Guerrilla Dance(r)

I am the first and the last, I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin: I am the barren one and many are my daughters.
I am the silence that you cannot understand; I am the utterance of my name.
-Intro to Daughters of the Dust (1993)



Ladies, if you put that in front of everything you say and do; it becomes word.sound.power. You become spirit in flight, ready to conquer all that approaches. You are everything! You are woman. Trust me, put another affirmation with it and whoaaa! Unstoppable!


That's my new(old*) practice! When I say this silently to myself before I dance, I welcome the spirit of those women who embodied that phrase, to come and dance in front, behind, on both sides, and through me. I allow them to lead every step. I also allow myself to touch the masculine within while co-creating power-laced movements, that honor the male energy of those ancients who didn't want to do another buck and shuffle, yet continued for their(our) lives. And for those who also refused to stop moving, despite the threat of death.


To be a guerrilla artist is to live on the edge of all that is and teeter, juggle a few balls in the air, jump on a unicycle and dance on the seat while still moving toward your destination. It's the unexpected!


“Africa is the foundation for what we do, and GDP mixes and remixes dance forms. We are charged with the task of bringing SPIRIT back into our art form. We acknowledge & invite our common, known& unknown ancestors to dance with us, through us and for us. They show up, we show out! We all enjoy spirit-led movement and are elated to bring it to the community. When we come together to create dance, it's magnetic!”



To be a guerrilla dancer is to break with the conventional, create on the fly, give honor to those who share the space and elicit emotion and movement from the unwilling and immobile. The place where we enter, splinter and fragment the known and piece it together through spirit, with the unknown. Irregular, small, independent, "little war" on the dance floor. Off beat, letting the drum guide the movement, accenting the drum(not the other way around), tuning in, turning up and showing out. A participant-vessel in battle for my soul. Once we bring the spirit back into the dance, it cannot be borrowed, stolen, co-opted, misused or abused. We create a sacred space around it. Untouchable!

Through spirit we enter, to spirit we must return.

I AM A GUERRILLA.
GUERRILLA DANCER
I DO THE MOVEMENTS OF THE GUERRILLA DANCERS THAT CAME BEFORE ME.

*I have always asked for ancestral guidance and protection and their presence to guide my feet, my arms my mouth, my words and my body. To move through me, alongside me and encircle me to represent them with what I know, what I don't know and what I/we create in the space we temporarily occupy.

So when you need that extra vibrational lift....ask for assistance.

A woman is never old when it comes to the dance she knows. ~African Proverb

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Daughters of the Dust, movie. 1991. also check out Daughters of the Dust: A Novel, Plume, 1999.

Photo and Video Credits:
1. Mimi Jackson + Video
2. Ernest Evans
3. John Crooms

Watch this space for updates on workshops, classes & performances for Fall 2014.

 I'm on the road!!