Visiting Artist | February 6 – 10, 2023 // March 6 – 19, 2023
Divination Tools: imagine home
Artistic Director, dance artist and choreographer Leslie Parker was born on occupied land and is deeply rooted in the neighborhood that is also named the Rondo community of St Paul, MN. She came to MANCC from February 7 to 10 to conduct two workshops and make connections with community activists and healers; these February activities will be an instructive offering as they also inform her later residency from March 6 to 19.
While Parker was here in February, she offered FSU’s School of Dance a Black Dance Improvisation (BDI) workshop, followed by a second workshop primarily focusing on Black, Brown, Native, Indigenous and People of Color that was open to all. Both workshops were to give the participating students some insight into her movement process and to aid in Parker’s further development of her piece Call to Remember, now entitled Divination Tools: imagine home.
Parker will return in March with her collaborative team of Black musicians, visual artists and femme dance artists to continue her exploration of multiple perspectives on improvisation through a Black femme lens, as she furthers the development of her piece Divination Tools: imagine home. With her collaborative collective, she will draw from Blackness in music, dance, and storytelling in real time, as a multi-year, multi-city project.
Divination Tools: imagine home will premiere at Walker Arts Center May 11- 13, 2023.
Maggie Allesee
