Dances of Resistance: African-American Ring Shout & African-Brazilian Orixá

Dances of Resistance: African-American Ring Shout & African-Brazilian Orixá Traditions dance workshop will investigate traditional and contemporary dance forms created and inspired by the descendants of the Yoruba, Angola, Fulani, Bakongo, and Akan people of West and Central Africa who were persevered in the Americas.

Join us for a fun and energetic dance class led by an experienced instructor and steeped in traditional dances that symbolize elements of nature (earth, water, air, and fire). Participants will experience "Ring Shout" and movements of the Orixá traditions.

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Tamara Williams, Associate Professor, UNC Charlotte, earned her M.F.A. from Hollins University in collaboration with Frankfurt University (Germany). Williams' choreography has been presented internationally in Serbia, Switzerland, Trinidad, Jamaica, Mexico and Brazil. Moving Spirits, Inc. is her contemporary arts organization dedicated to performing, researching, documenting, and producing African Diaspora arts. Williams’ scholarly work includes "Giving Life to Movement: The Silvestre Dance Technique"; "Reviving Culture Through Ring Shout", published in The Dancer-Citizen; and "The African Diaspora and Civic Responsibility".

Williams received several Culture Blocks grants from the Mecklenburg County Arts & Science Council; the funding supports Moving Spirits' ongoing free African diaspora dance workshops throughout the Charlotte community. She was commissioned by The National Center for Choreography to create a dance film for her company, Moving Spirits, Inc. The film, ÌBÀ OBÌNRIN, is an award-winning film which has been screened nationally and internationally since June 2021. Williams also received a NC Trailblazer Award from the NC Dance Project.

This program is made possible through the generous support from David and Nicole Tepper Foundation.

Host or Publisher Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture