Next Performing Arts | Dance

Ogemdi Ude

MAJOR

Ohio Premiere | Wex Commissioned Project

Six women stand in a line, all bent at the waist with one foot outstretched.

Explore the vernacular of majorette culture through the lens of contemporary dance in this performance cocommissioned by the Wex.

MAJOR is a dance theater project exploring the physicality, history, sociopolitical nature, and interiority of majorette dance, a form that originated in the American South within Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 1960s. These Black femme teams accompanied by marching bands created a movement style that requires master showmanship with allegiance to count, undulation, groove, and sensual yet strong performativity. In MAJOR, six Black femmes embrace majorette form—a fundamental relic of Black girlhood—to pursue the intimate journey of returning to their younger bodies they thought lost. The performance is set to a music score that integrates Southern rap, horns, drumlines, and melodic R&B and soul by musician and composer Lambkin. The Chord Archive—a physical and digital documentation of the creative process and personal historical accounts from former majorette dancers—will be showcased in the lobby alongside the performances. 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. (program approx. 90 mins. no intermission)

IMAGE CAPTION
Left to right: song aziza tucker, Junyla Silmon, Jailyn Phillips-Wiley, Chanel Stone, Kayla Farrish, and Selah Hampton in MAJOR, photo: Maria Baranova.

"Ude has effectively guided us back to the football field on an invigorating Saturday afternoon."
Fjord Review

In the press

About the artist

Ogemdi Ude

Ogemdi Ude is a dance and interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Her work has been presented at Kampnagel, The Kitchen, Gibney, Harlem Stage, Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, Recess Art, and for BAM's DanceAfrica festival. As an educator, she has taught at The New School, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, and University of the Arts. She is a 2026 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists recipient, 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography, 2025 Princess Grace Honoraria in Choreography, 2025–28 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, 2024 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant recipient, and a Live Feed Residency Artist at New York Live Arts. In January 2022 she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine for their annual “25 to Watch” issue. Her booklet Watch Me was published as part of the collection Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study by Dancing Foxes Press and Wesleyan University Press. Learn more at ogemdiude.com.

Program Support

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Doris Duke Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

CampusParc

The Columbus Foundation

The Ohio State University

Wexner Center Foundation Board

With special thanks to our members

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Ogemdi Ude