The Righteous Beauty of the Things Never Accounted For explores Black Fugitivity, the ongoing and historical resistance to systems of oppression that Black people face and the ways in which we have sought to escape or evade those systems in order to preserve our autonomy, dignity, and freedom. In Righteous Beauty, J’Sun Howard uses movement as an anchor and source for practicing freedom, allowing us to discover unexpected beauty that’s typically hard to experience in a carceral state. It is an embodied look into existing when the cosmos does not want us to exist.
This event is funded by the Art Theater Dance Box Kobe, Asian Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, National Performance Network, 3Arts Projects, the Center for World Performance Studies and International Institute at the University of Michigan, and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).
About the Creator
J’Sun Howard is a Chicago-based dancemaker. He holds an MFA in Dance and a certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan. He is a 2020 3Arts Awardee, a recipient of their inaugural Esteemed Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), and a 2019 Asian Cultural Council Fellow. A Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellow, a Ragdale Foundation Sybil Shearer Fellow, 2017 3Arts Make A Wave Awardee and 2014 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist. His works have been presented at Links Hall, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Defibrillator Performance Gallery, Patrick’s Cabaret (Minneapolis, MN), Danspace Project (NYC), Center for Performance Research (NYC), Detroit Dance City Festival (Detroit, MI), New Dance Festival (Daejeon, South Korea) where he won Best Dance Choreographer and the World Dance Alliance’s International Young Choreographers’ Project (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), among others. He has been commissioned by Common Conservatory, Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, World Dance Alliance, and The Art Institute of Chicago.
Featured Artists:
Damon D. Green is a Chicago-based dance artist and founder of TEXTUREDance Studio, an Urban Styles and Forms dance and wellness facility where he spreads his passion for movement education. Green is an avid Vogue aesthetic practitioner - exploring, performing, and teaching this form in its fusion with other movement disciplines. Green has collaborated with local choreographers and companies including Red Clay Dance, Paige Cunningham-Calderella, Darrell Jones, J'sun Howard, Philip Elson, Kristina Isabelle, Cecil Johnson Jr., Lional Freeman, Jane Beachy, Mauren Sledge (House of Avant-Garde), Bob Eisen, Molly Shanahan, as well as visual artist Faheem Majeed. Green teaches and attends workshops and master classes throughout Chicago as well as abroad. Damon joined The Seldoms in 2007 and has contributed to fourteen major projects.
Timothy Tsang is a queer Chinese American performer, choreographer, and arts administrator. He graduated from Columbia College Chicago where he performed in original works by Paige Cunningham-Calderella, Bob Eisen & Stephanie Paul, as well as repertoire by Merce Cunningham. Tsang has also performed with Ardent Dance Company, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Mordine & Company Dance Theater, Dance in the Parks Chicago, and in works by J’Sun Howard, Hannah Santistevan, and Kaela Norwood. He is currently a guest performer with The Seldoms for their 20th anniversary. In 2016, Tsang was commissioned by Columbia College Chicago to choreograph for its Open House. Additionally, he has set choreography on Esoteric Dance Project, Mordine & Company Dance Theater, Evanston Dance Ensemble, and has presented works at Auditorium Theater, Links Hall, Fulton Street Collective, Studio5, and The Edge Theater.
Timothy ‘Solomon’ Bowser hails from the red clay hills of Stone Mountain, Ga. Bowser received his formative dance training from Zandra Taylor, Dean Williams, and Pamela Jones Malave at DeKalb School of the Arts. Bowser received his BA at Columbia College Chicago in 2013. Bowser has performed with companies including Winifred Haun & Dancers, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, The Seldoms, Momenta Dance Company, Kanopy Dance Company, Motion/Pictures Dance Project, and Kalapriya Center for Indian Performing Arts. Bowser has also worked with Randy Duncan, Pascal Rioux, Deborah Carr, Ded Goodman, and J'Sun Howard. Bowser performed for the release of the 2016 “Coloring Book” mixtape for Chicago’s very own Chance The Rapper. In 2017, Bowser received a Summer Intensive Co-Mission Residency at the arts incubator known as Links Hall. In 2018, Bowser created and premiered MATTER for Winifred Haun & Dancers and co-starred in the dance film “Bleeding Backwards” by Motion/Pictures Dance Project’s Talia Koylass. Currently, Bowser serves his community as the Marketing Manager at See Chicago Dance.
Born and raised in Togo, Alain Sinandja embarked on his dance journey with Aske-Dance and SOJAF Traditional Dance Company, establishing his professional career from 2010 to 2015. He achieved a diploma in African traditional and contemporary dance from École Des Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal in 2017. Then he went to complete the 8-month choreographers dance program in Kobe, Japan in 2018. Since his relocation to Japan in 2018, he has collaborated with renowned artists like Kota Yamazaki on "Darkness* part3*" and Yasuko Yokoshi on "Lynch." In 2019, Alain participated in the Yokohama Dance Competition alongside Yu Shimomura's creation, leading them to win the first prize. Alain is the Founder/Artistic Director of Cie ARTS FOR ALL and Happy African Festival.
Born in Osaka in 2000, Daiki Sogawa started classical ballet at the Tamaki Ballet School at the age of three. In 2008, he attended the boys class at Souda Ballet School. In 2012, he entered the Tanz Academie Zurich, later starring in Makoto Saito's work "The Rite of Spring ." In 2015, he started searching for his own expression through painting. In the same year, he was selected as a finalist at the Youth America Grand Prix. In 2016, he entered the Dutch National Ballet School as a trainee. In 2019, he joined the Toulouse Ballet Company in France. After returning to Japan in 2021, he and Kurumi Yoneda formed the creative dance unit UTSURIGI. where they produced works "Capricious" and "Dear my sea." He also appeared in Makoto Saito's work "Romeo and Juliet" and created the main visuals for its promotional materials. This year (2023), he produced "still here" with Junnosuke Nishi.
