Choreography of State

Choreography of State deconstructs the embodied gestures of law enforcement and border patrol to reveal the dramaturgy of state violence. This multimedia installation-performance approaches choreography as a forensic practice, exposing systems of militarized police training shaped by racialized surveillance, spatial exclusion, and the pacification of resistance.

The work invites women choreographers from diverse practices around the world to create dance notations that function as evidence of these power structures. Drawing on protest movements, the installation presents videos of scores comprising acts of resistance, which are activated by performers and embodied by audiences in a collective celebration of self-defense.

Extending El Khoury’s ongoing investigation into the political potential of performance as a practice of knowledge production, this work approaches choreography as a form of analytical writing capable of generating evidence of abuses of state power. Its research examines the global policing industry, with particular attention to policing practices in public space and the international exchange of law-enforcement training.

International “counterterrorism” efforts have produced extensive training exchanges between law-enforcement agencies around the world. These systems increasingly frame dissent and protest—particularly movements led by historically marginalized communities of color—as security threats, positioning protesters as enemy combatants. The cyclical exchange of policing techniques demonstrates the mutual reinforcement of racialized policing paradigms across national contexts. By analyzing these training systems and translating them into choreographic scores, Choreography of State exposes state violence as a form of racialized dominance. At the same time, the work proposes a reciprocal exchange of practices of self-defense and resistance, transforming choreography into a tool for documenting, interrogating, and collectively responding to structures of power.