DANDYISM
Dandyism
For most black folks style has never been superficial, It has been a language of survival, dignity, and defiance. From the streets of Brazzaville to Harlem. black men have repeatedly turned to dandyism as a way to confront subjugation using elegance to reclaim humanity in systems designed to deny it. Black dandyism reaches beyond colonial rule, drawing from pre-colonial notions of refinement and toward a future where style is an act of freedom rather than conformity.
Photo: Alan Vaughn, GDIF (2020)
An Expression of Individuality
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Dandyism is my first creative work, realised in 2018. Rooted in the global history of Black dandyism, the piece explores how Black men have appropriated and transformed the flamboyance of 18th-century French and English dandies as both a defence and a provocation against enslavement, racial subjugation, and imposed invisibility. What was once a symbol of power and dominance became, in Black hands, an act of resistance, described by some as a cultural and political movement.
Over time, Black dandyism evolved into a transnational subculture, gaining visibility and recognition worldwide.
Across the diaspora, elegance, exaggeration, and style have been used to assert agency, reclaim dignity, and disrupt stereotypes imposed on Black bodies.
This dance-theatre piece embodies a raw and unrefined energy, combining rich, ostentatious costuming with expressive movement to convey the vitality of dances originating across Africa and its diaspora. Movement and dress function together as tools of self-definition, spectacle, and resistance.
My intention is to celebrate life, cool, and self-expression, while engaging with deeper questions of humanity, particularly around gender, identity, and representation in order to challenge inherited narratives and stereotypes.
Black dandyism stands as a testament to how what was once regarded as the “master’s style” has been reclaimed and reimagined as an expression of cultural resilience, interweaving Western sartorial codes with Black self-expression, creativity, and freedom.
Photo: Roswitha Chesher, GDIF (2021)
Photo: Roswitha Chesher, GDIF (2021)
The Guardian review, Sunday 29th August 2021
"....... with snazzy costumes, Patrick Ziza’s Dandyism presents the style of Congolese Sapeurs, outrageously well-dressed men (and women), often defying their circumstances in dandyish fashions, sharp suits, hats and canes and a riot of colour. There’s a deeply political subtext to the subculture (which emerged under colonial rule) and Ziza’s infectiously energetic quartet show a dance of personality, identity, pride and playfulness, with high-stepping footwork, gentlemanly gestures and a lot of fun and funk."
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Kate Green (DX Smithfield, 2022)
FEEDBACK
Helen Green
Director Performing Arts & Programme Director, Sunderland Culture
Dandyism was both a visual and choreographic treat that brought something really different to Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens as part of Black History Month. The performance was high quality and engaged an extremely varied half term audience with many children fascinated by the dance and the costumes.
Stella Hall
Artistic Director, Festival of Thrift Redcar
This is a note to thank you for your fabulous contribution to Festival of Thrift’s success this year. The show was really tight, professional, and managed to be both exuberant and joyful – and deeply moving. The audience feedback we’ve had for Dandyism has been amazing with huge numbers saying it was their favourite thing in the Festival.
Kate Craddock
Director
Gateshead International Festival of Theatre
Dandyism was such a vibrant and unexpected encounter, operating on lots of levels. It was both powerfully political and yet totally accessible and uplifting. It was wonderful seeing how the audiences around me were transfixed and how playful the performers were in their interactions. Locating the work in multiple public settings in Sunderland was really exciting, and ensured the piece reached audiences who might not have otherwise encountered this work.