Visions & Voices: A Virtual World Premiere Concert
On Saturday, May 22, 2021, Red Clay Dance Company returned to the stage with Visions & Voices, a virtual dance concert featuring three world premieres. Originally scheduled as a live performance in 2020, the concert was reimagined for the digital space in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, allowing local, national, and international audiences to experience the company’s work online.
Visions & Voices marked an important moment of return — not to a physical theater, but to shared witnessing through livestream. The virtual format expanded access while preserving the integrity of Red Clay’s choreographic voice, offering a platform for culturally rich and socially engaged dance during a period of continued uncertainty for the performing arts.
The program opened with INCARNATION 1 by guest choreographer Du’Bois A’Keen (New York City). The work explored the body as archive, altar, and access point — a site where past, present, and future converge. Through movement, INCARNATION 1 examined how bodies carry memory and meaning in relationship to the world around them.
The concert also featured the world premiere of we:all ~ gon’ die into revivals by Lela Aisha Jones (Philadelphia). The work emerged as an artistic and soulful labor, expressing dreams for Blackness and reciprocity with the natural environment. Rooted in care and collective imagination, the piece reflected on grief, renewal, and the possibility of transformation.
Closing the program was Reckonings, a new work by Red Clay Dance Company’s Artistic Director Vershawn Sanders-Ward. The piece traversed the landscape of democracy, interrogating systems of power and exposing the fragility of the American illusion. Through embodied inquiry, Reckonings invited audiences to confront the present moment with honesty and urgency.
Presented as a livestream at 7:00 PM CST, Visions & Voices affirmed Red Clay Dance Company’s commitment to pushing forward — adapting form without compromising vision. The virtual performance stood as both a response to the moment and a declaration that artists remain essential, even when stages go dark.
