Diana's practice is an experimental blend of live performance art that combines experimental cross-genre dance (including Amapiano, tribal fusion, and Bharatnatyam) and music as the primary forms of storytelling. She also fuses voice; physical theatre; drag; immersive technologies; and social commentary on generational trauma, spirituality and repressed queerness. Her work seeks to challenge and resist current portrayals and restrictions on Black African identity and performance art.
She has performed her solo afro-psychedelic live-art performance titled Trance-fixed in Wonderland: Stranger Than Psy-Fi -- for Stoke-on-Trent Pride, Ensemble Festival in London, and Let's Dance International Frontiers 2024 as artist-in-residence with Serendipity UK Institute for Black Arts and Heritage.
Title: Disenfranchised Grief Dance artist: Diana Amma Gyankoma Abankwah | The Psyber Giantess Filmed, produced and choreographed by Diana Amma Gyankoma Abankwah
Loss is universal -- grief denied is not. Disenfranchised Grief is a dance film about grief that is ignored or not 'allowed' and how it manifests in the body. In this self-choreographed film, Diana uses voice, movement, shadow, and physical manifestations of depression to embody her own struggle with mental health, alienation, bereavement and estrangement in both African and Western societies. The film's bilingual vocals by the artist, inspired by Simon and Garfunkels ‘The Sound of SIlence,’ the visual narrative and jarring imagery express the trauma and isolation of processing grief that no one can see or acknowledge. And how not being seen in one's grief can feel even worse than the loss itself.
The film is dedication to the artist's sister, Maria Abankwah, who lost her life to suicide in July 2024.
See more of Diana's dance and performance practice at @the_psyber_giantess and @inner_giantess.art on Instagram.