Final Blog...!

UCRiD was so very complex on many different levels and I experienced it both being a dancer and choreographer in this show. The work that was created for this year show was so diverse and all the Choreographers put so much love and effort into this years show. I felt that the work that was presented reflected us well as a cohort . Nothing was easy about this process, it pushed me in ways that I’d never imagine. I was tested, pushed, and challenged in many ways as a dancer and choreographer. But through it all I must say that I did evolve and at the end of all of this that was my original goal. It’s always my goal to grow, evolve, and to test what I “think” my limits are. Also to set goals so high that I have no choice but to grow into the person who reaches them.

Being in two pieces in this show was challenging due to being ill during the process. It was the first time that I’d ever had to really be cautious with how I used the little energy I had left in me. It got to the point where everything I did made me nauseous and light headed all the time. It was AWFUL and a horrible feeling. I was drained and this was the first time I had ever felt this way. Going into hell week I felt many moments of lack of motivation and commitment to what was required of me. I had gotten to the point where I had nothing left to give. Many times I thought that I wouldn’t be able to pull through. But by the grace of God I was able to pull through and being a person that constantly overshadows I did, I had too because giving up is NEVER AN OPTION. (Well at least not for me... I choose not to go that route because I like to finish what I start...!) I got my shit together and I snapped back into reality. I had to think positive and to keep fighting through the illness I was experiencing. I’d never expected to get that low so close to the end of what I had been working so hard for. I learned in this experience the EXTREME IMPORTANCE of taking care of your body but most importantly your health. I must admit that I was working so hard and pushing my limits while at the same time being negligent to the signs my body, mind, and spirit were sending to me weeks ahead to prevent this shocking occurrence. This was the first time I’d experienced something so difficult as this. Honestly, I am proud that I was tested in such a way that giving up was certainly not an option. For me to continue to dance and to put on this mask and play along as if I was okay in spite of how my body was feeling allowed me to tap into a strength I did not know I had in me. I had support from my dancers, drummers, and family and honestly they are truly the reason why I continued to push through and make it happen. They became the strength and motivation that I needed to finsh out with.

Both pieces were very different and required me to play a different role in both. In my piece I was embodying the African dancer and the grace she must uphold while performing. I was also telling the story of the dancer and the tradition associated with the rhythm that was being played. My piece was meant to be inviting and to make the audience feel connected and apart of the work. I also wanted to have my dancers have the opportunity to speak and use their voices in a way that allowed them to feel vulnerable and open. Working with Nelson brought a different dancer and experience out of me. In Nelsons piece I was asked to be more seductive and flirty. Nelson’s choreography was set and structured in a way that required us to dance in unison and in a very similar tone to each other. His dance was more commercial like and set to grab the audience attention because of how it was staged. He wanted to show the power that woman demanded when performing this dance that required a lot of confidence and performance skills. At times it was hard to connect to this work simply because I truly am heading in a different direction in my career.

Nelson piece was also a reminder of how much I’ve grown and changed as a dancer. When I moved here I wanted to do everything that involves the commercial world of hip-hop. Who knew 3 years laters my aspirations would change completely. My heart is not in the commercial realm at all anymore. I feel that there is so much more required of me at this time of my life. I’ve found something so special in West-African dance that I never exspected to just fall into. West-African Dance has opened so many doors for me. I’ve found a true sense of myself, I’ve found confidence in myself, I’ve created a stronger body for myself, I understand the power of the drum and the Spiritual enlightenment it has. I’ve even found love unexpectly. Drum and dance brought my love interest and I together and it’s been the most beautiful experience thus far. It been a beautiful journey so far and its the fact that it’s only the beginning of a purposeful life full of unexpected blessings that is NEXT FOR ME! I did not plan any of this I just flowed with it and this was the approach I took when creating my work. I let it EVOLVE on its own and what became of that made me so proud and even more proud of myself since this was an accomplishment.

In conclusion I was able to see how powerful I truly am. I am a light and I felt that I shinned EFFORTLESSLY during this process in all areas. I was overly ambitious when it came to everything because of my desire to only seek excellence when it comes to my craft. Alothough this was a very challenging process we did it. So much time, effort, dedication, and passsion was put into this. I took nothing lightly because I truly valued the responsibity that I knew I needed to fill. This experience taught me so much that it was life changing. I am truly blessed and greatful for the many ways I was supported and encouraged by the dance department, my commmuity, my mentors, and more importantly my dancers. It was because of them that this work became so much more than a number that was just made for UCRiD. It became the beginning of new purpose...!

Sounou ✨

“Dance is how we see love and how we seek love”💃🏾🌹✨

Blog Post 4 “Rhersal P R O G R E S S”

So things are steadily falling into place and I am beyond greatful. I see the progress and growth in my dancers. I see the technique and the understanding of this movement that is growing stronger in our bodies. I see myself each rehearsal becoming a more productive Director and Choreographer of this piece. Now I’m finally beginning to see the whole picture and how things will come together for the finished product. My dancers and I have really been building a strong connection in this piece. And it’s helping us grow in our dancing and. execution we put forth in this piece. We’ve been focousing on the quality and the performance aspect in this dance. Our transitions are much more clear. The energy needed for this piece is continuing to manifest. Everyone is developing their own style and interpretation of the Sounou rhythm. Now........ We must finally stich the opening of this piece together. I’m excited about my rehearsal tommorow night because for a first time in a while I will have all my dancers & drummers together. I plan to run the dance about 4 times from beginning to end while we have the drummers. Then moving on to spend the rest of our time on the opening section of this dance. I have some ideas that I want to throw at my dancers like playing with stillness, cannon, coming together and moving apart, space, and timing to make the story telling much more interesting. I plan to work all things out so we can at least have a rough draft of our opening to have as a strong foundation for this dance. We are getting there and I’m just so amazed at how this process has just evolved on it’s own...! I’m excited and so are my dancers...! We still got work to do and it will be DONE...! 🙏🏾✨🌍

Blog Post 3 “Piece Progress”

I have to get out of my head because everything will be what it will be when it’s all said and done. I just want to make sure I’m on point and that I’m going about all of this the right way. Let me explain what I mean... I am putting West-African dance on stage and this dance is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever choreographed in my experience with dance making. And I want to make sure that I’m honoring this tradition and the movement in the right way by leading my dancers and providing them with the knowledge of where this dance rhythm comes from. This past week I got a lot of critiques from the drummers and Makeda about how to make the dance stronger. We have the movements but we must all work on how we embody them. We now have to really dance with every fiber, bone, and muscle in our bodies to make this dance come alive. We also have to add our own individuality to this work because that’s the beauty of dancing West-African dance the style varies. So when heading into my rehearsal this week after taking all the the critiques from my mentors I put them into action. I made the the dance much more interesting by adding more destinations and formation changes. I changed things that originally made parts of the dance look flat. My goal is to keep the audience engaged so that they feel connected to this work. I’m still working out things but what I will say is that this piece continues to get better and better every time we dance it. Also this week I’ve added two new dancers Nikki & Erica. They bring a whole different vibe to this piece that has cultivated a new energy with all of us together. The sisterhood is growing, evolving, and constantly manifesting into something greater. I’m thankful for the support of my mentors, teachers, and dancers. I feel that I have a great responsibility and like I said before I want to make sure I’m focused and that I’m not taking any of this for granted. In closing I still have a lot of work to do but it’s getting done and collectively we’re getting closer and closer to the final product!! I’m EXCITED, NERVOUS , and HUMBLE ALL AT THE SAME TIME...!

First rehearsal back and all I can honestly say is that I feel beyond BLESSED to have this opportunity to be creating my own work here at UCR. My dancers are so very supportive of the work we have been creating together. I feel honored to be leading them through this journey. We all are growing together and it’s beautiful to both witness and be in the safe haven that we’ve cultivated for each other. Coming into rehearsal we got to business right away coming up with a game plan that makes sure the rest of our process together is effective and sufficient in our rehearsal space. In this video I posted you will see us using a music track that will be very similar to how the live music will be played. There is a certain rhythm that stays consistent and it’s important that we always find the 1 (the break) in the rhythm to change, stop, and proceed into he next movement. We spent a lot of time trying to catch the rhythm in the start of the dance because the first couple of movements have to be strong and dynamic. We have to take the time to work on profecting our technique. So with that being said each rehearsal little by little we will take time to drill and practice on building our technique. For our first try at it I can say that it was pretty successful! My girls were FEELING IT and they just went with their gut because this movement is very new to them. Jasmin, Ah’Shirae, and Monica attacked the movements right away with both strength and grace. I could see this deep in the their body movements. They were connected to the music, and you could see this in the video. Also with what we are putting on stage it reads well when that connection between the drummer and the dancer is established and created authentically. Together we genuinely have to get lost in this music by working on our musicality. Leaving rehearsal I felt so full because of how productive we all were in the space. Together we wanted to continue on forever but good must come to an end only to be picked back up at another time to continue. So in other words we are ready and excited for our next rehearsal on Monday. We should be having live drummers so we will see how that goes with our first try with the live music. I know it’s going to be AMAZING!! 😌🙏🏾✨

What Happened Last Quater..?

So last quarter was very very DOPE! I say this because I had so many great rehearsal with my dancers that really grew us and connected us together as a whole. When creating this dance I was really adamant about working collectively with my dances in creating something with them collectively. My vision and their vision just happened to match and we just went on from there. They were really excited when I told him about my background with West-African dance and they were excited to learn more about the culture and the polyrhythmic movement. We also spent a lot of time talking and reflecting on our lives and where we are in current times and how this is affecting us today. We all agreed that we wanted to make a piece that will ultimately touch a life and that has the power to bring forth healing to others. We also talked about using other talents that we possess to also bring this piece to a another dynamic. We spent a lot of time sharing our own movement vocabularies with each other by creating an opening phrase that we turned into a improv structure that will start the beginning of our piece together. We also did some singing and some writting together that will be included in our improv structure. And lastly we created a script together that will be use for our storytelling portion of this dance. So in conclusion, basically last quarter was a lot of togetherness, unity, and shared ideas that got us to where we are in this piece!! I’m really excited for what else is to come!!

How 1st Rehersal Will Go...!

So I was really greatful for the 40min is class that we had on Thursday to come up with material that will prepare us for our 1st rehearsal back from break. In the 40min I went over Sounou movement that will be added into the second part of my dance. I have a lot of Sounou movements that I taught to my dancers last Quater and I have a few more that I would like to add to the variety. So with this being said I would finally like to start crafiting the West-African portion of my dance by organizing the movements that we have already learned. Then I would like to take it a step further to make sure as a hole we understand the technicality of these movements combine together when we add the Sounou rhythm that will be played with the drums. There are certain cues in the music that we will have to listen for and for certain movemts the drums are played in a different way. I feel that by focusing on a technicality of the movements from the beginning will save us a lot of time at the end so I just want to get that up and going ASAP! Also during our first rehersal back I would like to introduce what our costumes will be. I already know what we will be wearing and I’m excited to make this a little arts and craft project as well because we will be creating our own tops and body jewelry to go along with our costumes. 🤩

What Is This Dance...?

My dance is about combining individual #stories of my dancers that somehow connect with each other through our life experiences. My dance is a #reflection of our voices as one. My dance represents #unity, #diversity, and collectively our #passion for dance. This dance combines all of our #voices as one as we speak about how dance has influenced us and how it has touched our lives in a special way. My #dancers and I spent a lot of time opening up to each other when creating the written text that opens this peice. From this we created an improv structure that includes a movement phrase that we created #together when we first started rehearsal. This structure also includes #movement that is heavily influenced by the #African-Aesthetic associate in dance. This movements are set in place to show the #power and strong #dynamic in our dances. Furthermore, this dance will transition into the traditional #West-African dance Sounou. Sounou is a dance that was created for the best dancer in the #tribe name Sounou. She was beautiful dancer that brought joy and love to her #village simply because her #passion for #dance. When I think of my dancers I see Sounou’s #spirit in all of them. The #rhythm Sounou will be played live and we will get #DOWN in the spirit of Sounou! I know I know it’s a lot of elements to this dance. But they connect and that’s the beauty of what this piece will be.