Dance Department Presents Moonshine 2023

Moonshine 2023 to feature work from Charles O. Anderson, Pierre Clark, Amansu Eason, Baron Kelly, Porsha Olayiwola, Kevin Ormsby, Joel Valentín-Martínez, Chris Walker, First Wave Scholars & UW-Madison Dance Students 

MADISON – The University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Department and Professor Chris Walker are delighted to present Moonshine Friday, February 24, 2023 at 3:30 p.m. in the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall. This free event is a celebration of Black History Month, with live music, contemporary theater and dance performances that includes West African, Afro-Caribbean, and Hip-Hop dance forms. 

This year’s Moonshine performance will feature Manifesting Destiny: A 3/5 Proclamation, a work by guest artist Charles O. Anderson, chair of The Ohio State University Department of Dance, who reset this work on UW-Madison Dance students for performance in the Dance Department’s Faculty Concert 2023. An excerpt from Fences, directed by Professor Baron Kelly, of the UW-Madison Department of Theater and Drama, performed by Micah Anderson will be on the program as well as a performance from Porsha Olayiwola, Division of the Arts artist in residence.

Toronto-based artist Kevin Ormsby, artistic director of KasheDance, will perform a solo choreographed by Joel Valentín-Martínez, associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts. The work titled Dear Brother attempts to expand visions for contemporary dance-theater, shifting the relationship of black cultural expression from periphery to the center of their stories and histories. Ormsby will be on campus for the week, rehearsing for Trilogy of Being, solo concert featuring three choreographers including Chris Walker. In addition to performing in Moonshine, Ormsby will teach dance classes during the week. 

Professor Chris Walker will present a solo excerpt of his work The Burning Barn featuring poetry written and performed by First Wave scholar Azura Tyabji and dance performed by UW-Madison Dance degree candidate Cleo Decker. Walker will also present his work  Troubled Water  performed by Janae Adams, Cleo Decker and Cindy Stefanek (Dance degree students), with music performed by Heavyn Dyer-Jones (School of Music degree candidate), and “Banana Man” which will be performed by Amansu Eason and Chris Walker. 

The program also includes a performance art work of Danez Smith’s poem, Genessissy, choreographed by Chris Walker and danced by Pierre Clarke.  There will be additional performances by Alpha Stokes of The First Wave Touring Ensemble and the First Wave 15th cohort.  

In an effort to expand opportunities for campus and community members to engage with Black art and recognize its contributions to American culture during Black History Month, the Dance Department will offer free dance classes the week of February 20. 

Acknowledgements

Moonshine is produced by the UW-Madison Dance Department and made possible with support from the Division of the Arts, the Office of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement, Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, and the Black Cultural Center.