West African Dance

media release: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Department and Professor Chris Walker are delighted to present Moonshine, Friday, February 24, 2023, at 3:30 p.m. in the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall. This free event is a celebration of Black History Month, with live music, contemporary theater and dance performances that includes West African, Afro-Caribbean, and Hip-Hop dance forms. (More on the program below.)

In an effort to expand opportunities for campus and community members to engage with Black art and recognize its contributions to American culture during Black History Month, the Dance Department will offer free dance classes the week of February 20, which are open to the public.

Free Dance Classes at Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Avenue, Madison, WI

MON FEB 20: African/Caribbean Dance with Kevin Ormsby, 3:30-4:10 p.m. and 4:25-5:15 p.m., B101 Lathrop Hall

WED FEB 22: West African Dance with Amansu Eason, 3:30-4:10 p.m. and 4:25-5:15 p.m.: B101 Lathrop Hall

THU FEB 23: The Elements of Vogue Masterclass with Leo Luv D’Mor from the House of Garçon, 5:00-6:30 p.m., B101 Lathrop Hall

FRI FEB 24: Hip Hop, Unlocking Your Superpowers with Papa Kobino, 5:00-6:00 p.m., 349 Lathrop Hall  

This year’s Moonshine performance will feature Manifesting Destiny: A 3/5 Proclamation, a work by guest artist Charles O. Anderson, chair of The Ohio State University Department of Dance, who reset this work on UW-Madison Dance students for performance in the Dance Department’s Faculty Concert 2023. An excerpt from Fences, directed by Professor Baron Kelly, of the UW-Madison Department of Theater and Drama, performed by Micah Anderson will be on the program as well as a performance from Porsha Olayiwola, Division of the Arts artist in residence.

Toronto-based artist Kevin Ormsby, artistic director of KasheDance, will perform a solo choreographed by Joel Valentín-Martínez, associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts. The work titled Dear Brother attempts to expand visions for contemporary dance-theater, shifting the relationship of black cultural expression from periphery to the center of their stories and histories. Ormsby will be on campus for the week, rehearsing for Trilogy of Being, a solo concert featuring three choreographers including Chris Walker. In addition to performing in Moonshine, Ormsby will teach dance classes during the week. 

Professor Chris Walker will present a solo excerpt of his work The Burning Barn featuring poetry written and performed by First Wave scholar Azura Tyabji and dance performed by UW-Madison Dance degree candidate Cleo Decker. Walker will also present his work Troubled Water performed by Janae Adams, Cleo Decker and Cindy Stefanek (Dance degree students), with music performed by Heavyn Dyer-Jones (School of Music degree candidate), and Banana Man which will be performed by Amansu Eason and Chris Walker. 

The program also includes a performance artwork of Danez Smith’s poem, Genessissy, choreographed by Chris Walker and danced by Pierre Clarke.  There will be additional performances by Alpha Stokes of The First Wave Touring Ensemble and the First Wave 15th cohort.  

ABOUT CHRIS WALKER

Chris Walker is a multi-hyphenate contemporary dance and performance artist, a UW-Madison professor of dance, the founding artistic director of the First Wave program in the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, and the current director of the Division of the Arts. His research is rooted in “resistance aesthetics” and draws upon the danced rituals, mas traditions, and embodied performance history of the African diaspora. Walker is also the co-artistic director for the #BARS Workshop at The Public Theatre in NYC, a lab series for artists to investigate the intersection between contemporary verse and theater, created by Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs. He is a senior choreographer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, and program director for the New Waves Dance & Performance Institute in Trinidad & Tobago. Walker has served as movement director for two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s Mlima’s Tale, which ran at the Public’s Martinson Hall and he was the choreographer for The Secret Life of Bees, The Musical produced by Atlantic Theatre in NYC. Walker has collaborated with Laura Anderson Barbata to develop Jus Luv/Rolling Calf, a Jamaican ‘mas,’ for her "Intervention: Indigo" project, a performance that was presented in the 2015 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Brooklyn, NY. Walker's concert dance work has been presented in Europe, Asia and throughout the Americas. He has received numerous international and national grants and honors for his creative research. In 2020 he was named one of the School of Education’s Impact 2030 Faculty Fellows. Funds from the fellowship have been used to co-produce “Eat Little & Live Long” with Makeda Thomas Brooklyn, NY, and to produce his recent work "Rent-a-Tile" which premiered in Canada. He is currently finishing a film project titled "We Are Rough Drafts" that documents the creation of his work "Rough Drafts," which includes interviews with his collaborators and members of the audience who experienced the work at the 60th Anniversary of the National Dance Theater Company of Jamaica. This month, Walker will give the keynote address at the 16th Annual Reading Festival presented by the Louise Bennett-Coverley Heritage Council. He was also selected by the Jamaica Dance Umbrella organizing committee to be honored in March at the annual Philip Sherlock International Arts Festival for his contribution to dance and representation of Jamaican dance at home and in the diaspora.  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Moonshine is produced by the UW-Madison Dance Department and made possible with support from the Anonymous Fund, the Division of the Arts, the Office of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement, Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, and the Black Cultural Center.