The African American Dance Company celebrated culture, legacy, and, their own bodies through their 24th annual dance workshop. This year’s theme was Black to the Future.
“Black to the future is the… idea of taking what we’ve known in the past and catapulting it into the future,’ AADC director, Baba Stafford Berry said.
The AADC kept “the past” or legacy as a focal point throughout the workshop. From the traditional African rituals that opened the workshop to Baba Stafford reminding the dancers to “remember who you’re dancing with,” the AADC emphasized the vitality of embracing the lessons, the mindset, and the cultural aspects of their ancestors and molding it into something that will advance modern society.
Tony Artis aka Baba Amoah performing traditional African rituals to open the workshop.
One way the AADC does this is educating through exposure and representation, which is what their founder and the creator of the workshop, former IU professor Iris Rosa, wanted for the company.
“I wanted participants to be able to see teachers, artists, percussionists, instructors that looked liked them,” Rosa said.
The company manifested those ideas by creating a space where anyone with a willingness to learn can come.
“It’s really a place that endorses you being you, unapologetically,” says Joe’Quaylin Coleman, an AADC member.
Mackenzie Browning is a non-African-American dancer, who has been a member of the AADC for the last four years. She recalled her first experience with the company.
“I chose to be a part of this company because when I came in, it was the first time in my dance experience that I had ever felt like I truly belonged,’ Browning said, ‘I felt so comfortable, and I had never had that before.”
Extended interview of Baba Stafford Berry and Prof. Iris Rosa discussing the goals for the AADC, the dance workshop, and this year’s theme.
As the AADC continues to grow, its members feel blessed that they still have Professor Rosa here to learn from.
“[Her legacy] is critically important because she’s still here with us, so we get to still learn from her,’ Stafford said, ‘We get to stay in touch with her as a walking archive of our history.”
Although Rosa passed the AADC torch, she was still impressed with the work happening within the company.
“I’m so excited that the workshop has continued to educate, inspire, [and] illuminate dance from the perspective of the African diaspora,” Rosa said.
The workshop featured an open discussion with the artists, masterclasses in contemporary, West African, hip-hop, house, modern, tap, and umfundalai dancing, and drumming. The weekend ended with a high-energy showcase, where dancers from IU-past and present-, the community, and across the Midwest showed off what they learned and embraced the AADC legacy for which they are now a part.
“Honoring the struggle, the fight, the passion, and the livelihood- just everything this stands for- I’m just happy I can spread this to other people,” Browning said.
“Being a part of this legacy means I’m strong,” Coleman said with a hopeful smile.
The AADC will host their spring concert April 9 at 7 p.m. It will be held at Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Both in-person and virtual tickets are on sale through the BCT Box Office.
Clips from masterclasses and the showcase
