Elysium,Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS! Book II
By
Dani Tirrell + The Congregation
MAY 29 | 6:30PM
MAY 30 | 1pm
MAY 31 | 5PM
Kubota Gardens | 9817 55th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118
Presented through Velocity’s Guest Artist Series, in partnership with the CD Forum, On the Boards, and the Kubota Garden Foundation,
*Individual tickets go on sale about six weeks out from performances.
dani tirrell + The Congregation are back with their signature blend of thoughtful imagery and theatrical imagination. This site-specific epic will be the highlight of your spring arts calendar!
Elysium Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS Book II | Dani tirrell + the congregation
Elysium is a journey through death and resurrection in a world where Black bodies are the blessed and is a right of passage. The piece was conceived by dani tirrell in collaboration with choreographers Nia-Amina Minor, Quynn Johnson, and Cyrah Ward, as well as artist Keyes Wiley, + majinn.
Elysium is the second installment in the Leviticus or Love series by dani tirrell and The Congregation. This new work walks with The Lamenters (audience members) as they journey through soul sleep,resurrection and judgment in a land we call Elysium, a place of pleasure and well-watered plains for blessed bodies. Elysium is a place of ritual pleasure, exceptional rest and imaginative thought.
Artist bios
DANI TIRRELL
Nia Amina Minor
Cyrah L. Ward
Keyes Wiley
Quynn Johnson Ed.M.
Guest artist series
Velocity’s Guest Artist Series is a presentation platform that connects Seattle community with national/internationally established dance artists.
In contrast to our incubator programs which help to make and share new works, Guest Artist Series is a program that focuses on the presentation of dance projects, often by artists that we’ve worked to develop relationships with over an extended period of time. The goal of these presentations is to connect Seattle-based audiences with experimental dance projects from across the country, while also bridging peer-to-peer relationships between local and visiting artists.
In the Guest Artist Series, Velocity may engage with an artist in a traditional presenting financial model or in a collaborative fundraising model This fundraising can include but is not limited to, donor cultivation, and local grant applications.
PROGRAM SUPPORT
Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS! was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
Leviticus or Love and to walk amongst HUMANS! is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center, Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, Risk/Reward and NPN.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
The Garden’s primary paths are made of hard-packed gravel. There are grade changes along every path, some steeper than others. One section, The Mountainside, is not wheelchair accessible at all. The Self-Guided Tour map shows the paths that are easier to navigate. As a result of the Master Plan Update, a project to create accessible pathways to the picnic area will begin in Fall of 2021.
dani tirrell (dani) Seattle’s Mayor Arts Award recipient 2019, is a Black, Trans Spectrum, Queer choreographer, dancer, and movement guide. dani has guided people in Detroit and Seattle as well as sharing movement practices in other cities in the United States. Currently dani is the Artistic Director of Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas (Seattle). dani has been the host and co-creator of several online talk programs Sunday Dinner, The Living Room, and Intimate Conversations. dani is an Arts Matter Fellow, Artists Trust Fellow (Seattle) and 4Culture Arc Fellow (Seattle). dani was the Artist in Residence at Velocity Dance Center (2020/2021) and one of 6 Artists in Residence at On the Boards (Seattle, WA). dani is the founder and Artistic Director of dani tirrell and the Congregation.
*Photo by Unifyed Visuals
Nia-Amina Minor (she/they) is a movement artist, choreographer, curator, and educator originally from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the body and what it carries using physical and archival research to explore memory and history. Nia-Amina is co-founder of Black Collectivity, a collaborative project that explores and celebrates memory and culture through embodied responses. She has received regional and national commissions for her choreographic and film work and has a working background as a performer and dramaturg. In 2021, she was recognized as Dance Magazine’s 25 Artists to Watch. Nia-Amina holds a MFA from UC Irvine and a BA from Stanford University is currently based in Seattle, WA.
Multi-hyphenate art maker Keyes Wiley (they/them) is a designer of all things surrounding performance. Their next series of works will be in collaboration with Velocity Dance Center under the name NoGoodDoers. They will also be working with Dani Tirrell and crew on Dani’s next project LOL. Wiley has been an arts educator in Seattle since 2009 teaching various styles and genres all over the west coast. You can catch them in action as dj dark_wiley monthly at TUSH at the Clock-Out Lounge. Keyes has performed, collaborated or created work with Kitten N Lou (Jingle all the Gay, Atomic Bombshells) , Dani Tirrell (Black Bois, LOL), Keith Hennessy (Turbulence), On the Boards (Its Not Too Late), KT Niehoff (Lingo), the CD Forum, Velocity Dance Center, Gibney Dance (NYC), Cal State San Luis Obispo and more.
*Photo by Erin O’reilly
Cyrah L. Ward (seer-ah), (she/her) is a scholar of Black dance, critical race theorist, and interdisciplinary performance maker. Her value of utilizing dance as a tool for community organizing has led her to work with an array of artists, including Crystal Michelle Perkins & DeShona Pepper Robertson of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, MK Abadoo of MK Arts, as well as perform with world-renowned dance company Urban Bush Women.
Deeply rooted in the storytelling tradition, Ward’s work converges Africanist aesthetics within movement and language to transform her art into a vessel for sacred ritual, sociopolitical critique, and Black joy. Ward’s most notable collaboration, Hoofer’s Memory Lab, performed at New York City Center with tap dancers Brinae Ali and Gerson Lanza, was described by the New York Times as being “reminiscent of baptismal ritual,” further revealing her commitment to conjuring sacred art.
Quynn Johnson Ed.M., (she/her) is a Performing Artist and International Arts-based Educator. An award-winning artist, Ms. Johnson is a graduate of Harvard University (Ed.M.) and Howard University (B.S.), she is the 2020 Awardee of the John F. Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project. Performance highlights include soloist in the tour of After Midnight (NCL), Chasing Magic by Ayodele Casel, UnSung Sheros by Dormeshia, soloist in the Washington Ballet production of The Great Gatsby. An International Arts-based Educator and arts integration specialist, Quynn’s work is the destination for integrating movement with academic subjects.
Her in-school programs creatively integrate elements of tap dance with literacy and math offering participants a deeper learning experience to further expand their knowledge. As a leader in the arts education community, her work has reached over 85,000+ youth from pre-k through 12th grade with assemblies, residencies, and workshops. To complement her work in the classroom, Ms. Johnson self-published her children’s book, Lucky’s Tap Dancing Feet.
*Photo by JA Creative