Take Back (2023)
Take Back is a choreographic declaration rooted in reclamation, resistance, and celebration. Created in collaboration with student performers, this work embodies the urgent and ongoing act of honoring the origins and cultural depth of Street and Club dance. Take Back centers the powerful refrain: “This is for us, by us.” It is a call to reclaim space, time, culture, and narrative through movement. In this piece, we are taking back time by reconnecting with the foundations of these dance forms and the communities that birthed them. We are taking back the stage by asserting the presence, voices, and stories of dancers who are often marginalized in institutional spaces. We are taking back the culture by dismantling appropriation and reaffirming the sacredness and specificity of these traditions. And we are taking back the power by channeling strength, unity, and authenticity through every groove, gesture, and beat.
The choreography fuses freestyle and set material to reflect both individual voice and collective intention. Students were asked to reflect on their own relationships to the culture, and whether they were dancing from within the lineage or respectfully entering as guests. Through this shared process, the piece became not only a performance, but a conversation: Who is this dance for? How do we hold space for truth, history, and joy all at once?
Take Back at CRĀV The Harvest
CRĀV The Harvest is a network that brings together artists that are building the pedagogy for the continuum of Black American Artistry in higher education. CRĀV The Harvest provides artists, scholars, and marginalized artists with the opportunity to be in residence together to: foster interdisciplinary creative collaborations for stage performance, bring authentic Black American experiences to academic spaces, and build artistic events within local POC communities.
CRĀV The Harvest’s inaugural conference at Five College Dance features Hip-Hop scholar and practitioner Rennie Harris in a festival of events: a masterclass, 2 showcases, an artist talk, and lecture.
More information: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/special-event-crav-harvest
“We saw pretty much 50 years of Street Dance just in that one performance” ~Rennie Harris CRĀV The Harvest Showcase Talkback
