Moving Spirits, Inc.
For fifteen years, Moving Spirits, Inc. has developed performance works, festivals, residencies, cultural exchanges, and embodied research projects that honor African diaspora histories while creating innovative contemporary performance experiences.
The company’s movement aesthetic centers groundedness, rhythm, storytelling, ancestral memory, ritual practice, community participation, and contemporary experimentation. Their work bridges scholarship, performance, activism, and cultural preservation.Type your paragraph here.
2016
During the pandemic, Moving Spirits created the dance film ÌBÀ OBÌNRIN, which evolved into the contemporary work Sacred Women- a powerful homage to Ring Shout traditions and Black women’s environmentalist practices. The work has since been performed internationally, including at the Black Choreographers Festival in San Francisco and the International African Diaspora Dance Traditions Conference in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
MOVING SPIRITS, INC. — 15 YEARS PAST & PRESENT
Contemporary African Diaspora Performance • Cultural Preservation • Community Engagement
Performance Legacy
“Dances are tools of resistance.
Ring Shout is a means of survival.”
-Tamara
One of the company’s most celebrated contemporary works, Sacred Women, emerged from the dance film ÌBÀ OBÌNRIN during the height of the pandemic.
The project received support from Black Spatial Relics, Alternate ROOTS, The Croft Residency, the Arts & Science Council, Casa SoMovimento (Brazil) and the Opportunity Fund.
Sacred Women continues to evolve as ongoing research, performance and archive, while preserving blood memories and expanding contemporary African diaspora dance aesthetics.
Moving Spirits, Inc. is a contemporary arts organization dedicated to performing, researching, documenting, cultivating, and producing arts of the African diaspora. Africanistic aesthetics heavily influence the company’s repertory, blending modern dance, ballet, African diaspora dance forms, and contemporary West African dances.
The organization believes that the creative arts should be used as a vehicle to bring awareness to injustices and obstacles impacting communities. Moving Spirits’ artists dedicate themselves to evolving social change through dance performances, cultural research, education, and community engagement.
2015
As the company celebrates fifteen years, it honors the artists, elders, collaborators, scholars, audiences, and communities who have contributed to its journey while envisioning an expansive
future for African diaspora performance traditions.
About the Company
2011–2013
15 Years
Past & Present
Moving Spirits, Inc. has performed nationally and internationally at distinguished festivals, galleries, universities, and theaters.
2018
Moving Spirits, Inc. emerged as a vibrant contemporary dance ensemble rooted in African diaspora traditions and civic engagement. The company presented “The Makings of YOU” at Dance New Amsterdam in NYC and later produced the annual concert Epic Narratives: An Evening of Dance, Visual Art, Theater, and Social Commentary.
A Living History
Moving Spirits collaborated with renowned Brazilian artist Rosangela Silvestre during an intensive residency process resulting in the production Walking Elements, co-created with Artistic Director Tamara Williams.
Sacred women
In response to police brutality and violence against Black communities, the company created, RESPOND: Moving Spirits to Enlightenment, honoring Black lives through dance and performance activism. The organization also launched Dancing in the Parks: Bushwick Community Festival, bringing free performances into public housing communities.
The company received the prestigious Kaatsbaan UpStream Residency at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in the Hudson Valley, NY, further establishing its national artistic presence.
2021–Present
Moving Spirits, Inc - Past & Present
“Listen to your heart and follow the
wisdom of the body.”
-Tamara