy. Inspired by the performance models, methods, and expressions of various indigenous groups, DWZ seeks to re-establish and reanimate indigeneity for a globalizing world. The presentation offers an overview of past and future DWZ performances, and a demonstration of its creation methodologies. Special attention is paid to Holy Bone (2016–2017), a durational performance of initiation. The performance evolved in three phases over seven months and was shaped by open-ended public encounters with everyday life. Part One was framed as a social experiment taking place unannounced and in public spaces throughout Dallas. These provocations revealed certain themes, actions, and kind of language. Part Two ethnographically digested, explored and shaped the information and experiences gathered and determined the performance vocabulary and narrative. Part Three was the month-long performance run of Holy Bone, a site-specific immersive performance in a warehouse district which began at a Taco stand. Small groups of spectators entered at ten-minute intervals to embark on a journey through a series of events taking them over city streets to fourteen sites in six buildings. It was a walking meditation, structured as ritual initiation, where each environment was an encounter – applying performed actions, video, and sound – requiring audiences to engage progressively deeper parts of themselves and their community to consider their place in the world.
Thomas Riccio is a performance creator, scholar and educator, Professor of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Texas, Dallas. His previous positions include the University of Alaska, Organic Theatre (Chicago), the Cleveland Playhouse, American Repertory Theatre, the University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Pondicherry (India), the University of Nairobi, Korean National University for the Arts, and Jishou University (China). He has directed and devised over one hundred theatre and performance works, including the work at LaMama, the New York Theatre Workshop, and Teatro Flaiano (Rome). He works in ritual, shamanism and indigenous cultures, conducting ethnographic research and creating performances in South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Alaska, Korea, with the Bushmen of the Kalahari, India, Nepal, China, and the Republic of Sakha (Siberia), which declared him a ‘Cultural Hero’. He is currently completing a long-term project and documentary film on the Miao of China. Riccio has conducted workshops and given lectures throughout the world, is author of two books and numerous articles. Since 2005 he has worked with Hanson Robotics, creator of Sophia, the world’s most advanced humanoid social robot. He directs the Dead White Zombies, a Dallas-based, post-disciplinary performance group and is currently developing Blue Jelly, a performance immersion for 2022.