Dance
Dance is my life’s passion and calling. In 2006, I received a BA in African and African-American Studies and Dance from Washington University in St. Louis, and in 2013, I received an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I focused on the spiritual and cultural significance of the dance of the African diaspora. I have performed with dance companies all over the country, including Philadanco D/2 (Philadelphia), The Slaughter Project (St. Louis), Project Motion (Memphis), Ko-Thi Dance Company (Milwaukee), Wild Space Dance Company (Milwaukee), and Hayiya Dance Theatre (Macon). I have choreographed pieces ranging from solo to full company performances, created my own short dance films, and produced other dance film projects. I have also lectured in university dance history classes, taught dance classes and workshops to elementary school students, and led movement and meditation classes for adults. I hope you will enjoy some of the below excerpts from my work.
Ensemble Pieces
The Four World Ages (2023)
Live Performance: 7PM, 7/29/2023
The Yard, Martha’s Vineyard
“The Four World Ages” draws on Nigerian-Igbo myth to tell the history of humanity as it unfolds through four eras: the Age of Universal Oneness, the Age of Self-Awareness, the Age of Light, and our current Age of Suffering. This piece features four dancers adorned with body paint as they enact this sweeping saga, and it employs dynamic projections, innovative light design, and spatial augmented reality components that blend artificial intelligence, computer vision, motion capture technology, custom-built software, and real-time 3D rendering. The live performance was on July 29, 2023 at The Yard on Martha's Vineyard, MA.
Directors: Marques Redd, Marquita Sams, Mikael Owunna
Choreographer: Marquita Sams
Dancers: Ashley Eleby, Billy J Hawkains III, Jordan Cowan, Rishell Maxwell
Engineers: Jiajian Zhang, Keyin Wu, Kyungseo Cho, Shuyue Wang, Yuan Suo
Production Designer: Eileen Goddard
Production Assistant: Dominique Swift
Costume Designers: Quenette Brooks and Sophie Leininger
Obi Mbu (The Primordial House)
Obi Mbu (The Primordial House) (2021) is a 30 minute experimental dance film that is centered in the Primordial House, located in the Sirius star system, from which creation emerges. Eke-Nnechukwu, the Igbo high god, and Chukwu, Her masculine counterpart, exist in perfect unity in and as the Blackness of space. Although They are dual aspects of the Primordial Androgynous deity, Chukwu sections off a part of space exclusively for Himself in the form of a sacred pillared chamber in the heart of the Primordial House. He engages in a secret work by dancing in and out of this chamber, which sets off a chain of irrevocable circumstances that lead to our current world and condition.
Directors: Mikael Owunna & Marques Redd
Movement Director: Ursula Payne
Chukwu: Corey Bourbonniere
Eke-Nnechukwu: Victoria Watford
Sound Design: Herman Pearl / soy s0s
Producer: Marquita Sams
Production Assistant: Isabelle Analo
Movement Consultant: Marquita Sams