GET TO THE ROOT
Imagining and Building Anti-Racist Dance Spaces
DATE | Wednesday, August 26, 2020
TIME | 6:30-8:30PM EST
PLATFORM | ZOOM
This week, we hold space for a conversation focused on recognizing and uprooting white supremacy and institutional racism in our community and building actively anti-racist strategies. This space is one of many conversations happening in communities across the US and abroad, and is, in itself, in conversation with these other spaces. This space is also not a beginning, it is a continuation of anti-racist and liberation work that has happened through space and time for centuries, but if it’s a beginning for you: Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.
This forum centers anti-racist work in dance and art-making in Southeast Michigan. This forum also features a moderated panel discussion. We have, intentionally, invited artists who are creating, organizing, and educating with anti-racism at the forefront of their work. From here we will collectively imagine, plan, and build toward a dance space that is truly reflective of each of us.
—
PANELIST
Karilú Alarcón Forshee
Karilú Alarcón Forshee was raised in Juárez , México . She is an interdisciplinary artist who finds joy creating performances that blend experimental theatre and music; she finds profound inspiration in her roots, and the women in her family. She has been a Detroit based performer and teaching artist since 2011 and a member of the theater company A Host of People since 2013. Karilú currently works as a teaching artist for Living Arts Detroit, University Musical Society and Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit and recently became a Detroit Kresge Arts Fellow
Dominic Mitchell
Dominic Mitchell has trained and studied at Wayne State University, receiving his bachelor of science in dance. He has trained with many artists/companies nationally and internationally for over eight years. Some of these include Bakalama Dance of Senegal and Deeply Rooted Dance Company. His dance training is rooted in African Diaspora dance, classical modern, and more contemporary movement approaches. He is currently studying the philosophy, pedagogy, and theories of Katherine Dunham, in the process of receiving the Katherine Dunham teaching certification. He continues to establish a wholesome approach to dance education that emphasizes cross-cultural communication. He serves as a founding administrator and leader for Rootead Enrichment Center in Kalamazoo, MI. Rootead reclaims the village through community liberation by holding space for internal transformation, healing/cultural arts and birthing justice.
Clare Croft
Clare Croft is a dance theorist and historian, and sometimes a dramaturg and curator. She is the author of Dancers as Diplomats: American Choreography in Cultural Exchange (Oxford 2015); the editor and curator of the anthology and website, Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings (Oxford 2017); and the producing curator of the EXPLODE queer dance festival. She is currently at work on a book about dance critic and lesbian feminist activist, Jill Johnston. Croft is the founder and curator of Daring Dances, a program based in southeastern Michigan that considers how watching dance and making dance can lead us into necessary, difficult conversations. Croft is Associate Professor of Dance & American Culture at the University of Michigan.
Penny Godboldo
Penny Godboldo is a 2018 Kresge Artist Fellow, Dunham Technique teacher at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for dance majors; Board Member of the Institute for Dunham Technique Certification (IDTC), former Demonstrator for Katherine Dunham is a certified Dunham teacher since 1993. Godboldo travels nationally and internationally teaching --most recently in Israel Dec ’18). Godboldo teaches workshops monthly at Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance in Brooklyn, N.Y.
A native Detroiter and Director of both the Detroit Legacy Project and the Penny Godboldo Institute, she also engages in using the arts for social justice and established the annual Maryanne Godboldo Forum for Parental Rights in memory of her sister, also a professional dancer. She offers arts programming for disabled students in partnership with Chi Amen Ra for VSAM (Very Special Arts Michigan) in Detroit Public Schools. She is a part of an African American woman’s dance collective, The Gathering. Summer ’19 she offered the Sofrito Project with Living Arts –a group of Latin American youth with NEA funding. Retired Chair of Dance at Marygrove College and a Minister at Hartford Church, she is living her best life teaching intergenerationally in Love, offering dance as a vehicle for self-examination, healing, change and the pursuit of JOY!
—
FORUM OUTLINE
Welcome
Community Check-In
The Importance of Language
A moment to ground us in the language and terms that may come up in the discussion of racism and anti-racist work in the arts community.
Moderated Panel Discussion
Reflections and questions from forum audience/participants
Group Reflection and Check-Out
—
DONATIONS WELCOME FOR THIS PROGRAM
Thank you so much for your interest and attendance in this event. Please note that we do not require donation to ensure participation.
If you wish to support this Dance Forum program and many others by CSD, please consider donating through Cashapp ($collectivesweat) or Venmo (@collectivesweatdetroit).
We are still raising matching funds for our Knight Arts Challenge grant and you can read more about it and make a direct donation here. // https://www.collectivesweatdetroit.org/support
Thank you for your continued community support.