Abstract / Excerpt
Quarantine takes place in a building where enslaved Africans were quarantined when they arrived in Curaçao, a former colony of the Netherlands and major center in the Caribbean slave trade during the colonial period. The film, steeped in this historical setting, presents a younger man dressed in a skirt. He dances, making moves that mix modern dance with the dance style of Black American hip hop along musical blocks of Dizzee Rascal’s hip hop, Zojojo and Mistika’s tambu, and Vernon Reid’s guitar compositions. Snooping from behind walls and windows is an older man observing. Dressed in an unassuming shirt and pants, he looks on at the younger man with an expression one expects to be disapproval but is in fact desire. We later find a breaking of masculine norms and embracing of femininity when the older man dons the skirt and begins dancing himself. Quarantine thus sets a narrative of manhood against the backdrop of a colonial history and postcolonial present, and the hybrid choreography of Kyle Abraham to speak to the African diaspora in the Dutch Antilles. Christa notes that there are plans to turn the old quarantine building into a luxury hotel, further bringing attention to the dilemma of postcolonial society.
