Work samples

  • High Zero Festival Collaboration

    I was invited to collaborate at High Zero Festival in late September 2021. This video shows a small part of that experimental performance festival. Working with John Berndt, we improvised a movement and sound collaboration live for the audience. The piece demonstrated the unifying factors and layers that can be found with artists working through different mediums without any pre-planned script or score. In this case it was an improvised combination of music created electronically from a combination of different mixers and controllers with my signature performance style of dance, inspired by street dance and various theatrical themes.

  • The Interview

    A performance piece from Black Cherry Theater's Puppet "Slamwich" on June 19, 2022. The interactive performance piece is titled "The interview". It is a commentary on the societal expectations to be productive economically, that many experienced, while surviving the paradigm shift of the world during the Covid pandemic. I'm portraying a living robot, who represents the archetype of the hard working business owner. This character is metaphor for the culture of toxic individuality that strengthened during the Covid 19 pandemic. As the world went deeper into crisis, and many suffered economically, some took on an idea to "build it all" by themselves and prove their competence in a western society that was falling apart. I begin the piece by inviting 3 guests from the audience to come for an interview for a new position. As "The Boss", my character describes the requirements of what it means to be "The Boss", and one by one has each guest demonstrate different "tasks" as a marker of

  • The Alchemist at Work

    This performance is at an event named Pass the Peace & Dance Urban Workshop by BMORE HOUSEFUL in DC in 2019. The storytelling dance piece is entitled "The Alchemist at Work" and tells a story that pays homage to those who seek meaning in life through deepening their commitment to transformation they themselves cannot yet see, but live within their own dreamworlds. I play the role of an "alchemist" in his workshop, writing in his journal about different aspects of life and the journey through human consciousness as one carries themselves along the path of evolving their wisdom. Due to his constant striving to deepen his understanding of himself and the world in order to find the alchemical "gold" of life, he finds himself exhausted and falling asleep while writing. The audience then discovers that while in his dreams, his body dances in representation of the immense wisdom he seems to find in his waking life, echoing how often that which we seek slumbers deep within us throughout our

  • The Activation

    This clip is from a public event at Baltimore's YNOT Lot in October of 2021 by PRISM, devoted to community engagement. The piece is titled "The Activation" In this 20 minute piece, the audience is led through a ritual by an entity known as B.A.L.T (Bilateral.Autonomonous.Lexi-dimensional.Translator). B.A.L.T's purposes is to travel to different populations and receive messages from a higher consciousness that transmit through his body. These transitions are encoded with necessary experiences in the form of spoken word, music, and dance. Each performance requires a group activation. Guests are invited to remove an activator (flower ring) from B.A.L.T's box and place it on one of the finger of his hand. He then receives a message from the great beyond about life on Earth. Then on the count of 3, the audience raises their hands into the sky and speak the word together, activating one aspect of the performance. The 3 activating words in this piece are Children, Reflection, and Beyond. This

About Talbolt

Talbolt Johnson is an artistic visionary, dancer, dreamer, and advocate for human healing and development. Johnson's early adult life was poised for a career as a professional painter, only to discover the art of movement and dance, for over two decades in the Baltimore area and throughout the United States. With his travels, life experiences, training in cultural history and tradition, and commitment to community, Talbolt found himself playing a role in taking on the passing of the… more

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