Remember Black
Choreographed by Madison Atwood, Carissa Bellando, Rosemary Leach, and Isadora Snapp
Remember Black, to the a song of the same title, is an ode to African African culture and dance and the richness it has brought to all us. I first conceived of the concept for this piece in 2022 and it has taken two years to have the right dancers and right choreographers to make the vision come to life.
The song take us on a journey through musical genres all while repeating the same lyrics:
The song take us on a journey through musical genres all while repeating the same lyrics:
Remember the tapping of your feet
The sliding 'cross the floor
Came from smiles we couldn't keep
I see ya as you swipe the symphony
Singing quite the misery
Just remember that was me
We all need music to heal
Moves to remind us how much we can feel
And so much grew from the fields in America
Where we think everything's for sale
The sliding 'cross the floor
Came from smiles we couldn't keep
I see ya as you swipe the symphony
Singing quite the misery
Just remember that was me
We all need music to heal
Moves to remind us how much we can feel
And so much grew from the fields in America
Where we think everything's for sale
In similar form, the dance takes us through four different dance styles. We begin with jazz, the earliest form of African American dance with its roots firmly in African dance. Born from a need to communicate with each other and create community while living as enslaved people, jazz dance came to widespread popularity in the 1920's. Within the jazz genre, there are many different styles, and the style shown in Remember Black is a Traditional Jazz dance.
Following jazz, hip hop dancers slide onto the stage. More than just dance - it is a culture in and of itself that grew up of the Bronx in the 1970s. Hip hop scholars today credit hip hop with having six elements:
Lastly, modern dance takes the stage. This particular choreography is based on Revelations - a famous, impactful work by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theather. AAADT was founded in 1958 by visionary modern dancer Alvin Ailey. He created the company to offer African Americans and dancers of color a place in the modern dance world. Revelations was choreographed in 1960, bringing international acclaim to the company. Sadly, Ailey passed away in 1989, but his memory and choreography have been kept alive by dedicated company members.
Following jazz, hip hop dancers slide onto the stage. More than just dance - it is a culture in and of itself that grew up of the Bronx in the 1970s. Hip hop scholars today credit hip hop with having six elements:
- DJing—the artistic handling of beats and music
- MCing, aka rapping—putting spoken-word poetry to a beat
- Breaking—hip hop’s dance form
- Writing—the painting of highly stylized graffiti
- Theater and literature—combining hip hop elements and themes in drama, poetry, and stories
- Knowledge of self—the moral, social, and spiritual principles that inform and inspire hip hop ways of being.
Lastly, modern dance takes the stage. This particular choreography is based on Revelations - a famous, impactful work by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theather. AAADT was founded in 1958 by visionary modern dancer Alvin Ailey. He created the company to offer African Americans and dancers of color a place in the modern dance world. Revelations was choreographed in 1960, bringing international acclaim to the company. Sadly, Ailey passed away in 1989, but his memory and choreography have been kept alive by dedicated company members.