Ogemdi Ude

I’m on the cover of Dance Magazine for their 25 to Watch/January 2022 issue. This is wild. I am made of and by the community I dance with - those who have loved, affirmed, and encouraged my making. You’ve helped me build a space in this field where I can unfold without compromise. I feel loved and I feel full. ⁣ ⁣ I’m grateful to the brilliant @laurenwinging for her thoughtful writing and support, as well as photographer @jaymethornton and the @dancemagazine team. ⁣ ⁣ There are so many incredible artists on this list. See it at the link in bio ⁣💗 ⁣ [ID: A dark skinned Black femme with a black 4c twist out is wearing white pants and a bright pink top with furry pink sleeves. She is smiling with her chin tilted up. One leg is lifted in the air.]

I wrote a book (swipe) and am gonna read it in public! 🥹 This first photo is me 8 years ago with my first book (my thesis lol). I am even more excited about this upcoming collection. A couple years ago Annie-B Parson and Tommy DeFrantz asked me to be brave and write on my subjective history of dance. I wrote about witnessing majorettes growing up and how it shifts me now. It’s still insane to me that I’m included in this collection with so many brilliant artists I look up to (if you know me you know my thesis was essentially a collection of Tommy stan pages). ⁣ Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study will have a reading and discussion Sunday, April 28th at 3pm at Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair featuring Annie-B Parson, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Bebe Miller, Alice Chung, and I. RSVP at the link in my bio. 🔗 ⁣ And you can pre-order the book at the link in bio!

My NYT debut 🥹 A preview into Platform 2022 by Gia Kourlas with artists mayfield brooks, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, iele paloumpis, myself, and curator​/Executive Director​ Judy Hussie-Taylor. We spoke about the intersections between life and dance​ and our new works premiering as part of @danspaceproject ’s Platform​​ series. Read the article and get tickets to "I know exactly what you mean" premiering May 12-14 and featuring me, @__selahvictoria , and @symarasaraij at the link in my bio!⁣ ⁣ Photos by Sasha Arutyunova (@sashafoto ) for The New York Times.

I admit, with both reluctance yet forgiveness towards myself, that dating has been extremely hard throughout my life. I know to some extent that is the case for everyone, but algorithms and predominately white environments are violent circumstances for Black femmes. And for most of my life I couldn’t help but feel there was a distinct depth to the callousness in how people treated me, in how devalued my thick body, my dark skin, my 4c hair, my eagerness and openness, my sensitivity was. So when I met Yolande, all I could keep saying to my friends was “she’s so nice to me, I can’t believe it.” This past year has been a revelation - a process of learning and unlearning how to love, how to support someone, how to build chosen family, how to share yourself, share your space, share your life, how to be kind - even when you’re mad, and how to respect the autonomy of both people in partnership so the relationship remains a gift you must earn, not a necessity you are obligated to. Yolande is generous, funny, creative, beautiful, a passionate advocate, and a radical Black woman. She is an affirmation of the love it took me so long to believe I deserved. I am so honored to love her. I am so humbled to be loved by her. Happy anniversary bb - I can’t believe I found ya 🩶

🖤 This Juneteenth, join us at the Prospect Park Boathouse for an outdoor performance of Ogemdi Ude’s “MAJOR”! RSVP for free at the link in bio. “MAJOR” had its NYC premiere at New York Live Arts in January 2026. This celebratory Juneteenth performance is a co-presentation between Danspace Project’s Platform 2026: “Secret Gardens” and Prospect Park Alliance’s ReImagine Lefferts initiative. This iteration kicks off “MAJOR”’s summer tour of outdoor performances that will continue from June 24–27 at Lincoln Center Hearst Plaza as part of Dance Encounters and July 24 at Jacob’s Pillow. Ude’s cast of all Black femme dancers and collaborators embraces majorettes as a form and fundamental relic of Black girlhood. Together they pursue the intimate journey of returning to bodies that they thought were lost. A fierce investigation of physical memory, sexuality, sensuality, and community, “MAJOR” is a nuanced love letter to the folks who taught the team how to be proudly Black and proudly femme. 📷: Photo by Maria Baranova

We got y’all! MAJOR is returning this summer for a series of outdoor performances ☀️ First stop is Brooklyn on Juneteenth at Prospect Park Boathouse, curated by @danspaceproject for the Platform: Secret Gardens series and Prospect Park Alliance. June 24-27 we’re in Manhattan at Lincoln Center Hearst Plaza as part of @lincolncenter Dance Encounters summer programming. These NYC shows are free! Finally, we head up to Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires on July 24th to perform on the legendary Henry J. Leir Stage. Thank you all for supporting this work so feverishly this past year. We hope you’ll have more fun with us in the months to come. See the links in my bio for more info. Photo courtesy of Maria Baranova / New York Live Arts Clip of @coolcatmil tearing it tf up courtesy of On the Boards #SummerForTheCity

Me and my twin @kimiko_tanabe turned 32 last Sunday. I’m very grateful to grow in life and love. Thank you all for holding me down 🖤

🎉❗️❤️Welcome, Ogemdi Ude!❤️❗️🎉 We are thrilled to welcome Ogemdi Ude / Akunna Material to the Lotus Roster! Ogemdi Ude / Akunna Material is the project based company of choreographer and director Ogemdi Ude, producing original dance, theater, and installation works in which Black diasporic cultural forms meet an experimental contemporary vernacular. Their practice engages the fleshiness of Black femme and queer bodies in motion as sites for enlivening lost peoples and histories. At the root is understanding the necessity of journeying through grief, and how—in the midst of it—we attempt to make meaning from memory and show evidence of our relationship to the lost subject. Engaging a roster of world renowned performers, designers, and visual artists, Ogemdi Ude / Akunna material empowers audiences and collaborators to reckon with the past, present, and futures of Black folks in collective motion. We are so excited to work together! Photo Credit: Chidozie Ekwensi #lotusartsmgmt #ogemdiude #LotusRoster #ogemdiudeakunnamaterial #blackchoreographers

In honor of Black History Month, we return to Ogemdi Ude’s North American Premiere of “MAJOR” during our Live Artery Festival; and send our congratulations to her, the cast, and collaborators on their recently concluded tours to Seattle, LA, and Nashville! 🖤 The dance theater project explores the physicality, history, sociopolitics, and interiority of majorette dance, a form that originated in the American South within Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 1960s.  “The Chord Archive” was a multimedia installation in our lobby created by project Archivist Myssi Robinson. Often site-specific to the venues presenting the show, it features physical and digital documentation of the “MAJOR” creative process, and personal historical accounts from former majorette dancers. Please swipe to see photos of the living archive and the show. Here’s to celebrating majorettes past and present! Happy Black History, this Month and year round! Please visit OgemdiUde.com to learn more about Ogemdi and her team, and how to support Black femmes. Interview by @laurasullivancassidy Artist Interviews series led by @__jessicajoyce__ Courtesy of @ontheboards Photos by Maria Baranova @photo_by_baranova #ogemdiude #major #myssirobinson #newyorklivearts #blackhistorymonth

I am honored honored honored to be a @foundationforcontemporaryarts Grants to Artists recipient. My skin is still tingling with shock. My heart full of gratitude and wonder. I am deeply grateful to my loved ones, my collaborators, and my peers. Simply put, this is fucking dope. ✨ The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) announced today the twenty-four artists who will receive its $45,000 Grants to Artists awards—the largest such grantee cohort to date. These unrestricted awards recognize experimental artists working in Dance, Music/Sound, Performance Art/Theater, Poetry, and Visual Arts, and provide financial support for increased freedom in their lives and practices. As an artist-founded and artist-led organization, the awards provide grantees with encouragement from a community of their artist peers and embody the generosity of spirit that is core to FCA’s values.

Tour starts this week. Catch MAJOR at @ontheboards in Seattle, @uscvandv in LA, and @ozartsnashville in Nashville. Tickets at the linktree in my bio 🎟️ 🔗 📷 by Maria Baranova, courtesy of New York Live Arts

Let’s get into it. Read the review at the link in my bio.