2018-19

The Guest House. This new work was researched in part by studying the Bhava Chakra, or the Tibetan Wheel of Becoming, an iconic visual representation of the Buddhist notion of suffering and the process through which we end that suffering. Our main text and constant guide was “Eastern Body/ Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self” by Anodea Judith. Our weekly readings became points of reference and exploration for movement improvisations, text development, projections and film creations, meditations and musical scoring. The Cave Allegory from Plato’s Republic helped us look into notions of illusion and reality to build the overarching concept for the set and costume designs. The piece progressed through seven scenes built in accordance to how the seven chakras ascend upwards from the root earth-based seated pelvis to the crown of the head. Each chakra is associated with a specific emotional state, psychophysical developments, a color of the rainbow and our relationship with the natural world.

Guest artists co-taught and collaborated on the physical scores. RAW Dance from San Francisco worked on chakra #2 with a focus on guilt and weight sharing. Omari Wiles from Senegal/NYC taught us about the Ballroom Scene and Vogue Femme styles through a personal and historic framework. The cast of ANIKIYA’S Conference of the Birds created a score dealing with the Heart chakra playing with notions of love and grief.

The nature of the work was collaborative, communal in all aspects of creation, and a very successful example of mentorship between the professional community artists, international dance artists from around the world and the Brown/RISD students. This piece was premiered at the Spring Festival of Dance and restaged for the Commencement Dance Concert on the Stuart Stage.

MANDE AS CULTURAL DIPLOMACY. This Educational and Performance program was devised as an all school lecture demonstration about the power of Mande culture to educate K-12 students on West African history through the dances, proverbs, songs and oral histories of Mande society. February ’18. The Lincoln School.

WATERFIRE: Flames of Hope- Honoring Survivors of Breast Cancer. This site-specific movement theatre piece was devised for the Providence Waterfire ritual in collaboration with Barnaby Evans and student dancers and musicians from TAPS 0320: Dance Composition. For this performance we worked with Barnaby Evans both in the classroom and on site at the river basin. September 2018.

THE GRACE OF PERFECT DANGER I conceived, researched, trained fifteen dancers in the complexities of two different Bambara life-cycle ceremonies, choreographed and co-wrote the text for this original movement theatre work. The title and content were inspired by the poem “For the Artist at the Start of Day”, by Irish mystical poet John O’Donohue. This Engaged Scholarship collaboration involved students and faculty from the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts, RISD graduate students, community partners RKR, and currently enrolled Brown University students. My initial research began with reclaiming and studying archival footage from years of filming Mande street party performances and marriage ceremonies from the Wasalu region of Southern Mali. To further our development, sessions were held in Vipassana Meditation, Authentic Movement, Vinyasa Yoga, Contact Improvisation and Automatic Writing. Out of these sessions the text and thematic content were infused with personal narratives and original poetry. Brazilian Dance scholar Luciane Ramos-Silva worked with the company in Afro-Brazilian modes of expression and hosted conversations on the Colonized Body that informed deep investigations into cross-cultural exchange. This new work was performed for the Family Weekend Concert in October of 2018, and for the Mande Concert in December of 2018.

2017-18

Rhythm of Change Festival 2018: Beauty, Power and Grace in African and Afro-Diasporic Performance. The Rhythm of Change Festival18 (RoC) focused upon asking important questions about social, moral and political divides. We organized workshops that allowed the students and community to discuss, dance, meditate, and perform pieces based in Mindfulness and Self-Compassion practices. Guest artists from Mali, Senegal, Korea, The Caribbean, NYC, Los Angeles, and Boston came to Brown to share their life’s work giving workshops and creating fluid spaces to find grace amidst the chaos of current political landscapes. RoC is a space where generations of students, faculty and professionals gather in circle and on the dance floor from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds to celebrate what binds them, not divides them. The festival welcomes all genders, ethnicities, ages, and spiritual practices. Spring of 2018. Rhythmofchangefestival.com

SANDIA: A Malian ballet and celebratory dance of the jesere cast of northwestern Mali. Performed at the RoC’18 Opening Ceremony in spring of 2018.

The Lincoln School. I devised an all school assembly to speak about the place of Mande culture in American popular culture. We choreographed and performed three Mande dances and songs that showed the diversity of traditions within the Mande Diaspora. New Works performed this in conjunction with Brown alum Jamal Shipman. Spring of 2018.

DNA CAFÉ. The DNA Café received two different artistic residencies; One at the Dragons Egg Retreat Center and at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in CT. This original Movement theatre work was researched in Butoh, epi-genetics, Astrophysics, Buddhist philosophy, the Heart Sutra, the paintings of Iwasaki Tsuneo, Rumi poetry, Katsugen, Authentic Movement, physical theatre, and Contact Improvisation. International collaborators included Zen Buddhist scholar, Dr Paula Aria, Butoh Master teacher Natsu Nakajima, and community partners The Funk Underground, RKR B-Boy Crew, Designer Renee Surprenant, and Costume Designer Jesse. SFOD/CDC Spring of 2018

SUNU-MANJIANI: Khassonke and Malinke ceremonial dances that are contemporary expressions of traditional values and socialization. SFOD, CDC and Mali Fete, Spring of 2018.

RISD Office of Student Engagement Performance Series. New Works was the headliner performance troupe along with community partner RKR for RISD’s Opening Ceremony. We performed a collage of Mande dances mixed with a repertory of House and Hip-Hop choreography. Fall of 2017.

THE DUNUNBA: Suspending Together This original Malinke dance theatre piece explored the relationship between power and grace as expressed in Contemporary Mande performance. I wrote the original text, created all choreography, and costume design. This piece was a collaborative effort with Malian Master artists Seydou Coulibaly, Moussa Traore and RKR. Family Weekend Concert in Fall of 2017.

2016-17

Rhythm of Change Festival: Dancing Difference: Moving Across Our Divides. The 2017 Rhythm of Change Festival partnered with Providence First Works, Rennie Harris and PureMovement, Troupe Yeredon, Dr. Daniel Banks and Dr. Tricia Rose to convene a community dialogue on the power of Hip-Hop to bring us together through Dance, Music and Community Deliberation. Topics of racism, cultural diplomacy, and art in academia brought Brown students in close conversation with artist activists from Mali, Senegal, Boston, Los Angeles and NYC to share their life stories. I organized and choreographed for the Jump Start Performances at the VETS Auditorium in conjunction with FirstWorks Artist Icon Series. Spring of 2017.

THE KOTELON, DANSA, MARAKADON These three different Malian ballets were brought to the stage and on tour throughout the 2016-17 season. As a masquerade theatrical form, The Kotelon proposes to ensure the natural order of Bamana society through a scathing critique and satire of generational and gendered relationships. The young critique the elders, the men critique the women and the women have full reign in the center hurling insults upon the falsehoods of a patriarchal society. Dansa is a dance of beauty and power among the women of the village and danced for all life cycle ceremonies. Marakadon represents the cultural patrimony of the Maraka people of central Mali. This dance is portrayed on stage in a contemporary format. In the Maraka villages it would be danced in circle as a space for discussion of recent events, issues facing the villages and for communal cohesion in facing these problems. RoC ’16 performance at the Vets Auditorium with First Works. Spring of 2017.

RIVERRUN The creation of this new work began while on artistic retreat at the Dragon’s Egg Retreat Center in Old Mystic, CT. The completed artistic product involved months of movement research and the development of a musical score that existed in the framework of seven movement theatrical scenes. These scenes explored the high poetic states of Buddhist teachings surrounding Stream Entry and the notion of River as consciousness. RiverRun was researched in poems, personal narratives, songs, images, news lines and histories about rivers, natural disasters and blessings for the Earth. I co-created and wrote this piece with Saulo Castillo from RKR, Sam Keemey Minor, a Brown undergraduate, Jennifer Avery and undergraduate students from Brown-RISD, members of Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts and Matthew Garza’11. SFOD and CDC in Spring of 2017.

Afiba and Her Daughters by Nocosia Shakes. I was the movement coach and choreographer for this Rites and Reason production with Director John Emigh. Spring of 2017. FALL OF 2016.

BRICOLAGE: RHYTHM IS A DANCER “True creativity arises from Bricolage, from working with whatever odd assortment of funny-shaped materials we have at hand, including our odd assortment of funny-shaped selves.” This multi-media piece was devised from the writings of Brown alum Andrea Dillon, Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, and Kevin “Panther” Kehyei with music by the father of Brown alum Taylor Lomba. Brought to light in this piece were stories of daring and skin; dark skin, light skin and the damaging politics and discrimination brought upon families who did not have the preferred color. The genocide of 1937 of Haitians in the Dominican Republic was at the core of our story of survival. Family Weekend 2016.

2015-16

The Rhythm of Change Festival’16: Bearing Witness. I Co-Produced, fund- raised, partnered with First Works, choreographed for Opening Ceremony, taught workshops, organized volunteers, and hosted over 25 artists from around the world for a weekend of scholarship, film, dance, music and social dialogue on the importance of performance in truth telling and reconciliation. Guest Artists Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and The Urban Bush Women, Dr. Tommy DeFrantz, Joe Wilson Jr., Jasmine Johnson and Troupe Yeredon from Mali were in residence throughout the weekend to share their art and ideas with over 150 current and former Brown students. Spring of 2016.

TONSOLE: The Kotelon: A new Dance Theatre work that explored social integration and continuity through proverb, oral histories, songs and dance from the Bamana people of Mali. RoC’16. Spring of 2016.

A NIGHT OF MUSICAL THEATRE: SPRING TOUR ‘16 This full evening performance was the culminating event for New Works Spring Tour. I Produced, Choreographed, and wrote script for a full evening of music, song and dance with over 16 professional artists from Chicago, Boston, Benin, Providence and Brown University. New Works headlined Cushing Academy’s Artist Performance Series.

WASALUNKA: A Dance from the Wasalu. The Wasalu is a geolinguistic region in southern Mali and eastern Guinea that can trace its roots to the settling of Fulani warrior Yoro in the times of Sunjiata Keita. It is known for its remote location, where the musical styles are a blending of dialects from Malinke peoples and Peul peoples who settled in the Sikasso cercles administration regions) of Yanfolila, Kolondieba, and Bougoni. The musical styles are based in hunter musical rhythms and explore ideas of freedom and family. This manifestation of Wasalunka is a popular life-cycle ceremony dance, commonly performed at wedding celebrations.

MOGOTADON: Nobody Knows. This dance is a new creation that incorporates “hot steps” from the Bamana patrimony, in collaboration with Seydou Coulibaly and Moussa Traore. Spring Tour 2016.

 THE KOTEBA (Bamana) The Koteba dance theatre is accompanied with great athleticism, communal satire, masquerade, and agrarian rituals. The Koteba Theatre is legendary for scathing social commentary and the ability to heal conflict, transfer cultural sentiments as well as moral education. The projection was a film I made during the coup of 1991 called “Street Party in LafiaBougou-1990”.

MASKING A new multimedia work that I created a film projection for in collaboration with Brown undergraduate Marcus Sudac. I wrote the script, created all movements, and trained my dancers and engaged scholarship partners from The Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts, along with RKR hip-hop artists, Brown alums, and undergraduate students. Masking explored the relationship between high imaginative states of creativity, perfectionism and mental illness. Working in collaboration with Neuro Scientist and former Buddhist nun, Eunmi Kim, we studied at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Here daily assignments, writings, and meditative practices informed the methodologies utilized to devise the new work in a non- invasive and healing manner. Premiered at the Spring Festival of Dance and restaged for the Commencement Dance Concert. Spring of 2016.

WILDERNESS was commissioned by the Wheaton College Ballet Company, Dance CO. For this new multimedia dance, I created the projection design, synthesized the musical score and all devised all choreography. Spring of 2016.

THE TIGHTROPE WALKER: KOTEDON Inspired by the story of the tightrope walker in the lyrics and music of Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traore, we built a new Malian ballet using the form of the KoteBa. The KoteBa is a multi-faceted dance, theatre, and musical form that incorporates Bamana masquerade, storytelling, proverbs, praise singing and moral teachings through song cycles and satire.

Let’s Dance the Kote. Let’s make the most of our time. Let’s Celebrate. My father’s Kote, has passed; My Mother’s Kote is gone. This is my time. From Philosophy to Science, , Biology to History, I master the knowledge transmitted to me. Nevertheless, the elders, reproach me for my curiosity. It is true that I am the tightrope walker, perched high on, a wire overlooking disparity. Footage by Michelle Bach-Coulibaly.