This fall’s biggest dance day in Greensboro was led by Spartans.
The National Dance Day celebration kicked off with the premier performance of “A Wicked Silence” from Alexandra Joye Warren ’06 MFA.
Warren and dancers from her JOYEMOVEMENT Dance Company explored, through their “choreoplay,” the consequences of the eugenics program in North Carolina, which promoted forced sterilizations on those considered “inadequate” up until 1977. More than 7,600 people underwent forced sterilizations.
“As a Black woman, a mother, as a descendant of enslaved West Africans in America, the stories of those who experienced forced sterilizations in North Carolina, where many of my ancestors are from, was meaningful to me,” said Warren.
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the founding of the NC Dance Festival by UNCG professors John Gamble and Jan Van Dyke ’89 EDD. Van Dyke, who died in 2015, was also the founder of Dance Project, which runs the NC Dance Festival. Two of Van Dyke’s proteges – alumni Lauren Joyner ’05 and Anne Morris ’11 MFA – now lead Dance Project.
By Brittany Cameron
Courtesy photograph