After my tour to Beijing, China with the Dancing Wheels Company in October, I was given the opportunity to create a work for the company to be premiered at moCa Cleveland in “East Meets West… A Tale of Two Cities”. All commissioned works for this production were created from experiences throughout the tour and from taking inspiration from Beijing-based artist Liu Wei’s exhibit “Invisible Cities” .
Specifically, my piece titled “Imposter!” is a solo work inspired by the exploration of those questions without answers…
As a person of mixed racial identity, questions I asked myself while on tour in Beijing were:
- Who am I?
- Do I belong here?
- And, am I doing this right?
The concepts that I focused on for this work were the social phenomenons of impostor syndrome and invisible identities; fake vs. authentic & inclusion vs. exclusion; and the actions of passing, proving, and navigating. Is it worse to feel like an impostor or to feel invisible?
Bibliography: “A Poem on Imposter Syndrome” by Mary Agbesanwa; “‘Racial Imposter Syndrome’: Here Are Your Stories” on NPR’s Code Switch; “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison; “Invisible Cities” by Liu Wei
Marissa Thomas 