One definition of community relates to adopting common attitudes and goals that result in a feeling of fellowship with others. Choreographer Vershawn Sanders-Ward assumes that definition as philosophy and for sixteen years has used it as a foundational concept on which to build work for her Afro-contemporary dance company, Red Clay Dance Company.
The Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year in Dance in 2024 among other recognitions, Sanders-Ward has maintained a relationship with the Dance Center of Columbia College since her graduation in 2002. She brings Red Clay to her alma mater in the company’s 16th anniversary concert of three performances featuring an updated re-staging of Sanders-Ward’s high octane, “Written on the Flesh” (2016) and an earthy premiere by dance icon, Bebe Miller.
“It’s very meaningful to be returning to Columbia,” says Sanders-Ward. “I realize how special it was in my development as a maker. There were so many ways in which that place supported me beyond just what was happening in the studio.”As an undergrad at Columbia, Sanders-Ward found community in the dance program’s connection to local and national professionals, including Miller. Columbia also gave her the tools to develop as a choreographer which Sanders-Ward further developed in graduate studies at NYU.
Sixteen years ago, Sanders-Ward came home to Chicago to create her own community and establish a consistent group of dancers to help bring forth her choreographic vision. “I knew early on that I didn’t want to work project-based,” she says. “I wanted a core group that I could grow with over time.” Starting with an academic-influenced approach to dance-making, Sanders-Ward assembled a company and gradually evolved toward risk-taking and exploring new movement vocabulary. All along, she continued to expand her understanding of the Katherine Dunham technique, now the dance backbone on which Red Clay sets its stylistic roots. After spending time in Senegal and Uganda, Sanders-Ward deepened her unique artistic voice, gaining an understanding of how to move between and within varied forms with fluidity. The result uniquely blends Dunham technique with African dance forms of the diaspora.
Movement is only a part of the equation. Sanders-Ward sees art as a catalyst for community transformation and social justice. “I have great interest in social inequities and a call to action around things I see in my local community,” she says. “It can be challenging for audiences to come into the theater and be faced with the realities of the world and the experience not necessarily be an escape, but art can ignite change.”
Initial creative inspirations for “Written on the Flesh” stemmed from a Ta-Nehisi Coates 2014 essay, the term “elegant racism” and the book “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson. Sanders-Ward took these readings and concepts into the studio, inviting the dancers to respond to them. “They asked themselves, what do we hold in our bodies or what is a part of our identity that we keep with us as we move through the world with the color of our skin tone?” she says. An all-female cast of multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds has led this new staging toward a more nuanced conversation. (Amaya Arroyo, Melina Bezanis, Celeste Brace, Kylea Canada, Chantal’ Hill, Chaniece Holmes, Alexandria Kinard, Janya Pearson, Chanelle Turnbull, and Zipporah Wilson perform in this concert.) “The first iteration of the piece, the company had one dancer who identified as white and the others identified as black,” says Sanders-Ward, “so the piece has moved beyond black and white.”
Back in her Columbia student days, Sanders-Ward first encountered Miller during a residency. Years later, in a pandemic reconnection, Sanders-Ward participated in Miller’s online workshop. Shortly thereafter, Sanders-Ward reached out. “Bebe’s a legend. I told her we’d be honored if she would work with Red Clay,” she says. Since a first appearance in Chicago in 1986 at the former MoMing Dance and Arts Center, the acclaimed Bebe Miller Company has performed worldwide. Miller’s lengthy accolades include several New York “Bessie” awards and a few Guggenheim Fellowships, among others.
“Initially, Vershawn invited me to share ideas from the (pandemic) workshop with the Red Clay dancers,” says Miller, “but the collaboration evolved into being a piece for their repertoire.” Preparing for the dance, Miller pondered her previous works and reflected on the making process and her place in the world as an older choreographer. “I really felt a connection to one of my past dances and felt it was worth giving it an updated life,” she says. The new version for Red Clay, “Field New Ground,” began by using sections of movement from the 30-year-old original dance, “Field.” “So the piece contains memory as well as a new moment—the now,” she says.
Innately curious about the “how” of movement, Miller dug deep, exploring the difference between physically demonstrating feelings and actually feeling feelings. “It was a new way of working for a lot of these dancers,” says Miller. “We bring so much of ourselves to performance, and I really wanted that individuality to come out. And they all have different dance backgrounds, so I asked myself how can I use that in a meaningful and beautiful way?” With limited rehearsal time, Miller likened the process to planting seeds for the dancers to take forward on their own.
Experiencing this multi-layered premiere, Miller hopes the audience will connect, lean in, lean back and move with the depth of it. “We have these opportunities to work together, in the passage of a dance to an audience. This is what makes us all.”
Sanders-Ward also aims to foster community, connection and dialog between audience and performers. “I invite audiences to come in with a participatory posture and to be present in the moment,” she says. “If they come to participate and are actively involved in the work, there will definitely be something to take away.”
Red Clay Dance Company’s “Spring Concert Series: 16” is presented by the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and runs April 17-19, 2025 at 1306 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Showtimes are at 7:30 with a post-performance Q&A with Vershawn Sanders-Ward and Bebe Miller following Thursday’s performance. Tickets are $30 ($10 for Columbia College students) and are available at dance.colum.edu/events/2025/4/17/red-clay-dance-company.
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