What inspires you to take a different approach to the status quo?
What is the product of that process?
Below is a Show & Tell, so please scroll away.
Community Event
Attendees explored a remixed approach to social dance that combined sensory awareness, movement play, and conscious connections. Honoring the cultural legacy of black artists in the U.S., the workshop featured a playlist of African American music-makers spanning multiple decades and genres. This event was presented with CATO – The Coalition of Us as a feature on their Black History Month virtual bingo.
Family-friendly. No prior experience was required.
Workshop Promo Video
- Visionary: House of Negesti
- Videography: CrickVisuals
- Set Design: Jorge Plazas
- Dancers: Kei Anisah, Regine Bellinger, Dale Nathaniel, Jr.
Book Foreword (Forward excerpt)
Contemplating energies beyond our physical body impacts how we perceive and connect to ourselves and the natural environment. When taking an Orisha dance class, intricate drum patterns inform the action and quality of dance movement. The intention herein is both physical and ethereal as participants engage how their external world and social customs manifest through the archetypes of deities known as Orishas…
…From the lens of mind-body philosophy, Kiire Wellness showcases how spirituality facilitates our ability to maneuver mental difficulties, actively express emotion, and increase our awareness of psychosomatic inefficiencies. The organization’s signature offering called “Respiratory Ritual”, is integrated into every session. It bridges the relationship between prayer, breathing pathways, and African movements by physically transforming inhale-exhalation into dance. Here, energetic progression is the result of one’s receptivity to deep breathing and the exercise of carnal willpower which paves the way for resilience and a deeper connection with one’s inner source. The performance of this practice illustrates the experience of what physician-author Larry Dossey calls the “non-local mind” where consciousness transcends the brain to encompass the body and extends beyond conventional understandings of space and time. This concept is analogous with Orisha teachings and afro-ancestral practices——the heart of Kiire Wellness.
—- Kei Anisah
Ode to V: Photopoetry
Secrets drop like fallacies, phallic leaves, hats and beads. Careful. Tricks in treats. Twisting seasons. We’re dying to believe em. A weaver’s tale of folkloric authority prohibited indoors. Fear of conjuring the power of blackness. Try outside amongst the seeds and roots.
The media gives all the reasons why and how to follow an agenda with no proof, while very vindictive vermin ravage virility and juvenescence. Vatican Vestibules Vent Violent Virus, Victims Vex Voting Violations, Vulnerable Voices Verse Virtual Vampires Vie Varying Vantages. Visitors Venture Vanguard Voodoo Verve. Virtuoso Vessels Validate Vibrations.
I tip to ↫↫↫↫↫ ᐯ ↬↬↬↬↬. My vendetta for vitality. Visuals venerating volumes.
Which word would welcome wilderness with…? Would you hide behind highlights and Tinder if a strand of melanin could turn your mind into a wildfire? What do you call a magician queen?
Why do I need to show my face?
Does God have eyes?
I’ve said enough. See, the hat got my tongue.
—- Kei Anisah
Stori
This outdoor performance pays homage to Afro-diasporic water deities. Featured at 2019 Global Water Dances, Stori showcases live music (ashiko drums) by DrumRhythmatics. A river acknowledgement designed by Kei Anisah and led by Robert Louis Charles of Big2Go preceded the dance; bowls of river water were placed inside the performance space during an opening procession.
2019 GWD Program Notes
- Location: Locomotive Lawn, NYC
- Water Site: Hudson River
- Section II. Local Dances
Slaves to the Rhythm
This stage performance embodies textures of physical neurosis and exposes historical motifs through motion pictures of subjugation, oppression, rebellion, and reclamation of self. The dancers’ self-reflection and personal movement practices informed the choreographic process.
As components of a mutually-inclusive whole, the mind and body should never be at war with one another, but allies of freedom against the soul’s enslavement.
Kei Anisah 