Residency Reflection: T. Ayo Alston

With the world hastily moving to a virtual platform, artists and dancers like myself have found ourselves missing live audiences but creating visions for the screen. Ayodele Drum and Dance’s Youth Company has not only survived through virtual classes and scarce rehearsals, but were in great demand once the world opened back up for performances.

As I prepare to take our tenacious teens to Senegal, West Africa in December 2021, we decided to do a video shoot with them and create a movie-like showing as a way to broadly showcase their hard work beyond the Chicago live platforms. The story shows young girls executing their strength and understanding of the African way of life. They intertwined stage play with live performance choreography to merge the reality of their prior skills in stage performance to theatrical video readiness.

Africa, Here We Come!!!

T. Ayo Alston
Executive Artistic Director
Ayodele Drum and Dance