Denizen Arts Project

02/02/2025

Seeking festival opportunities to present: "Walk the (pink) Elephant" next year. https://whitneyhunter.com/denizen. Send info/connects/contacts. You can also DM as well. Go Off!

Denizen Arts Project (DAP) is a multidisciplinary collaborative performance project conceived by dance/performance artist yaTande Whitney V. Hunter and theater artist Jude Sandy. Denizen Arts Project (DAP) was formed in 2016 to foster creative community and honor the cultural and art-making practice...

09/16/2024

https://www.barrons.com/news/benin-opens-door-to-nationality-for-slave-descendants-77f809b0
Yes Benin!!!

Lilith Dorsey is an American citizen living in New Orleans, but it is in Benin that she could end her days to "feel closer to her homeland".

09/10/2024

Meet the Cast and the choreographer!!!!

Barrymore Award nominated (Choreography/Movement Direction, “The Duat”) yaTande Whitney V. Hunter, PhD (he/him/his) is a Chicago-born and raised, Philadelphia-based artist committed to . With his co-created, NEA supported Denizen Arts Project (“Walk the (pink) Elephant”), his work centers around cultivating individual and communal spirit through dance-performance, education and curation. yaTande’s choreographic and performance art works have been presented through Performance Garage, AS220, RISD Museum, Kumble Theater, La Mama, Grace Exhibition Space, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival and in the streets of NYC, Chicago and Detroit. He has worked in the companies of Martha Graham Dance Company, Rod Rodgers, Reggie Wilson, Martha Clarke, Fiona Templeton, Daria Faïn and Robert Kocik, John Jesurun, Kankouran West African Dance Company, Yass Hakoshima, Najwa Dance Corps, and others. yaTande has worked extensively as choreographer and movement director for Trinity Repertory Company (A Christmas Carol, Gem of the Ocean, black Odyssey, Little Shop of Horrors, and others), was a Movement Research Artist in Residence (2013-15), a founding member/curator of Social Health Performance Club, and is currently Executive Artistic Director of Denizen Arts Project, co-created with his partner, theatre artist, Jude Sandy.

Dr. yaTande has received creation, performance, and exhibition commissions and grants from Brown University Dept. of Africana Studies-Rites and Reason Theatre, National Endowment for the Arts, Independence Fellowship, Providence Arts, Culture and Tourism; New York State Council for the Arts; Puffin Foundation; Harlem Stages; Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center; Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, and others. Recent stage performances include: Yowa Maafa, Walk the (pink) Elephant, 9Roads; and publications, “Ring Shout, A Corporeal Conjuring of Black Togetherness” (Dance Research Journal).

For full bio visit whitneyhunter.com

09/07/2024

Meet the cast !!!

Vitche-Boul Ra is a Transhumanist Folk-Theurgist with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts (Sculpture concentration) from The University of the Arts [2018] with additional studies in Dance under Donna Faye Burchfield. Ra’s performance practice is anchored in Performativity as a means to investigate Black sovereignty and individual action. As a Philadelphia native, It has shown solo + collaborative works at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Vox Populi gallery, Little Berlin gallery, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid gallery. In New York, Ra has been curated into the Center for Performance Research’s 2018 Spring Movement Festival, the New Dance Alliance’s 2019 Performance Mix Festival: 33, and both Movement Research as well as Black Aesthetics/J.A.W. at Judson Memorial Church in 2023. Continually It has collaboratively worked with Moor Mother [Goddess] showing at Pace Gallery (NY), CalArts REDCAT (LA), The Kitchen (NY), and the Chan Centre (BC). In 2021 It lectured at Yale School of Art and in 2023 Ra’s solo work was curated internationally at the Murray Art Museum Albury in Albury, NSW (Australia) in addition to being awarded a 2023 Pew Fellowship.



What element is Rah?

09/07/2024

Full Circle DanceVisions Alumni concert
Friday, September 13th
Opening Night Fundraising Celebration includes: (Starting at 6:30):

Pre-concert event
Concert
DJ Dance party with DJ SunRyze

Tickets are purchased through our website on Eventbrite. 
Heres’ the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/full-circle-a-fundraiser-to-celebrate-the-art-of-dance-tickets-920267804777 (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/full-circle-a-fundraiser-to-celebrate-the-art-of-dance-tickets-920267804777)

Performance Garage
1515 Brandywine St
Philadelphia, PA  19130
United States

09/05/2024

Meet Samara Byrd aka Sam, a Philadelphia native, with a BFA in dance from Temple University, where she recently served as a guest lecturer for a dance course. Her journey with dance started at age seven when her parents enrolled her in the D’Shay School of Dance. She’s trained in multiple dance styles such as: Ballet, African, Modern, Hip-Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Heels, and many others. She has been under the instruction of multiple amazing teachers such as Dara Meredith, Yanis Marshall, Ali Williningham, Kyle and Dinita Clarke, Stephanie Demy, Kun Yang Lin, yaTande, and Vanity Markee.

Byrd is currently a dance instructor at multiple studios in the Pennsylvania area. From the Top being one of those amazing studios where she’s been a part of the family for four years now. She also is a private instructor to dancers of all ages, levels, and backgrounds. Byrd is the assistant at Bad Girls in Heels, the 1st heels company in Philadelphia. She is also one of the founders, main headliners, and instructors of Pheels; a heel intensive created in 2023, as part of the IAMPhresh franchise.
You may have also seen her in a few music videos. Samara was a dancer in Saleka Shyamalan music video titled “Clarity” the video was released in September 2020 on all platforms. Also was a highlighted dancer in the BAS video “U- Turn” that was released in February 2024.

Not only does she possess technique, versatility, amazing performance ability & excitement, but she also evokes love in her everyday life while traveling and practicing her Christian faith.


What element is she

09/03/2024

Meet the cast !!!!

Hailing from native Susquehannock land (York County, PA), Malcolm Ellis is a versatile interdisciplinary artist, actor, teacher, choreographer, and performer currently in the final year of his studies at Temple University, where he is pursuing a major in Dance. Through movement and visual arts, he explores themes centered in his identity as a black q***r artist culminating in a practice that highlights the multi-faceted approach to performance of Black bodies on stage.
Malcolm’s journey in the arts began at a young age, finding a sense of belonging in the theater programs of his middle school when he was just ten years old. Since then, he has had the privilege of studying a multitude of techniques with artists such as Dana Moore, Dr. yaTande, Ephrat Aesherie, Shanon Murphy and Esther Baker-Tarpaga.
This past summer, he was a teaching artist at Long Lake Camp For The Performing Arts in NY. Ellis currently teaches Jazz and Improvisation techniques on staff at the YMCA of North Philadelphia. Most recently, he performed at the Emerging Young Artists Theatre Festival hosted at TADA! Theatre in Union Square, NYC. This past May, he performed in METER: Experiments in Poetry, Music & Movement at Studio 34 here in Philadelphia.


Guess Malcom’s element

08/28/2024

Meet the Cast !!

Cierra Woods is a Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, and DJ rooted in the unceded land of the Susquehannock people in Harrisburg, PA. She began her pre-professional training at the Capital Area School for the Arts Charter School under the direction of Rosemary Battista. She further honed her craft at Temple University, where she was honored with the Rose Vernick Choreography Award in 2020.
Her artistic journey has led her to stages, including Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum Harrisburg Fringe Festival, Grounds For Sculpture, The Kennedy Center, and Judson Memorial Church. Along the way, she has collaborated with esteemed artists, including Sidra Bell, Dara Meredith, Merian Soto, Dwennimmen African Dance Community, Sankofa American Theatre Company, Edisa Weeks/DELIRIOUS Dances, BREathe Dance Project, and André Zachery/Renegade Performance Group.
Outside of performing, Cierra has taken on many roles in production and arts administration working with organizations such MICHIYAYA Dance, Temple University, The VIVA School of Dance, and Black Is… Boundless Showcase. Cierra acknowledges the immense privilege to live life as an artist and is driven to fortify sustainable systems that create nurturing environments, allowing both artistic and diasporic communities to thrive. Discover more of her work at cwoodswork.xyz!



What do you think her element is

04/15/2024

Black (Lavender) Angels Fest
Ritual-Performance, Sat. April 27
Residency activities: Tues - Fri, 6-9:30p
Department of Africana Studies/Rites and Reason Theatre
Churchill House
George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space