Brownbody is excited to announce that tickets are now on sale for our newest production, ‘Tracing Sacred Steps’!
Performance Dates:
June 3, 7:30 pm
June 4, 2:00 pm
June 4, 7:30 pm
About Tracing Sacred Steps
Brownbody’s newest evening length work Tracing Sacred Steps (TSS) blends modern dance, social justice practice, figure skating, and Ring Shout. In her essay, “Hoodoo Religion and American Dance Traditions: Rethinking the Ring Shout” Katrina Hazzard-Donald states:
“It was from the African sacred circle, that the first truly African American dance was born: the ‘Ring Shout.’ The Ring Shout was a counterclockwise, sacred circle dance that appears to have been done universally among [enslaved Africans] and later among freedmen. […] In the sacred circle, the center was a vortex of spiritual energy and power which represented a separate and sacred realm, one not of the material realities of enslavement. It represented a reality which connected one to the ancestors and reconfirmed a continuity through both time and space. Within the circle, the interaction between the individual and the community was mediated by sacred spiritual forces evidenced in spirit possession.”
Within an on-ice modern dance framework, TSS engages elements of this practice to illustrate how it continues to serve as a pathway to healing within so many Black spaces. Intent is two-fold: 1) to illustrate how this practice continues to be relevant, 2) to pay homage not only to these important cultural rituals, but also its practitioners: forcibly displaced Africans that found a way, amidst grave adversity, to work towards restoration and wholeness.
Tracing Sacred Steps features an all-Black cast of fpur professional skating artists and actor/vocalist Thomasina Petrus.
About Brownbody
Grounded in African diasporic perspectives, Brownbody’s mission is to build artistic experiences that disrupt biased narratives and prompt audiences to engage as active participants in the journey. Brownbody accomplishes this through a blend of modern dance, theater, social justice, and figure skating. For more information on Brownbody, visit Brownbody.org.