CONTENTS
WELCOME by MAURYA KERR , Guest Editor
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The theme of legacy emerged as this issue coalesced—legacies of bodies, of resistance, brutality, culture, art. When I think of the legacies of bodies, I imme- diately think of all those disappeared because of the legacies of oppression. Who is missing from this room, this canon, this legacy, this life? Who gets (a) legacy?
As someone drawn to the dictionary to help me fathom the world, looking at legacy as ‘money or property left to some- one in a will’ leads to the fact that Black folks in America have always been denied generational wealth building. The deadly 1921 Tulsa race riot is just one example of the tactics of white supremacy/violence used to guarantee the destruction of Black legacy—our very lives and economic prospects for future generations. Looking at legacy as ‘the long-lasting impact of a person’s life or particular events in the past,’ one legacy of that race massacre is that in 2022, the typical white household’s wealth was $285,000, compared to the typical Black household’s $44,900 . (An article in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology put the 2018 value of property and assets destroyed in Tulsa at over $200 million. ) From the etymology of legacy comes ‘ a body of persons sent on a mission.’ The history of America is indeed a body of persons sent on a mission—to colonize, oppress, kill. Trump is in office again and the legacy of America marches on and on and on. As do the legacies of radical refusal—Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bayard Rustin, and Recy Taylor, to name just a few—who give us hope that something different, something freer, can exist.
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46/ Improvising with Ghosts Past/Present/Future by Clarissa Rivera Dyas and ainsley e. tharp 50/ Spirit of Sankofa: Bridging the Legacy of BCM and BCF by laura elaine ellis 54/ The Real Cost of Free Dance Classes with Bodies of Empowerment by Kristin Damrow and Shareen DeRyan 58/ Spend a Little, Gain a Lot by Ian McMahan
14 / Same Score by Jesse Hewit 20 / Dancing with Solidarity by Dancers for Palestine 26 / Lessons from 20 Years of Working to Expand Access to Ballet by Kristine Elliott 33 / shuhada: dancing the evidence of Palestine by Leila Awadallah 38/ Book Review: The Choreography of Environments by Marlena Gittleman 42/ Access Guide to Presenting and Touring in the Performing Arts by AXIS Dance Company
In this issue we celebrate and confront, often simultaneously, legacy.
Dancers’ Group gratefully acknowledges the support of Bernard Osher Foundation, California Arts Council, Fleishhacker Foundation, Grants for the Arts, JB Berland Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Koret Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation and generous individuals.
I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves and each other. Resisting tyranny requires deep, intentional self-care and other-care, with mutual aid hopefully a steady practice as we continue aligning our finances with our values. To source from @imperfectactivista , mutual aid is the foundation for collective strength. AWARE-LA has an excellent guide (slide sixteen) I have found helpful in determin- ing a basic monthly redistribution budget. (And speaking of, have you and/or your business paid your annual Shuumi Land Tax ?)
DANCERS’ GROUP Artist Administrator Wayne Hazzard General Manager Kat Koenemann Artist Resource Manager Kim Requesto Administrative Assistant
I hope that we see each other in community somewhere, sometime, soon.
And I hope you’ll join me outside Zellerbach Hall February 22nd–23rd to protest Batsheva’s performances in accordance with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest- ment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. To add your voice to the effort to convince Cal Performances to cancel Batsheva’s engagement, click here.
Danielle Vigil
Program Assistant Abigail Hinson Design Sharon Anderson
May we be legacy—a body of people on a mission for justice (and praxis- based) empathy.
Sending care.
Cover Photo: Yuko Monden Juma and audience member at AXIS Dance Company pre-show touch tour. Photo by Adriana Oyarzum
Maurya
Shareen DeRyan, photo by Afshin Odabaee
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