Red Clay Dance Company’s upcoming program pairs two works created in collaboration with the dancers: Bebe Miller’s Field: New Ground and Vershawn Sanders-Ward’s Written on the Flesh. Both artists were last at the Dance Center in 2021-2022 as part of the South Loop Spark Plug incubation series.
image: Red Clay Dance Company, photo by MReid Photography.
“It does feel very home-coming. To be incubated in a space and go away and to come back at a pivotal moment feels really amazing,” shares Vershawn Sanders-Ward.
The 16 program – in honor of Red Clay Dance Company’s 16th anniversary – features works that stem from the choreographers' dedication to the field, to process, to inquiry, and to continuing to investigate. As Bebe Miller describes it, “This new work has roots in an older repertory work, Field (1997). I was interested in revisiting a particular bit of the piece that dealt with partnership; I wondered how our current times—and this group of women—might carry forward this essential core of community. Partnerships are made by individuals who choose to allow them. The older dance jump-started a new process, built with this very particular company of dancers, and it’s been a pleasure to pivot and see where it has taken us all, together.”
“It just reminds me of the specialness of the Dance Center. And I say that and people are like, yeah yeah, Vershawn, you’re an alum. But you all don’t understand the access that this space provides and has provided to aspiring artists to connect to the field as a dancer in training. It makes it more real that: this is actually a field that I am a part of and can be a part of. ”
Asked about Written on the Flesh’s own origin story and reimagining, Vershawn Sanders-Ward puts it this way: “The work first premiered in 2016 at the DuSable Museum. I was becoming more intrigued about speaking about race in America and the way we were approaching this idea of artivism. The way that racism is so hidden and woven into our day to day lives and is intentionally kind of invisible. I was intrigued about how to make those things visible. That was the impetus. The first time, I was looking at America because I’m American and this is where I am. Re-reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson reignited things for me. I started to see the global picture. This is still ever present in our day-to-day living. We still really haven’t addressed it. And on a global level how do we begin to do that?”
And as for how it has been for the company to work with Bebe, for Vershawn it’s something of a full circle moment: “I’m still in awe. I don’t want to get all sentimental – it just reminds me of the specialness of the Dance Center. And I say that and people are like, yeah yeah, Vershawn, you’re an alum. But you all don’t understand the access that this space provides and has provided to aspiring artists to connect to the field as a dancer in training. It makes it more real that: this is actually a field that I am a part of and can be a part of. It takes me back to being in the hallway and being like ‘O my god, that’s Jawole!’ [of Urban Bush Women]. Just that. To know that the relationships that I’m able to have now are because of the generosity of the faculty in making those connections for me. I feel very blessed to be in a position to put the company in relationship with an artist that is legendary but is also still on her own creative journey. It doesn’t stop at a certain point or at a certain age. There are still questions and generativeness in her process that I hope they can now take into their own.”
banner photo and above: Red Clay Dance Company, photography by: MReid Photography.
