My dad & I dance 🕺🏾 🕺🏾
#peterpan #neworleans #culture
#CUTUPNORUG #Cutupnorugseason
Dre’ 7 - CUT UP, NO RUG on all streaming platforms 🧡🪩🕺🏾
Producer: @alrightslash
Sometimes the things closest to home become the very thing the world comes to see ❤️🥹
For most people, the light is usually seen on me performing in front of the camera. Through photography, I found purpose in turning my lens and light toward others, creating work that captures the essence of my community through boundless storytelling. My photography explores culture and identity on a scale that extends beyond the everyday , preserving the spirit of my community and New Orleans while contributing to larger contemporary conversations meant to live within museum and cultural spaces.
Special thank you to the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (@utahmoca ) for coming to experience and hear me speak on my photographic works through @andresnapped ❤️
And thank you to St. Noir Cafe (@stnoircafe ) for allowing me the space to do so.
#CUTUPNORUG #CUTUPNORUGWORLD
On June 6, 2024, I got a call about a film looking for New Orleans dancers.
They sent a reference video…
& it was my dad.
Dancing to DJ Jubilee in 1995
We hadn’t spoken in years.
But that day, it was also his birthday the same day.
I called him.
And everything shifted.
Fast forward to now…
I just danced for Jon Batiste at Jazz Fest
and performed my own music at French Quarter Fest.
On 504 Day, it only feels right to come back to this.
Because this was never random.
This was lineage. This was New Orleans. This turned my purpose into calling.
-
That video didn’t just show me where I come from…
it showed me who I was becoming.
From that moment came CUT UP, NO RUG
From healing came purpose
From my father… came me
🙏🏾
We may not have had everything.
But one thing we always had was dance.
The more I look back at what I’ve done with appreciation…
the more life keeps opening up for me.
Not because I’m greater-
but because I’m grateful.
Happy 504 Day 🪖❤️⚜️
#CUTUPNORUG
Dre’7
I like to turn the party up🕺🏾
Before the stages I danced at the parties & before FQ Fest my friend @purelypercy through the most lit🔥💀 @spookyislandparty party! We had a time!
#neworleans #spookyisland #fundraiser
Jazz Fest ‘26 💫
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.
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If I stuck to just the English language, words would fail to fully encompass what it is that we experience whenever @jemelmcwilliams and @jonbatiste bring us together.
I could say this is FREEDOM and Liberation, yet I still feel these words do not fully convey what takes place. It’s not that there aren’t any rules that we have to follow. We aren’t up there just doing whatever we want, when we want, without any boundaries.
I believe this is CHEIRUT ✨
…the primary Aramaic term for freedom. Cheirut signifies a “freedom to” serve God and live in accordance with spiritual purpose, representing liberation from spiritual bondage 🤎
Being in process with this community, you learn and practice patience, camaraderie, kindness, compassion, perseverance, forgiveness and how to move past ego and fear. You get to practice LOVE, because we all know that we are there for the ultimate purpose of sharing setting people free.
This is CHEIRUT ✨
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📸 : Danielle C. Miles and @dfenton1
FQ Fest 2026✨🕺🏾
Much gratitude for this moment of history,
Thank you❤️
Imma walk into every room and let them see God’s will all over me & Ain’t nothing they can do about it baaaby…
