PERFORMANCE SERIES LINE UP
PERFORMANCE
DARK OXYGEN
June 19 + 20, 2026. 7PM
The Hazeltine Theatre, Prescott AZ
The Hazeltine Theatre, Prescott AZ
Performer: Mayfield Brooks
Accompanied by: Camilo Camar
www.improvisingwhileblack.com
dArK oXyGen is a sonic dance exploring choreographies of breath and the recent discovery of oxygen production in the deep ocean without sunlight or photosynthesis. This project is inspired by ocean cosmologies from the global south, the spiritual connection between mayfield brooks' experience as child singer of Black gospel music, and dances that rely on breath to move the body and the voice. dArK oXyGen plays with the possibility that entering darkness is a generative process. 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. Through this work we call attention to the movement to permanently ban deep sea mining. We hope that our creative work can urge deeper introspection into how to care for ocean ecosystems under threat. The public is invited into the space as active participants in a dance installation that conjures breath and breathlessness as spiritual and eco-conscious awakening. Can we catch our breath and catch the spirit collectively in these trying times? Movement into shadows that speak and ghosts that dance fill the air. What happens when the ocean whispers our ancestors' names? Are we listening? Can we join together in a cacophony to exorcise the sounds of machines that mine our minds and extract from our oceans? The ocean is the lung of the earth. What would happen if the ocean couldn’t breathe?
Accompanied by: Camilo Camar
www.improvisingwhileblack.com
dArK oXyGen is a sonic dance exploring choreographies of breath and the recent discovery of oxygen production in the deep ocean without sunlight or photosynthesis. This project is inspired by ocean cosmologies from the global south, the spiritual connection between mayfield brooks' experience as child singer of Black gospel music, and dances that rely on breath to move the body and the voice. dArK oXyGen plays with the possibility that entering darkness is a generative process. 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. Through this work we call attention to the movement to permanently ban deep sea mining. We hope that our creative work can urge deeper introspection into how to care for ocean ecosystems under threat. The public is invited into the space as active participants in a dance installation that conjures breath and breathlessness as spiritual and eco-conscious awakening. Can we catch our breath and catch the spirit collectively in these trying times? Movement into shadows that speak and ghosts that dance fill the air. What happens when the ocean whispers our ancestors' names? Are we listening? Can we join together in a cacophony to exorcise the sounds of machines that mine our minds and extract from our oceans? The ocean is the lung of the earth. What would happen if the ocean couldn’t breathe?
mayfield brooks: Choreographer and Artistic Director
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 2022-23 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, the 2024 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair at UCLA with the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program, 2025 Creative Time Research and Development Fellow. They live living by the sea.
Camilo Camar: Performer, Set Designer, Musician
Camilo is a spiritual and environmental activist, designer, artist and alternative therapist born in Colombia and based in New York. His labor focuses on sound and movement performance, as well as somatic and multidimensional work based on their practice of psychosomagic.
His hunger for simplification and for a freer and creative life has led them to delve into somatics and spirituality through butoh, improvisation, water practices, and mystical experiences influenced by buddhism, shamanism, astral travel, and psychomagic.
Their artistic exploration began in childhood, spending time with his grandfather and uncles in the workshop and creating shows with his 18 cousins for the family novenas (December rituals of the Colombian tradition) and his love for water began at the age of three when he started his journey as a swimmer. Camilo studied industrial design at Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, dance throughout his life, and deepened their research in sound at Wesleyan University.
Camilo's work is nourished by the artistic, healing and spiritual practices of their ancestors and is a creative legacy with his grandfather Hector_(artisan, athlete and theology professor). He is currently collaborating with mayfield brooks on an ocean-based activism, performance and research project where they share their love for the sea, creation, and community action. www.oceanicoscollective.com
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 2022-23 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, the 2024 Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair at UCLA with the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program, 2025 Creative Time Research and Development Fellow. They live living by the sea.
Camilo Camar: Performer, Set Designer, Musician
Camilo is a spiritual and environmental activist, designer, artist and alternative therapist born in Colombia and based in New York. His labor focuses on sound and movement performance, as well as somatic and multidimensional work based on their practice of psychosomagic.
His hunger for simplification and for a freer and creative life has led them to delve into somatics and spirituality through butoh, improvisation, water practices, and mystical experiences influenced by buddhism, shamanism, astral travel, and psychomagic.
Their artistic exploration began in childhood, spending time with his grandfather and uncles in the workshop and creating shows with his 18 cousins for the family novenas (December rituals of the Colombian tradition) and his love for water began at the age of three when he started his journey as a swimmer. Camilo studied industrial design at Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, dance throughout his life, and deepened their research in sound at Wesleyan University.
Camilo's work is nourished by the artistic, healing and spiritual practices of their ancestors and is a creative legacy with his grandfather Hector_(artisan, athlete and theology professor). He is currently collaborating with mayfield brooks on an ocean-based activism, performance and research project where they share their love for the sea, creation, and community action. www.oceanicoscollective.com
