Next Performing Arts | Dance

Holly Bass, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Jennifer Harge, Ursula Payne, Crystal Michelle Perkins, and Vershawn Sanders-Ward

Archiving Black Performance

World Premiere

A black woman wearing a long sleeve top is in a dance pose.

Join us for an evening of work by internationally acclaimed Black women performers and choreographers presented in collaboration with Ohio State’s Dance Notation Bureau Extension Center. 

Archiving Black Performance is an evening of intimate performances by Holly Bass, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Jennifer Harge, Ursula Payne, Crystal Michelle Perkins, and Vershawn Sanders-Ward, created in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Dance Notation Bureau Extension Center at Ohio State. This renowned group of Black women choreographers will share the stage after a week-long residency exploring the importance of Black women choreographers and dancers in the 21st century. These celebrated artists will perform on the Wex’s black box stage for the first time ever to explore Black geographies and futures in community. 

This performance is a component of a larger, multiyear project created by Perkins and Valarie Williams to elevate the dances of Black women choreographers and performers as represented through Black lives and Black bodies. Stay after for a postperformance talk, which will be recorded for Archiving Black Performance’s growing public digital archive.

IMAGE CAPTION
Crystal Michelle Perkins, photo: Scott Robbins

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Doris Duke Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Mellon Foundation
Every Page Foundation

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc
Nationwide Foundation 
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme 
The Columbus Foundation 
Axium Packaging 

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Ohio State Energy Partners 
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection 
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang 
Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman 
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle 

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Next Performing Arts

Holly Bass, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Jennifer Harge, Ursula Payne, Crystal Michelle Perkins, and Vershawn Sanders-Ward