Àṣẹ Dance Theater

Because parenting humans with @minchovega is choreography, a whole dance and song … An Àṣẹ daughter and community child is coming of age! Let’s celebrate her! Come outside in your frocks and bobbles with your safety pins and money 😂 We cordially invite you to the @egbeiwa gala. Visit /gala to get your tix. TODAY … Rites of Passage Final Examination Day is here! Through all of this Àṣẹ business there was a little girl that is no longer so little … That we dragged everywhere … To dance rehearsals, to art shows, to meetings, to styling gigs, to teaching artist gigs, to classes we taught, to parties, to performances … And today … Although she HATES it … Cuz she’s a teenager so whatever … My Beautiful Queen has fulfilled the requests of her elders and is ready to step out and represent herself as the young person she believes herself to be … Parenting a teen is not for the faint of anything. May she always turn to the Mamas, Babas, and Theyfolk in her community for fortification, strength, direction and support. May she always know and remember that she is loved, protected, and descended from excellence. May she wield her straight edge punk rock sword and womb power with grace and temperance. We love you Gurl! Damn … I remember when this would have been my fashion choice.

It feels like something is missing … It feels like someone is missing … Because you keep talking and moving over the space … You forget … And then you remember … And you do what they told you to do because it’s what they wanted and it’s how you want to feel … And it’s how they wanted you to take care of yourself … And it’s how they wanted to take care of you … And you believe in ancestors and forever and the infinite interconnected realms … But it’s not how you really feel … And so it becomes about giving yourself permission to not be “delusional” when you want to say … We need you … I need you … Where are you? … How will the children do this without you? How do we do this without you … Who will sing your parts? Who will I look at on that one part where we always connect in that one piece? In that one ocean? … In that one song … In that one dream … Where you told me it was ok and held me tight when I finally cried all the way without pretending everything was ok. 💔 | @cocokillingsworth @eris10 @twilson701 @prestonsmith6324 @jbdances333 @goussyc @marakahealing5 @veledaroehl @orionkg @polite.brian @tineoart @okaimusik @bradleygirlfree @the_massacouraman @mzkendrafoster @thornstouchwellness @goussyc @veledaroehl @cihealingarts @freee_stile @qtroc @fasewawellness @bamuthi360

Wooo … Let’s go Earthday program for the littles. The summer coin hustle is in full effect. Teach everyone. Choreograph everything. Dance. Sing. Rehearse. Design Curriculum. Deliver all the deliverables. Accept the consequences when deliverables don’t happen or are late. Find sleep, love, and life in between. Let’s go @bam_brooklyn Go go Gadget body! We’re almost there. Today … We gone get this water protection beach clean up awareness love poppin’. #mermaidsthatlovewhales

March was pretty wack … But there were moments … This was a moment … The right music and party vibes are guaranteed to set me loose. I will always set the breaking of the back, booty shake function off no matter how old I get 😂. Gala or no! I must! I don’t even know why @thecoopschool gala @brickhouse.nyc has been so LITTY LIT LIT for the past two years but between @m1deadprezrbg of Dead Prez just walking in and doing a whole ass private concert last year and @shayne_spencer bussin’ open the turntables … I ain’t know where my manners and appropriate behavior went. And the Boo @minchovega was looking like a snack! And @zacalaca was in the mf house! Give thanks for the joyful moments in the midst of the storms. Until next year …

@queenscollegedancedepartment @delirious_dances @cdi_dance @serena_maximilien @albirdaroseeberhardt @roseeberhardtalbirda @dunhamcertification @valeolayaf You wanna do all the funnest, flyest Dunham Technique power moves cuz when flight happens so does freedom and joy and health and wellness and conditioning … But!!!! … If everyone is injured can’t nobody fly, run, walk, or even crawl anywhere … So let’s just take this good step back … Clarify approaches … And get specific about how to build the strength and mindset to do all the things without getting injured behind tryna flex. Even me. #teacherscantakethelessons2 #dancelongletsgo

Flood of thoughts … Dunham Technique does not have to be abusive, injury producing, or antiquated. It can be challenging, meditative, innovative, and fun. Like for real … My teachers had sexy anatomical considerate barres honey … Dunham Technique can be restorative and healing. It can make you smile when you feel the change! … It can inspire thoughtfulness and clear space … More thoughts … 4.11.26 came and went. Happy Birthday Mama Alicia. And wow … Do I miss you so strong sometimes. Every time I teach a Dunham Technique class I get so nervous cuz I just want to make it as perfect as you did for us. @ashade411 I Luh yoo Gurl! Always doing the damn thang out thear. Respect! … And then 3.28.26 came and went. Rochelle Vivian May Nious. I’m out here tryna keep it moving. I miss you strong strong too. | Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! @cdi_dance @serena_maximilien @dunhamcertification @climbingpoetree @racheltavernier @h2the2ndpower @saroyacorbett @nowwatchmerumba @camilleweanquoi @jessica_stvilulysse @bb.moves @albirdaroseeberhardt @eylajmoore @edisaweeks

That irreplaceable voice … That irreplaceable you! “Keep that sad shit over there.” -Kendall Johnson-Smith - What continues to be so amazing about our Sis KK is that she shows us new ways to do this whole grieving the loss of a loved one/cementing and leaving a legacy behind process … Her way encourages us to grapple with our own selfishness. We miss her bad bad. Like so bad. It’s still so strange and hasn’t quite landed all the way yet. She did all of it … Life and death … Unapologetically on her own terms … In her own words … In her own way … So good … You have to follow her lead even when you feel like doing nothing else but falling down. | @twilson701 @prestonsmith6324 @eris10 @cocokillingsworth @jbdances333 @thornstouchwellness @marakahealing5 @goussyc @evolve_diaspora_kswhite @mlloyd216 @tossielong @mzkendrafoster @bradleygirlfree @shesash8peshifter @freee_stile @the_massacouraman @okaimusik @cihealingarts @orionkg @veledaroehl @sanctuariomusica @alaje256 @reneekimberlysmith

Woooo! Grief, these weather shifts, and these attacks on our psychic, mental, and physical well being are trying to take us out tho’ … But NOPE … Absolutely not … We must remember … Before there was an economy to support the consumption of dance as entertainment … There was dance to support the survival of human beings … Dance supported all of us first … Then we put her out on the track to get us our money … Now … With gigs and financial resources drying up in many parts of our field … And these powers that be … Stepping into position to control and redefine art … It has become immensely difficult to stay the course … Especially for these young artists just looking to get on somebody’s stage out here … To maintain and sustain the lives of our companies without mutual aid and partnerships IS CRAZY HARD AND DISCOURAGING RIGHT NOW 😂 But all of us … All of us that continue to uphold the values of the love, beauty, integrity, ancestral, and survival medicine of the art we create … WILL NOT BOW DOWN. We may fall but there are many more that will recover and take our place. Until then … Our existence is our resistance. Carry on! This time is giving us an opportunity to use our creativity to imagine and activate new ways to thrive in the values we hold true. We all feel it so let’s uplift each other in new authentic ways. | @ifetayoculture @serena_maximilien @imogenewill_ @tylahlyzette @jaysonpsmith @bam_brooklyn @capri_quarius719 @freee_stile @bradleygirlfree @polite.brian @makafui_mordedzi

Photo @transientphotog | Happy Birthday Queen Fefe. We ❤️ u.

Let us pray in our names … Let us be well … Let us pray in the name of ancestors new and old … Let us be well … Let us pray in the name of the Birthday Goddess @cocokillingsworth … Let us be well … We give thanks for New Edition, Boyz 2 Men, and BBD for always being there for us in our times of need. Àṣẹ! Àṣẹ! Àṣẹ! #wefromthe90z #bigauntieeraenergy #sang4thesangers #whatwouldkendalldo | @mausmom @andrea__zayas @thornstouchwellness @jbdances333

Embora @emtechnique Massive Please Stand Up! ‘Twas a time in our lives yes! What a light filled being! Oh Ms. Maritri @maritrimusic Blessed, blessed, blessed journey. May your legacy live on in the hearts of those whose lives you touched. May your art and life’s work remain visible and uplifted. It’s some real ones busting thru that water into the ancestral realm. Travel well Sis.