Join us on this multi-sensory journey through time, space, generations, and dimensions! This multi-disciplinary dance work-in-progress examines everyday items in our lives that serve as portals to oscillating between black past, present and the Afro-future.
Using her Sankofic praxis – process inspired by the Ghaian Akan term of looking back in order to understand how to intentionally move forward – Kendra J. Ross delves into individual and communal experiences of items that transport us across generations.
Inspired by a range of portals like candy, water, and bags audiences will take a site-informed journey as we collectively uncover our traditions as fuel to navigate our current societal conditions and plan for what’s next.
Come experience and share this collectively created Black Time Capsule we will form with movement, text, and dialogue.
About the Artists – Kendra J. Ross
Kendra J. Ross is a proud Detroit native working as a dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, facilitator and community organizer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As a dancer in New York City, Kendra has worked with Urban Bush Women, Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks, Ase Dance Theater Collective, Monstah Black/ Motion Sickness, MBDance, Moving Spirits Dance Company, RAKIA!, Melanie Green, Movement of the People Dance Company and as a guest artist with Oyu Oro. Kendra completed a European tour dancing with Adira Amram and DJ Kid Koala in Vinyl Vaudeville 2.0 and performed with Gyptian at the MTV Iggy awards. Kendra’s choreographic work has been presented at Florida A&M University, the off-Broadway show 7 Sins, Museu de Arte in Salvador, Brazil, Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theater, and Actors Fund Theater. She has been an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Bates College, and The Neighborhood Project through 651 ARTS, a BAX Space Grantee, and a Visiting Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts. She was recently the 2022 BedStuy Artist in Residence at The Laundromat Project. She is currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Kendra is a teaching artist at Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance and a certified Pilates instructor. Along with sharing her art world-wide, Kendra serves as the Founder/Director of STooPS, an outdoors-based community building event that uses art as a catalyst to strengthen ties between different entities in Bed-Stuy and as a Facilitator with UBW’s BOLD (Builders, Organizers, and Leaders Through Dance) network. www.thekendrajross.com
Dani Criss
Affectionately known as Dani Criss, The Artist; a multidisciplinary artist, artistic educator, and community organizer hailing from Durham, North Carolina, now based in Brooklyn, NY. Leading with a passionate perspective driven by her roots and studies of the African Diaspora, as well as the advancement of her people everywhere. Educating through the principles of the Diaspora, inspiring an appreciation, acceptance, and historical experience in each interaction; Using movement and knowledge as the source to obtain liberation while discovering ancestral connections within the liberative practices. An artistic educator in primary and higher education in New York, NY and surrounding areas including NYC Public Schools, Nassau Community College, Mark Morris Dance Center, and several arts organizations around the city. Check out www.danicriss.com for more information.
Candace Thompson-Zachery
Candace Thompson-Zachery, based in Brooklyn and originally from Trinidad and Tobago, is a dancer, choreographer and cultural producer, with a vested interest in Caribbean dance and culture. She is the founder of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, an initiative that supports and presents Caribbean dance performance in NYC and produces her own choreographic work through the project ContempoCaribe. She is a graduate of the Performance Curation program at ICPP at Wesleyan University and currently works in arts leadership and administration.
Asma Feyijinmi
Asma Feyijinmi is a Brooklyn born and raised artist who particularly savors facilitating community building. Movement and percussion are her vehicles to explore social justice, history and language. She has worked as a teaching artist with many arts and education programs thoughout the five boroughs including: UBW’s BOLD, Lincoln Center, The Morris Jumel Mansion and DreamYard Project. In November of 2018, she joined The Park Avenue Armory Teaching Artist Corps.
Her career as a performer has included working with: Urban Bush Women, Edwina Lee Tyler and A Piece of The World, Forces of Nature, LadyGourd Sangoma and Obba Babatunde. She also performed in The Love Project with dancers from 2 to 80 years of age, directed and choreographed by Penelope McCourty. She can be found as the lead actress in: A Powerful Thang by filmmaker Zeinabu Davis and contributed to the soundtrack of Ms. Davis’s film Compensation. Asma has also been a muse for artists: Harvey Dinnerstein, Quimetta Perle and George Staempfli.