​Introduction
I was grateful to watch the live streamed event that took place in Barnett Theatre in Sullivan Hall on the campus of The Ohio State University on February 17th where the couple Orlando Hunter-Valentine and Ricarrdo Hunter-Valentine are 3rd year students in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Dance Program. I guess I’m late to the party but is this a thing? Are MFA thesis concerts live streamed now? I guess when you have celebrity status and you’re “the 2020 Bessies Honoree…” (https://www.bhooddance.com/new-page-82) they are! 
 
Though I would have loved to see the show live and participate in the interactive experience, I was happy to sit in the comfort of my home, in my pajamas watching the performance being streamed on YouTube. I hear that there was going to be some of Orlando's ‘“Fierce Love Fried Corn”…[served pre show and that there was also a] digitally led ‘Ekonkon’ dance which originates from the Jola people of Senegal and is associated with harvest time…” (Burt 2024) taking place. 
 
The Hunter-Valentine collaboration offers a lot of firsts (can’t get into it here) but let’s start with the term that they coined “D.A.T.”. “D.A.T is an intersectional praxis that embodies stories about the earth through the African diasporic movement, transferring embodied agriculture knowledge and generating innovative, technologically immersive environments” (Hunter and Valentine 2023).  Simply, the work addresses Black farmers life experiences through dance, agriculture, and technology (D.A.T.). “Black on Earth” centers the stories of Black famers and educates the viewer on the challenges that they endure ranging from racism, lack of access, gender politics, and a host of other inequities. The project also builds off their experiences with dance and agriculture as residents in New York City “Thinking of the ways that Black people have created resilience and sustained ourselves through farming and agricultural practices…” (Burt 2024).
 
The Hunter-Valentine's embark on this journey of storytelling through interdisciplinary arts which features dance, theater, photography, singing, sculpture, agriculture, music and ecomemory which is  “collective and individual memory of the earth and relationship to and with the earth” (Harris 2021, 28). This concept is based within ecowomanism which is a framework “…that signals the importance of developing an interdisciplinary approach and method to doing environmental justice work” (Harris 2021, 9). This is the philosophy which grounds their work.
 
The Dance
As audience members entered the space physically or virtually, we witnessed a man seated next to a steel bucket stage right, dressed in white, flailing his hands. The draping white sleeves of his shirt offered various interpretations. Was he cleansing the space, fanning himself, or conjuring the ancestors? He wore a cross body bag. Is he going to plant seeds? He engages with the bucket reaching in to touch the water. There is also reverence, spirituality, and worship. The sounds of roosters, cows, birds chirping, and various other animals on a farm along with distorted and echoing sounds of water creating melodies permeating the space. This is evidence of the collaboration with haptic and immersive audio design technician Jessica Rajko.
 
The ancestor/mediator/interlocutor is cued. He departs, and the ensemble enters dressed for the fields with their own buckets, forming a diagonal line from upstage right to downstage left. Two dancers are holding a sculpture of a tree limb that hovers over them like a hut. The ensemble begins a dialogue of thanks, “thank you for these tools.” Then they begin a call and response singing “thank you for these hands, these healing hands.”
 
Interspersed between the movement are very poignant excerpts of interviews projected on the screen of the various farmers that were interviewed. There were also monologues performed by the dancers addressing pertinent themes. Some of the text sound is distorted and I struggled to hear what the interviewees and the dancers were saying. I am sure this was a streaming/technical issue; it did not take away from the performance.
 
Images used in the work were taken by Ricardo and are just as intricate and vital to the piece. He captures distortions and abstractions of the fields and farms. Rich shades of greens and blues morph into various designs that mimic stencil art designs, sometimes reminding me of 70’s psychedelic art.
 
The movement vocabulary included gestures of sowing and planting; the most familiar image was the visual of the dancers holding the buckets on their heads which is a familiar image in marketplaces and rural towns and countries in the African Diaspora. There was a very clear demonstration of various movement techniques and aesthetics such as ‘Yorchha*,’ ‘Ekonkon**’ dance, “Chiwara***, Mayí****, …amongst others, as motifs through lining ancestral agricultural wisdom held in the body” (Hunter and Valentine 2023), Black social dance and Western contemporary.
 
Use of space by the ensemble is vital, providing texture to the already lush work, this includes travelling patterns, diagonal lines, and seamless transitions. The movement vocabulary was emblematic of the powerful themes being addressed and their bodies accepted the challenge. We observed fighting/protesting; connection/support/community; playfulness; struggle; fusion of dance forms, and deconstruction of such forms. The vocalization, monologue’s, interviews, and sound scape offered a whirlwind of emotions. There were moments of loss, crisis, happiness, sadness, calm, intensity, reflection, searching, and clarity. Orlando’s shout of FREEDOM was a reminder of our ancestors and their never-ending philosophy that no matter what the hardship, we shall overcome or that “Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning*****.” 
 
The end of the work demonstrates this analogy. As the dancers move through the space, the image on the screen is bright displaying luxurious and plush greenery. This is the first time I can see the image clearly. There is excitement in their bodies as well as in the chanting and singing. I hear them say “nourishment” and “healing” as they circle the parameter of the stage. They make several rotations. Their arms reach up to the heavens as if they are picking fruit. Are they celebrating a harvest? Are they reaping the fruits of their labor (physical, emotional, and psychological)? The ancestor/mediator/interlocutor enters the group, participating in the round. As the dancers exit the stage one by one, the lights dim and an image of an opulent apple tree emerges, bearing sumptuous fruit beaming in the spotlight. He reaches upward towards the fruit, picks one, sits on the floor, and bites into it. I surmise that visual articulates that at the end, regardless of everything we endure, we can still bear fruit. 

DAT (D.A.T.) WUZ FRIGGIN' FABULOUS!!

End Notes
* This dance form contains elements of classical Odissi, vinyasa yoga, the eastern Indian martial art form Chhau and new movements which bring these forms into a modern, activist setting” (https://themacweekly.com/76632/arts/ananya-dance-theatre-performing-decolonized-contemporary-dance/)
 
**‘Ekonkon’ dance: “The Ekon Kon portrays growing food from the Jola tribe of Southern Senegal. The Ekon Kon dance includes common aspects of Africanist aesthetics, and the Jola people embedded the wisdom of planting to harvest within the dance” (Hunter and Valentine 2023, 5).
 
*** Dance from Mali
**** Agricultural dance from Haiti
*****Psalm 30:5
 
There was post performance discussion facilitated by Dr. Mary Rodriguez where they audience was asked to share “what this dance meant to. What did you feel? What did it bring to you?”
 
Choreography by Orlando and Ricarrdo Hunter-Valentine in collaboration with the dancers: Kenneth Eaddy, Isaiah Harris, A .Raheim White, and Kierra ‘Kiki’ Williams
 
Photographer: Ky Smiley
 
References
Burt, Rosel. 2024. “Black on Earth” Interactive MFA Performance Combines Dance, Agriculture, Technology, and More.” The Lantern. https://www.thelantern.com/2024/02/black-on-earth-interactive-mfa-performance-combines-dance-agriculture-technology-and-more/
 
Harris, Melanie L. 2017. “Ecowomanism 101: Method and Approaches.” Essay in Ecowomanism: Earth-Honoring Faiths and African American Women, 13-59. Orbis. 
 
Hunter Jr., Orlando Zane and Ricarrdo Valentine. 2023. “Black on Earth.” Master’s Thesis. The Ohio State University. 
 

​Drum Tao 30th Anniversary Review
 
On Sunday, February 18th I had the pleasure of witnessing Drum Tao perform at Wells Hall at the Parker in Fort Lauderdale. The company was stablished in 1993 and are based in Oita, Japan. This performance was glorious, divine, and superb! It features the taiko drums and the “beautiful melody of the Japanese Shinobue (flute), Koto (harp), and Syamisen (guitar)” (https://drum-tao.com/en/index.php/about/) and something similar to hand symbols. There was dance, music, martial arts, comedy, singing, and theater. I felt like I was at a rock concert and a musical. The ensemble of 11 artists are storytellers, engaging the audience through visually and aurally stimulating displays of artistry and evocative technical prowess (movement and music). 
 
The set design, lights, and props that included sticks (short and long) which they twirled like other worldly machines. I mean these long sticks where massive, and they spun them effortlessly. There were fans, umbrellas, a spinning silver cube, and let’s not forget the use of skirts/dresses. They wore fluted skirts with shiny silver armlets, fitted tops (leotard cutouts), with black tights and they moved (bodies and skirts). 
 
The movement was FULL. They beat the drums with so much power and force. The visual of the percussionist beating the drum and seeing the rapid action of the stick was cinematic. Then there was the balancing and turning with the drum like they were in a duet with a submissive partner. The movement was “choreographed precision and dynamics” that featured slaps to the floor, big jumps, summersaults/acro, and intricate floor patterns. Some sections were like watching a martial arts movie with those amazingly choreographed fight scenes.
 
There was fighting and dancing with each other and the drums. The movement was internal with lots of looking down and on the floor. And my goodness the ways they lifted those big drums up and down—nothing but core and upper body strength. They used their entire body to beat the drum. The POWER…
 
Some of my favorite moments was the section where the men were seated on the floor, playing the drum. Their backs were arched, sternums lifted to the ceiling, contracting, and releasing honoring Mutha Martha. That bottom sound penetrated my pelvis, my insides vibrated, increasing in speed and power. It was a climatic rush. The sound was hypnotic and mesmerizing, transposing me to another atmosphere.   
 
The second moment was the beautiful solo performed by a man that danced with a white fabric. It was a duet with him and the fabric. The fabric was an anthropomorphic representation of sensuality, playfulness, and tenderness. 
 
The transitions were seamless, sliding the drums in and out, up, and downstage.
 
Connections
This performance reminded me of my MFA thesis concert where I choreographed “Dig Deep.” I used the artist KODO which is a taiko drumming group from Sado Island in Japan. I am definitely resurrecting this work and restaging it (soon). 
 
I saw a connection to African drumming and dancing. I felt and heard the polyrhythm. My body was doing manjani (from Guinea and Mali in West Africa) in the seat to some of these rhythms. I was also reminded of the dundun dance from Guinea, West Africa as I watched the Japanese percussionist engage with the drums.  I saw call and response and elements of the cypher as they transitioned in and out of the center/circle. 
 
I couldn’t get any good pictures because the ushers were in full force policing. It was like you were at a Baptist church and talking while the pastor was preachin’. Bay bay! They were not playin’. Drum Tao will be back in two years and so will I!

​

​On Saturday, October 28, 2023, I attended Program 1 of the curated performances of COCO Dance Festival 2023 in Trinidad and Tobago. The evening began with a pre-show performance titled “How We Danced Our Way Back Home” (Nigeria and T&T, 2023) choreographed by Amir Denzel Hall and Ayodamola Okunseinde and performed by PACCINO. The performance took place outside in the courtyard area with the beautiful backdrop of the city lights and buildings. 
 
As Kieron Sargeant and I entered the theater, it took several minutes for us to be seated in the “dance writer/reviewer” area as it seemed no one knew who I was—what a travesty! We were finally seated upstairs in the center section—the seats were decent. After viewing the program, I realized that this was a very full show with 14 pieces. There is absolutely no way to feature every piece in its entirety for this review so, I will write about the works that stood out to me (for various reasons) and I must share beautiful images of each piece featuring the amazing dancers and choreographers that were captured by Karen Johnstone’s Motiontography.
 
ACT 1 opened with a dance film titled “The Color of Transformation” (UK, 2022) choreographed by Ming, Oluwatosin Omotosho and Carolyn Bolton. This work was a celebration of Black women, centered around nature/mother nature, and offered food for thought through the evocative text which stated, “futures unprepared,” “stay small seems like abuse,” “expand yourself,” “I am the color of transformation,” ““You are nature, nature is you” and other powerful nuggets. The women danced to a reggae beat with strength and groundedness. Their bodies undulated demonstrating a clear articulation of the spine. There were high knees, representations of Yemaya, and a movement vocabulary that was rich. The dancing women dressed in black, juxtaposed with the image of the woman in blue, the diety Yemaya was just gorgeous.
 
I have questions concerning the protocol for late arrivals. A whole crew of audience members came sauntering in after the dance film finished which delayed the start of Terminè (USA, 2021) choreographed by Amanda McCorkle.

Tamisha Guy performed “Signals” (USA, 1970), a Merce Cunningham (staged by Jean Freebury) work. Ms. Guy embodied that technique YOU HEAR ME? She began the piece seated in a chair wearing a black top and rust bottom/pants. The stark stage was the perfect canvas to view this phenom execute this work. “All eyes on me” was the unspoken rule. She captivated the audience as she worked in minimalism and counterpoint, effortlessly holding beautiful extensions in a la secondè and arabesque positions. As the dance progressed, I got very anxious, and then just like that, I felt relief when the piece ended.

The second dance film featured was “Ausencia (Absence)”, conceived and performed by Jaruam Xavier. Some late audience members were let in mid performance (why?). People were talking, chatting, and laughing during the performance, so things were missed.  It would have been great to have a talk back so that audience could express their thoughts on areas of the work that may not have been clear. 
 
LaKeisha Johnson’s “4 Women” (USA, 2020), a.k.a Nina Simone’s “Strange Fruit” was interesting. This song is quite profound and recognizable and has been choreographed by many people. I was curious to see what Johnson was going to do with it. The women are exceptionally strong individually, I mean legs, power, strength, and explosiveness but as a collective, I was surprised that these elements weren’t demonstrated as an ensemble. 
 
Dust to Dust: The Final Hour (T&T, 2023) choregraphed by Bridgette Wilson was very reminiscent of the conservatory program that I was enrolled in for undergrad (briefly). The dancers wore light colored unitards with their hair pulled back. The movement is grounded in Graham and Horton technique, and they executed the movements beautifully, fiercely performing motifs of pain/openness, surrender/searching and anguish/redemption.

Un/Bound (USA 2022) choreographed by Daniel Garcia closed ACT 1. During intermission the audience viewed “Since Though Wast Precious In My Sight (USA, 2014), choreographed by Danielle Russo in the lobby downstairs. This contact improvisation was a full-bodied masterpiece of chaos and calm.  

ACT 2 was fast moving full of energy, excitement, cultural politics, and fusion forms representing some of Trinidad’s premier dance companies. “I Was Walking” (Two Excerpts) (T&T, 2023) choreographed by Dave Williams began with the dancers interacting with each other and connecting with square boxes offering support and connection.  The image on the scrim was unclear and dark throughout the entire first section. When the section ended, the image became clearer the audience let out a collective “ah.” There was a sense of familiarity as the image on the scrim was revealed, showcasing beautiful locs. During the piece there was a heaviness/sadness. The dancers touched, embraced, and caressed their hair. The personal was political as it was later revealed that the piece addressed an issue pertaining to students being punished for their wearing their hair loc’d as school. I would have liked to see a smoother transition into the second work which would offer a sense of cohesiveness from one piece to another. 
​
Hana Delong performed “Journey Unknown” (USA, 2023). This beautiful Black woman devoured the stage. Sis ate and left no crumbs. She mesmerized the audience with her virtuosity, pristine technical prowess, and the articulation of her body, arms, feet, and chest. It was scrumptious. Delong carved space like an artisan sculpting a prized artifact. This piece was a contemporary, urban funk fusion that was liquid gold. 
 
“Reciprocal” (Excerpt/USA, 2022) choregraphed by Katie Gutmann made the audience gasp when the dance film began, I guess they were like “oh no not another dance film!” The video mirrored the duet of the dancers. The movement was Cunningham-esque which was inclusive of points in space, directional changes, reaching, and pointing. The male dancer reminds me of David Dorfman in the ways that he uses his body. 
 
“Inside Out—A Journey Not Finished” (T&T, 2023) choreographed by Shakeil Jones was a fusion of modern and Caribbean styles with great use of space and creative variations and juxtaposition of movement and timing.
 
Mariposa De Papel (USA, 2023) choreographed by Eloy Barragan is another political work. In my interview with Barragan, he stated that this work is an excerpt of a larger work that he set on a company in Mexico.  He revealed that in Mexico, young women and girls bind their chest so that they won’t be captured, and the piece is exploring this. The piece is about transformation which explains the butterfly metaphor which is demonstrated when the dancer unwraps herself in fabric as she enters the stage. The dancer beautifully translates this tragic issue with her flawless artistry. 
 
The last two pieces of the evening Faderles (T&T, 2023) choreographed by Matthew “UGK_Matt” McClean and HER! (T&T, 2023), choreographed by Zidane Roopnarine were FANTASTIC fusion forms that included Classical Indian, African, Jazz, Hip Hop, and Ballet. The Faderless piece included 7 dancers. They offered a very funky and cultural version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone.” The red back drop complimented their fiery movement. The dancers were young but oh so strong and fierce!
 
HER! (T&T, 2023) was the perfect ending to the fabulous evening of dance. This work was more traditional in terms classical Indian movement and also their costume which featured bright yellow, orange, pink, and fuchsia colors. The 6 dancers served a Baratynatyam/Mohiniyattam fusion that was unmatched. The hips circled and swayed. The transitions were seamless and the choreography was engaging. The articulation of the arms and feet were immaculate. I appreciated the choices made in terms of spatial patterns, which added to the ebb and flow of the movement. The high energy, deep expressions and ferocity of the choreography and execution of the movement captivated the viewer. MORE PLEASE! 
 
Images

1. Faderles
2. How We Danced Our Way Back Home
3. Terminè
4. Signals
5. Dust to Dust
6. 4 Women
7. Her!
8. Mariposa De Papel