photo credit: Johanna Austin
by Gregory King for The Dance Journal
With bent knees, backs parallel to the floor, hands akimbo, and elbows as wings, the artists in “Native Portal” took a stand. As their torsos twisted, their elbows alternated between pointing to the heavens and jutting towards the ground. They woke the earth Gods by stomping their feet – the ancestors … no longer resting. These images represented the downtrodden, oppressed, and the defeated. But these were not just dance positions, they were stories of lives lived.
On a mission to promote dialogue in pursuit of peace while encouraging diversity, Intercultural Journeys has a thirteen – year history bridging cultures through music, dance, spoken words, and other art forms. In a pre-talk oration, Intercultural Journeys curator and musician Alex Shaw, admitted that although the organization’s mission is to produce multiple disciplines, Lela Aisha Jones’ “Native Portals” was their first time presenting dance.
Having seen excerpts of “Portals”, I was prepared for the stories of transformation and restoration; stories told through moving bodies, accompanied by the edgy, vocal styling of singer Keisha Hutchins and opulent musicianship of saxophonist Nasir Dickerson and percussionist Jeffrey Johnson.
Jones along with other performing artists Amanda Edwards, Saroya Corbett, Peaches Jones, and Oiya Lowe, physicalized their social obligations by advocating for change – dancing for themselves but also for marginalized communities plagued by discrimination, intimidation, and tyranny.
Done in two acts, the first act of “Portals” was titled Lynching & Love (2012). As the performers entered the stage carrying baskets, I tried to inhale all the entire stage but the hanging noose grabbed and held my attention. It hung adjacent to the American flag, reminding us of the tainted history that still haunts us. The performers moved through positions of kneeling, walking, and stomping, using their bodies as story telling instruments. The hanging noose was central as the dancers approached the knotted rope, brushing it with their faces. Jones orbited the noose, meandering through the space to the recorded story of a woman being lynched. She touched her chest then her face, before touching the floor while we listened to the story that was not easy to hear.
Hearing recorded stories of lynching and watching the hanging noose dangling center stage, was uncomfortable. But I appreciated Jones’ courage for unapologetically tackling the subject of race in America with vivid images and provocative texts. I secretly hoped that my discomfort was shared with those around me, and that the discomfort was questioned, pushing us towards social change.
The second act titled Release Mourning Clearing, had very little direct connection to the first. Although I struggled to connect both sections, the movement vocabulary provided all the information I needed to anchor myself in the narratives of “Portals”. The dancers trembled vigorously, performing what appeared to be a version of the Yanvalou – a ritual dance originating in Benin to honor the spirits. Periodically the dancers fell to the floor before shooting forward. Sometimes they lingered in still positions, always using their bodies as vessels of survival and hope.
In an article by Janet Eigner, scenic designer for Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company, Bjorn Amelan said, “one of the great hallmarks of art is that the work opens a relevancy that transcends boundaries.”
By using practices of the African diaspora in the forms of dance, text, and live music, the performers illuminated black experiences of activism, compromise, and resurgence. They told stories of history, oppression, protest, hope, anger, acceptance, community, and so much more.
As a choreographer, his works have been commissioned by Transformer Station (Cleveland, OH), Georgian Court University (Lakewood, NY), Texas Ballet Theatre School (Dallas, TX), Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), The Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology 16th Biennial Symposium (New London, CT), Current Sessions (New York, NY), and SPACES Gallery (Cleveland, OH), and presented at Dixon Place (New York, NY), The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), and Playhouse Square (Cleveland, OH).
He has taught master classes, lectures, and workshops nationally and internationally. He has served as dance faculty for Texas Ballet Theatre and Boston Ballet, as well as visiting assistant professor of dance at Temple University, and Swarthmore College.
King is a dance writer for The Dance Enthusiast, ThINKingDANCE, The Philadelphia Dance Journal, CHOICE Review, and Broad Street Review. Mr. King’s response to the Dancing for Justice Philadelphia event, was published in Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies and cited in the U. S. Department of Arts and Culture’s 2016 resource guide, Art Became the Oxygen. In 2020 King was awarded a See Chicago Dance Critical Writing Fellowship and was invited to present his research at The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
In addition to having served on the dance review board for the National Endowment for the Arts, King was nominated for a Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio and was recently appointed to the Board of OhioDance. He was the 2018 recipient of the Outstanding Creative Contribution award from the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Kent State University, and served as Provost Faculty Associate for the academic year 2019- 2020. Mr. King is a tenure track professor of dance at Kent State where he serves as the artistic director of the Kent Dance Ensemble.
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