Genesis (2022)
Genesis premiered with my newly formed project based company Kia the Key & Company, which began with nine incredible professional dancers I hand selected to join me on this journey. Each dancer brought their unique experiences and training in various Street and Club styles, helping to shape and elevate my choreographic vision. The process of building a small but powerful community of dancers was deeply fulfilling, and it revealed more about ourselves and our individual capacities through connecting with each other and movement. Genesis centered Hip-Hop and other Street Dance forms as a pathway to build knowledge, understanding, and love. This work embodied my artistic values of collaboration and community, offering space for possibilities through embodied connection.
Street and Club Dance give a voice to Black, marginalized communities dealing with social, political and economic oppression. Since enslavement, music and dance has been a positive outlet that carried us through trauma and daily struggle. Many lives are saved through this platform where dancers can express themselves and connect with each other. This is a strengthening ritual. This is our lived experience. This is our identity.
Poem shared during the performance:
Street dance is a way of life
We move to survive
The rhythm is our heartbeat
The drum is our heartbeat
The movement heals
It allows us to express our uniqueness,
To tell our own stories
This isn’t just a dance,
It’s survival of the realest
Written collaboratively by Shakia Barron and Amisi Nazaire-Hicks Read by Amisi Nazaire-Hicks
Collaborators: Soukeyna Abbott, Miranda Lawson, Sarah Maurer, Amisi Nazaire-Hicks (not pictured), Nate Odell, Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone, Angelica Polk, Allana Scudder, Jesmyda Viyano
Summer Festival and Intensive at The School for Contemporary Dance & Thought (SCDT): August 1st-August 5th, 2022
During this summer intensive, I was joined by my collaborators on my newest work, Genesis, created for my project-based dance company, Kia the Key & Company. This intensive offered an exciting opportunity to train with this incredible group of artists all in one place, as we each shared our unique approaches and backgrounds while teaching various Street Dance styles. Overview of summer intensive here
Genesis Showing at SCDT: August 6th, 2022
