The mission of I A.M. Arts is to produce collaborative solo dance works and global commissions that uplift and inspire our humanity; to produce educational programs that utilize the creative arts as a tool for self- development; and to spearhead community development initiatives that assist mid-career women Creatives with spiritual, professional, and economic resources to thrive.
Expanding our community development model, in 2023 I A.M. Arts launched the HUB— a home for ongoing workshops and artist talks contributing to the education, preservation, protection, dissemination, and training in African indigenous knowledge and practice, facilitated by internationally recognized practitioners and scholars.
History
I A.M. Arts is a Black and woman-led non profit arts organization, launched in 2017 with spheres of influence in critical dance performance, wholistic arts education, and community development arts programs. I A.M. Arts has been developing and producing provocative and soulful dance choreographies that center the trajectory of Morris’ research into Afro Caribbean cultural archive and African diaspora traditions. We present dance for diverse audiences, largely employing Minnesota artists of color, and building bridges and partnerships with arts organizations around the world that share a similar vision. In 2018 I A.M. Arts launched a mentorship/coaching program for pre-professional female dancers of color to address racial inequities in access to dance education. Our community development programs serves mid-career *women creatives who are on the front lines of movements for social, economic and political reform. In 2022, I A.M. Arts begins building its HUB model—an on-going space for robust training in African indigenous knowledge and practice.
Vision
Now entering our 7th season, in 2023/2024, I A.M. Arts will support the continued development of The Black Light Training Module, a wholistic methodology and meta physical praxis stewarded by Artistic Director, Alanna Morris; the furthering of Black Light research; and the commission of new dance works by Alanna Morris.
I A.M. Arts has expanded our community development model to launching the HUB, a space for the activation, protection, education, and preservation of Black embodied traditions in an ecosystem of cooperation and mutual support— connecting BIPOC healing justice workers with resources to thrive through artist talks, community conversations and workshops, as well as hosting bi-annual retreat/artist residency program for mid-career *women creatives that is part restorative practice and part professional development.
In Fall 2024, I A.M. Arts continues our mentorship/coaching program in its 4th year to support the training and careers of pre-professional dancers of colour thanks to a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
*“women” and “female” are inclusive of trans women and those with gender-expansive identities.
#BlackLightreSearch
Research and Development
Black Light research is methodology, praxis, and multi-year research-as-performance, stewarded by Alanna Morris, examining the nobility of black-ness from a mythio-scientific, anthropological and metaphorical level and the eternal validity of the soul (Seth).
Promotional video was from Black Light a re: Search performance, presented in 2022 by The Great Northern Festival, Northrop, at The Cowles Center.
Additional research and development support was provided by:
Dancer-Collaborators/Movement Coaches: Imagine Joy, Andréa Potter, Gabrielle Abram, and Yoni Light
Choreographers/Coaches/Performers: Afoutayi Haitian Music, Dance and Arts Co
Costume design: Trevor Bowen
Lighting design: Beaudau Banks and Valerie Oliveiro (2021)
Stage Manager: Allana Olson
Consultants and Movement Coaches: Jamie J Philbert (writer of A foreword to move forward); Yesenia Selier; Patriann Edwards, Adam Barruch, and Vie Boheme
Special Thanks to:
Canaan Mattson; I A.M. Arts Advisory Board Members—Stephanie Brown, Lorna Morris, Christine Van Tassel and Michael Kleber-Diggs; Eniola O. Adelekan; Efuwape Andall; Baba Louis Alemayehu; Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul; The Croft Residency (MI); The Center for the Performing Arts (Mpls); MOVO Space (Mpls); The Dance and Theater Department at Carleton College,: Dana Kassel; Colin Edwards; Alexandra Wells and Babaláwo Ifágbénjó Ifárótìmí Ejékáyinfá (Osogbo).
Photo by Canaan Mattson
“Liberation as both birthright and practice is woven through each movement and each of the six acts of Black Light a re:Search performance. Frankly, I am still searching for an alternative word to “performance.” What I experienced was ritual, ceremony, and an invitation to co-creation and transformation. And, as I have felt before with Morris’ work, the usual ways in which we are expected to take in dance and performance with a clearly delineated stage ahead and a seated, mute audience feels wholly inadequate. The performance’s centering of Afro-Atlantic cosmologies, music, and dance traditions implodes any notion of a separate voyeuristic spectator. ”
This 2022 presentation of Black Light a re:Search performance was supported by the Cowles Center and Northrop, with additional funding by the Great Northern Festival. Alanna is the recipient of a 2021 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by The Cowles Center and funded by the McKnight Foundation. Additionally, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. This activity is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Black Light a re:Search performance has also been supported through residencies at the Croft Residency in Horton, MI; the Center for Performing Arts in Minneapolis (with funding from the McKnight Fellowship Program); the Weitz Center for Creativity at Carleton College; and MOVO Space in Minneapolis.
“The performance’s centering of Afro-Atlantic cosmologies, music, and dance traditions implodes any notion of a separate voyeuristic spectator. Morris calls us in and what we do with that call is up to us...Dance is at once intimate and communal medicine. Black folk know this, but that knowing is present in every one of us. It is joyful, ancient, and divine. And part of what Black Light is asking us to reach for is precisely this part of ourselves. ”
“...the force that is Morris is breathtaking.”
“And Morris, who draws on Ramaswamy’s detailed use of the face with her own joyful smile and glowing eyes, finds her way into Bharatanatyam as she darts across the stage, sinking into big, juicy pliés while stretching her arms for days. She’s articulate yet free in her body; swirling to the floor and rising up again, you feel that her cascading sense of momentum, for all her grounded glory, has a weightlessness, too.”
“If Ramaswamy is like a living sculpture and Ahlgren is more distant, diaphanous and of the air, Morris ties them together, surfing on a peak of feeling as if dancing the histories of her ancestors. It makes sense: Ramaswamy’s title takes inspiration from a Hindu tradition involving the offering of rice. If a crow comes and eats the rice, it means that your ancestors are well — they have ascended.”
“Alanna’s expressive movement reached a plane beyond the limits of the body. This does not mean her physicality was lacking; her superb body control facilitated the expansive journey her heart and spirit had set into motion.”
““After years of astounding performances with TU Dance, in which her emotional bravery matched her aesthetic integrity, Alanna Morris-Van Tassel ventured out on her own. And what a debut it was. In her solo, “Yam, Potatoe an Fish!”she delved into notions of home, displacement, race, and memory to create a personal cultural history that rang with universal truths. She found inspiration in her family’s migration from the Caribbean to Brooklyn, as well as her grandmother’sYoruba-influenced Spiritual Baptist faith. Through her own body—athletic, articulate, and full of grace—she generated a movement vocabulary infused with muscular power and soul-soothing prayer.”
-City Pages, Best Choreographer (2019)”
““Yam, Potatoe an Fish!” Former TU dancer Alanna Morris-Van Tassel stepped into the realm of dance-making with gusto, using her considerable gifts as a performer to fuel her choreographic voice.
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“Her lone body carves a place for itself within the gallery walls, crossing borders, oceans, and generations—tracing a path to a place that might be home. When she starts stepping, I remember girlhood dance circles, baby teeth scraping sweetness off mango seeds, the scent of immaculate plaits laced in hair oil, the sound of bubble hair ties clinking together offering their own giddy percussion. I want to step in, responding to the call of her movements and phrases with my own body’s cry-song for home. Three children with curly crowns and brown skin play. Cupping their hands, they peer through the glass wall outside. They grin as if they, too, can see the home-place dancer Alanna Morris-Van Tassel has conjured—its intricate cartography charted with her bare feet.”
“Wherever you find her, Morris-Van Tassel embodies the power of dance to create deep and lasting connections where words cannot.”
““It was anchored by a powerhouse performance from Alanna Morris-Van Tassel, leading the troupe’s terrific women…” ”
““Perhaps Alanna Morris-Van Tassel best captured the spirit of Matter in a solo where, wrapped in an American flag, she presented a body unhinged, vulnerable, and despairing.””
““...a daring exposé of body and soul...she unearthed a vital spirit that bore no pretense and was bewitching to behold.””
Alanna in their solo “Yam, Potatoe an Fish!” (2018)
Photos by Bill Cameron
