Wednesday 19 June 2024 19:00 – 20:30 BST | 11:00 PDT | 14:00 EDT | 20:00 CEST
Embodiology® created by Dr S. Ama Wray, is an outcome of examining ancestral knowledge, originating from a study of performance within traditional West African cultures. This improvisation praxis optimizes 21st Century “Super Skills” of spontaneous Creativity, Communication, Critical Action and Collaboration through six core principles.
Dr S. Ama Wray will introduce Embodiology®, how it was developed and how this approach aligns with tap dance. Tap dancers Jess Murray and Annette Walker will join the discussion to share their experiences of taking part in the Embodiology® Immersion Program and how they have drawn upon this creative practice and conceptual framework as tap dancers and researchers.
As a child when it came to performing, Tap Dance was my first love – well actually it was my second. I sought to emulate the Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 40s that I watched every Saturday afternoon. Before that exposure I was already keenly dancing at home with my mother. I learned the dances of her youth as we made our own stage in front of the gramophone in the front room at holiday times. I cannot recall for how many years this was a feature of my life but music was always at the center. We danced to Bob Marley, Elvis, Brooke Benton, and the Jackson 5; it was the 1970s. It was serious business, we danced, we perhaps sang and I have no doubt that I made things up based on what my mother was teaching me, and later combined those dances with what I saw in those Hollywood movies. A day came, I went outside while it was raining (again), with my red umbrella, to perform my version of Singing in the Rain that I had seen for the first time. Perhaps I was seven. That exposition was my mother’s signal that I was very serious about dance. She deemed however that the street, in the rain, was not the place for that learning to take place. So, she enrolled me into dance classes and the rest is my history. What never left me from these formative years was my creative impulse to dance spontaneously and indeed do that with others, even if they were only in my imagination.
The participatory presentation opens up the journey of improvisation from my formative years, my creative work with jazz musicians and dancers and on to my ongoing field work in Ghana with artists, scholars and community members. This last phase led to the development of Embodiology® an improvisation praxis. Its philosophy renders itself as a practice that generates novelty, undergirded by polyrhythmic sensing. Equally, as a tool of analysis it examines spontaneous creativity through its identification of six principles that ignite deep structures of communication.
Biography
Dr S. Ama Wray is a TEDx Speaker and Professor at the University of California, Irvine, serving in both the School of the Arts and Humanities. Embodiology® is the outcome of examining ancestral knowledge, originating from a study of performance within traditional West African cultures. The result of action research, Dr. Wray’s returns tangible benefit to the community, restoratively contributing to the paradigm of research justice in relation to African practices, moreover indigenous peoples worldwide.
Dr S. Ama Wray received her Ph.D. in Dance Studies from the University of Surrey in the UK. An award-winning artist, working for over 30 years across the Americas, Africa and Europe, Wray has collaborated with seminal artists including Wynton Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin and Nicole Mitchell. She has been a guest professor at many institutions including Princeton, Harvard, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Temple, University of Arizona, University of Ghana, Legon and UC Berkeley. Wray’s research led her to examine West African cultures, art and social practices which are at the root of the ubiquitous creativity present in the Diaspora. Dr. Wray is the creator of Embodiology® – a methodology based on West African principles of human communications. Embodiology®’s distinctive breath-informed, rhythmic movement and music concepts have shown efficacy in elevating vitality, wellbeing resilience and creativity. Stemming from this, JiM™ – Joy in Motion – a virtual iteration – was created at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to support everyday people transform their indoor isolation into spaces of ‘co-liberation’. Embodiology® is being taken up by a variety of sectors including health and wellness, education, corporate leadership, professional development and arts organizations. As a public intellectual Wray has been a guest speaker/lecturer at the United Nations, Institute of Advanced Studies and other globally renowned organizations.
ONLINE Tues 18 June 2024 19:00 – 20:00 BST | 11:00 PDT | 14:00 EDT | 20:00 CEST
Join us for a special Network Session as part of our Annual Research Festival. This session is a follow-up event from the April TDRN UK Online Talk Series: Duke Ellington’s Dancers – The Women. Allana Radecki presents more of her research into the careers of Duke Ellington and his collaborators. Featuring oral histories and a focus on archival research, Allana reflects on the process of her research and what she has learned about the fascinating life stories of Aida Overton Walker, Elida Webb, Fredi & Isabel Washington, Marie Bryant and more! Learn how their different careers evolved beyond the stage, spanning performance, teaching, social activism and building communities.
Allana’s research features rare footage, audio clips, photos, and interviews of dancers who performed with Duke Ellington. During this event, you will have the chance to re-watch these amazing clips and discuss issues such as colourism, sexism, professional prejudice and the impact it had on the careers of these amazing women. As part of your ticket, you have the option to purchase the initial 2-hour recording of the first Duke Ellington’s Dancers – The Women or just attend this session for free!
The session features these amazing performers:
Aida Overton Walker: dancer, choreographer, teacher, ACTIVIST! – Artistic Matriarch of Jazz Dancers. She established herself among the upper crust of White New York society, teaching the Cakewalk to society people in the U.S. and abroad. Her talents infused all the Williams and Walker musicals and influenced Elida Webb, Grace Glies and everyone who came into her circle.
Elida Webb: dancer, choreographer, Harlem-born, lineage keeper of Aida Overton, nurtured and trained women dancers for over twenty years. Webb received formal dance training growing up. Her credits include Shuffle Along, Runnin’ Wild, Showboat and choreographer at the Club Alabam and the Cotton Club. She codified the Charleston and helped compose “Stormy Weather.”
Fredi and Isabel Washington: these extraordinary, multi-talented, socially conscious sisters took advantage of opportunities and dealt with setbacks.
Marie Bryant: dancer, singer, choreographer, great influencer of jazz dance, student of Mary Bruce and Katherine Dunham, invested in social change from childhood.
Performers Bessie Dudley, Cora La Redd, Maude Russell, Carmen De Lavallade, and Mildred Dixon are also featured.
Artist, educator and performer, Allana Radecki has a BA in Fine Arts and MA in African American, African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University. Her research focuses on the interlocking roots and culture of jazz music and dance through autobiography and oral history. Her current book project examines the multi-faceted relationship between Duke Ellington and jazz dance, with an emphasis on tap dancers. A noted teacher of Hatha Yoga, Rhythm Tap and Modern Dance since 1986, she has taught thousands of classes to thousands of people of all ages. As a jazz tap dancer, Allana loves to improvise and also explores West African and Afro- Brazilian percussion including many years with Women of Mass Percussion and five seasons with the Indiana University Brazilian Ensemble.
In this practical workshop with live music, Jess Murray shares different creative approaches to improvisation and creative process that she has developed during her PhD practice research. In this session we introduce dramaturgy as a way of doing and thinking, and explore what it is like to think dramaturgically about our dance and music making when we improvise or choreograph. We explore the possibilities available when working live with dance and music and how to navigate these when generating ideas for original performance work.
Jess will lead you through a range of activities that explore collaboration, and develop your own performance ideas in a creative and supportive environment with others. Have fun with different creative tasks to get you thinking and experimenting, get some ideas to take back into the studio and enjoy being a part of a creative collaboration.
Jess Murray is known in the UK for her work as a tap dance performer, educator and tap jam host (Tap Rhythm Project, London Tap Jam, Tap Dance Festival UK). She is interested in the relationship between dance and music collaboration, improvised performance and dramaturgy and is currently undertaking a practice research Ph.D funded by Midland4Cities at De Montfort University exploring this. Jess works collaboratively with musicians to create original performance work such as Tap Rhythm Project, SoundMoves, and outdoor arts show Sound Catchers. Jess was lead choreographer for outdoor performance ‘tap dance and story-telling extravaganza’ Tappin’ In, for the Commonwealth Games and Birmingham International Dance Festival in 2022.
The presentation will take the audience on a rhythmic and cultural exploration through various tap dance teaching methods (pedagogies) while also delving into the historical context of one iconic performance piece within the tap dance genre. Trish will provide insights into the way a tap dance class could be taught based on classical, cultural, and critical pedagogies and do so while teaching historic repertory.
Trish is a tap dance educator, researcher and choreographer. She runs a community-based dance school and a tap dance performance group: The Kerry Tap Ensemble. Trish also runs a global project management consultancy. A professional background in teaching and training in project management is entirely transferable to all aspects of her professional life.
Her key research area is tap dance pedagogy. She completed an MA (Distinction) in dance education with the RAD/Bath University. Her research explored the narratives of tap dance teaching: the oral history passed down through the Tap Masters and reviewed what this means for teaching today through practical action research.
Her current research interests continue to be tap dance pedagogy with one area of focus being the use of tap dance repertory in teaching and how the historical and cultural perspectives can enhance the learning experience. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Tap Dance Pedagogy at The Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) Coventry University UK.
Through this Jazz Dance Collective practical workshop, led by Jreena Green, you will embody the journey of authentic jazz from the plantation rhythms of Juba/Giouba, through to Harlem in the 1920s right up to the present day. The forgotten history of jazz will be explored through the work of Marshall Stearns, and the Labanotation of authentic Jazz dance, contained in his book Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance.
Jreena Green is 1 of 4 co-founding members of the Jazz Dance Collective, an educational hub for Tap Dance, Authentic Jazz, and UK Jazz. The Collective brings together the knowledge of Jazz, encompassing both its history and practice. These three disciplines of Jazz dance link its foundation and evolution, providing a coherent line to educate the future generation. Members of the Collective join together in projects, sharing space and discussion. The Collective works together to investigate and contribute to expanding the knowledge of Jazz using the wealth of information from its different aspects.
Jreena is a professional choreographer, dance teacher and ‘practical dance historian’. She has previously developed a module entitled ‘Charleston To Hip Hop’ that explores the links between current urban dance styles and African American dance styles from the 1920′s. Jreena has taught authentic jazz at many of the leading dance conservatoires including Rambert, Trinity Laban and Mountview and published several articles on jazz dance history in Britain. She is a co-founding member of the Jazz Dance Collective.
