Dr. Blue / Professor Lindsay Rapport (Intermediate Hip Hop Repertory, Introduction to Hip Hop)
I love to perform onstage, but even more than that, I love getting down with people! The stage is explicitly designed to situate dance as something to be spectated, creating strict separations between performers and audience. African diasporic practices ask us to blur the boundaries between audience and performer, acknowledging that, through unique energetic, vocal, and embodied contributions, everyone plays an essential role in making a performance what it is. We want the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities to understand that dance is for everybody. Dance is (for the) community.
My training (formal and less formal) comes out of African diasporic social dance practices, with an emphasis on hip hop culture’s street and club dances. These dance forms emerge in community, organically, and in conversation with musical evolutions. They are about dancing with people and sharing energy—they are about being together. This collective cultivation has the power to shift a space, to shift us. The radical togetherness that I experience while moving and grooving with the music and with folx on the dance floor brings me a profound and all-encompassing mind-body-spirit joy that I have not experienced otherwise. My hope is that the Community Show & Groove can offer the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities access to dance’s communal power and potential.
DJ / Professor Ervin (Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies)
Music — particularly DJing — is the most reliable way to locate the track of my joy.
Music is, at its heart, a practice of radical kinship and relational embodiment. It is intimately tied to my commitments to advancing the field of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.
The collaborative work I am doing with Theater and Dance has been an invitation to return—again and again—to the possibilities that emerge from observations #1 and #2.
Namory Keita (Master Drummer)
It is my pleasure to share my energy and my spirit with the students at Bowdoin as we cultivate the Community Show & Groove event. Drumming is everything for me. Drumming creates connection through dynamic collaboration, and we will keep growing exceptional diversity in this community.
Dr. J / Adanna Kai Jones (Dance Improvisation)
Q: When did you start dancing?
As my mom tells it, “She came out the womb dancing!” With that said, I formally started taking dance classes after my family and I emigrated to the United States from Trinidad, at the age of 7.
Q: Why is this event/party important to you?
This feels like an important space to cultivate the values of Ubuntu, a South African philosophy that loosely translates into “I am because we are, and we are because I am.” Teaching, creating, and imagining dance and community as a collective has proven to be one of the most restorative projects that I have participated in since I started teaching here at Bowdoin. In other words, collaborating with the other dance faculty, Lindsay “Dr. Blue” Rapport and Scott McPheeters, as well as with our drummer, Namory Keita, and our entire production crew, has been a dream! We come from very different dance practices, trainings, and walks of life, yet our mission to build an inclusive environment that centers the collective, deep collaboration, and communal belonging keeps us, our classes, and the curation of our first ever Community Show and Groove grounded and in-sync.
Q: What are you looking forward to the most about this event?
Jamming out with folks from all walks of life!! I am looking forward to having my mind blown! The ways we are planning to invite people to dance with us, for us, and alongside us … it is going to create a level of collective JOY that will surprise us all, I can feel it.
Scott McPheeters (Advanced Modern Dance)
Q: When did you start dancing?
I participated in creative movement classes from an early age and trained as a gymnast until the age of 14. My formal dance training began when I was a Sophomore at Dickinson College.
Q: Why is this event/party important to you?
I am incredibly proud of what the Community Show & Groove is going to be as well as how it has shaped the semester for Bowdoin dance students and faculty members. For every single person involved, it has been a semester-long exercise in collaboration, communication, skill sharing, and heart sharing. The event is the result of faculty members and classrooms merging core values and exploring new ways of showcasing our love of dance. It comes from a desire to reach outside of our own community and advocate for our beloved discipline in a way that invites all bodies to collectively experience the joy of movement.
Q: What has your experience been with dance at Bowdoin?
Teaching within the Bowdoin dance department and having the opportunity to creatively dream with faculty members and students alike has been a true honor and privilege.
Q: What are you looking forward to the most about this event?
I’m most looking forward to the greater Bowdoin community witnessing the beautifully strong relationships that are being cultivated through dance at the college. The joy and support that emanates from Bowdoin students of dance is certain to welcome all to join the party.
