Saturday, January 20, 2024 7:30 PM
Power Center
LaTasha Barnes’
The Jazz Continuum
$12-20 student tickets available
LaTasha Barnes, who appeared in Ann Arbor as part of Caleb Teicher’s SW!NG OUT in April 2021, presents The Jazz Continuum, a new production centering the prolific artistry of Jazz music and dance as a cornerstone of Black American culture and community.
Supported by a live music ensemble, including a DJ/Turntablist, the all-star powerhouse cast of Explorers brings mind-bending musicality, spectacular athleticism, and boundless joy to each offering. This interdisciplinary and intergenerational experience investigates the energetic relationships and throughlines from Jazz and Lindy Hop to vibrant contemporary styles such as House, Hip-Hop, and more that developed from them. Each offering is also curated to amplify the cultural contributions of the local geographic area to the continuum.
The Jazz Continuum celebrates music and dances from across the diaspora, conjuring the spirits of Black dance elders and transporting audiences from Harlem and Cuba to New Orleans and Brazil in its ever-evolving celebration of being, dance, and music.
Join us after the Friday, January 19 performance for a Post-Performance Artist Q&A moderated by Shanté Fagans.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
- Anthony Reffells
FUNDED IN PART BY
MEDIA PARTNERS
LaTasha Barnes, who appeared in Ann Arbor as a collaborator in Caleb Teicher’s SW!NG OUT in April 2021, is a 2021 Bessie Outstanding Performer award winner, New York Times lauded Best Dance & Breakout Star, and an internationally awarded and critically-acclaimed dance artist, choreographer, educator, and tradition-bearer of Black American Social Dance from Richmond, VA.
She is globally celebrated for her musicality, athleticism, and joyful presence throughout the cultural traditions she bears: House Dance, Hip-Hop, Waacking, Authentic Jazz, and Lindy Hop, among them. Barnes’ expansive artistic, competitive, and performative skills have made her a frequent collaborator to Dorrance Dance, Singapore-based Timbre Arts Group, Ephrat Asherie Dance, and many more. The New York Times said of her most recent collaboration with Caleb Teicher in SW!NG OUT, “Barnes is especially extraordinary for the way the past and the present can pass through her…”
Barnes’ leadership and business skills have placed her in positions of service as Chair of the Board of Trustees for Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival®, Vice President of Marketing & Outreach for the International Lindy Hop Championship®, Co-director of HellaBlackLindyHop, Board Member of the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund, the Frankie Manning Foundation, and a contributing member to the NEFER Global Movement Collective.
Expanding the scope of impact for the communities she serves, Barnes completed her self-designed Masters in Ethnochoreology, Black Studies, and Performance Studies thru New York University Gallatin School (2019). Her thesis and continuing research are working to bridge the gap between communities of practice and academic cultural dance research, performance, preservation, and pedagogy. In concert with these efforts, she is deeply honored to be a part of the Brain Trust that developed the ground-breaking stage production SW!NG OUT, bringing the passion and power of Lindy Hop and its community to the concert stage.
Barnes is also honored to be the visionary and Artistic Director of the intergenerational and intercommunal cultural arts experience The Jazz Continuum, supported and presented by Guggenheim Works & Process and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2021. In support of this dialogue, Barnes is a contributing author to the forthcoming text Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century – Univ. FL Press (2021). Ensuring future artists and dance scholars maintain authentic cultural context as they move through the world bearing forth Black dance traditions, Barnes joined the faculty of Arizona State University School of Music, Dance & Theater as Asst. Prof of Dance in fall 2021.
Across all her efforts, Barnes’ eternal purpose is to inspire fellow artists and arts enthusiasts to champion artivism through cultivating an authentic sense of self and intention in their creative expressions and daily lives.