Happy Summer! Looking back on 2021 so far...

Happy Summer from Davalois Fearon Dance, and THANK YOU for your ongoing support! We are celebrating this summer by looking back at some of the highlights of 2021 so far despite the setbacks we faced due to COVID. 
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2021 so far: Premieres

Still by Anya Kress, "Joy", full cast

This past spring, Dava premiered Just Be on SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance students and Joy on Marymount College BFA dance students. Many thanks to DFD team members Njeri Rutherford and Mikaila Ware, assistant choreographers, and Anya Kress, a production assistant for Dava during her commissions

In-person and virtual performances

Thank you to Hillsborough Community College for presenting
Time to Talk in Florida this February!
Thank you to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) for presenting 
Consider Water at UTEP World Water Week 2021! 
Thank you to the New Shul for presenting excerpts of For C.J. at the Kumah Festival!​

​Dava as a guest speaker and writer

Jaqlin Medlock Photography

We are so grateful to the following organizations for giving Dava a platform to share her thoughts on these important topics!

•  IABD panel on Ntozake Shange's Dance We Do: A Poet Explores Black Dance 
• UTEP World Water Week 2021 Dance Symposium: Re-Valuing Water in Glocal Practices Structure
• Dance/NYC's Symposium Studio to Stage Pipeline: Story of Racism, Tendus & Black death
• Dance/USA 2021 Virtual Conference What is the Dance Field Doing About the Climate Crisis? and Supporting the Artistic Entity: Investing in Infrastructure for Sustainable Growth panels
• COVID Talks with Raja and Dava presented Bates Dance Festival The Future Impossible curated by Raja Feather Kelly 

Time to Talk Initiative Updates

This past year we have been deepening our social justice activism by expanding our Time to Talk Initiative into a discursive project created by Artistic Director Davalois Fearon to dismantle structural racism within dance, academia, and society at large. This series includes workshops, a mentorship program, online interview series, written articles, and much more to come. The initiative builds upon the For C.J. Initiative. It will take a multidisciplinary approach by utilizing both arts and informed discourse to educate audiences on the many racial disparities that occur socially, environmentally, and academically.

We want to THANK and recognize the hard work of Time to Talk Initiative partners Elissa Buxbaum, Raven Marsh, Jennifer Nagilla, and Mikaila Ware who are committed to seeing this work through. Learn more about the Time to Talk Initiative here.

And thank you, too!

We are grateful to all of you who participated, attended, volunteered, donated, funded, and supported us to make these happenings possible.
 
To continue to support our work moving forward, you can make a general contribution. Please visit davaloisfearon.com/support. Your donation will directly support our upcoming endeavors, including the DFD Virtual Theatre, all of the DFD initiatives, projects, and live performances.


What's Next:

​We are so proud of launching our DFD commission initiative, which produced the first success of the Time to Talk Shedding Workshop facilitated by Mikaila Ware and a work in progress piece Untitled by Morgan Anderson Raynor. Stay tuned for our next newsletter for announcements on our upcoming in-person, virtual, and DFD commission initiative events!!