Choreography and Performance by Alanna Morris
Pardon the appearance as this page is under construction through July 2024…
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the world of my creative imaginations!
My work is ritual performance. I embody rigorous self inquiry, disciplined analysis, and emotional recall. I engage multiple theses around the nature, function of, qualities, and values of performance, masquerade, self love, pleasure, liberation, and others. This praxis and methodology is called “Black Light Research,” which I have been extrapolating in creative processes since 2020.
All works below are choreographed by Alanna Morris.
Click on each image to view excerpts.
Full-length videos are included below project descriptions.
Please come back in August for the new vibe!
Pẹ́lẹ̀ Pẹ́lẹ̀!
38 min full length
Pẹ̀lẹ́ Pẹ̀lẹ́! is a deep dive through the depths of ourselves through Self study and observance. We invite a practice of internal softness/rigor that is then manifested in our relationships with others and with Spirit.
“Pẹ̀lẹ́” is a common Yorùbá phrase that can mean something like, “sorry” or “condolences” after experiencing an accident or a loss. More deeply, however, this phrase connotes a wish for someone to go easy and gently on themselves when experiencing discomfort or pain.
It is my prayer to cultivate a life that is the embodiment of this value, both within myself and my relationship with others.
This piece is dedicated to my eternal love, Kọ́lápọ̀ Abímbọ́lá.
Photo by Canaan Mattson
“S/he’s never been anything but herself.”
21 min full length
Photo by Canaan Mattson
“Look both ways before crossing the street!”
9 min full length
”Look both ways before crossing the street!” was developed in the summer of 2022 during Alanna’s 3-week residency at Springboard Danse Montréal, in collaboration with the danseurs.
Photo by Michael Slobodian
Invisible Cities
1 hour 17 min full length
Invisible Cities deepens a choreographic methodology Ashwini Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam choreographer and dancer with Ragamala Dance Company) began in 2019 with Let the Crows Come—named a “Best of the Year'' in The Washington Post and a critic’s pick in The New York Times. This collaborative reimagining of Italo Calvino’s metaphysical novel interweaves cultural perspectives with a dynamic group of dance artists—Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam), Berit Ahlgren (Gaga), Alanna Morris (Modern), Joseph Tran (Breaking)—and visual artist, Kevork Mourad, who creates Invisible Cities’ interactive, immersive projections in real time.
Director/Choreographer/Dancer: Ashwini Ramaswamy
Director/Visual Artist: Kevork Mourad
Choreographers/Dancers: Berit Ahlgren, Alanna Morris, Joseph ‘MN Joe’ Tran
Guest Artists/Choreographers/Dancers: Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy
Dancers/Collaborators: Lisa Berman, Elena Hollenhorst, Gemma Isaacson, Canaan Mattson, Anna Pinault, Amanda Sachs, and Marie Thayer
Invisible Cities is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by The Great Northern, The Cowles Center, Northrop, The Ronald O. Perelman Center for the Performing Arts, The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the Bates Dance Festival, and NPN.
Photo by Jayme Halbritter
Black Light a re:Search performance
1 min promotional video of 2021 research performance
Black Light a re:Search performance (2022) is a multi-year collaborative research project escavating the divinity of black-ness and the eternal validity of the soul (Seth), being presented in phases as research performance.
This project showcases 6 theses in an hour performance:
1. Divine feminine / Dark Mother warrior hood
2. Self pleasure/Self love
3. The Latent Psyche
4. Self Realization
5. Sokah: The medicine of a good whine
5. Haiti: The first Black republic
Co-presented by The Great Northern Festival, Northrop and the Cowles Center for Dance, Minneapolis.
For artist credits, financial support, and more about the development of Alanna’s research go to the Black Light Research Portal and enter the passcode ‘BLRS2023’
Photo by Bill Cameron
Bring it down under your feet
1:30 min rehearsal video
Choreography and Performance by Penny Freeh and Alanna Morris
Bring it down under your feet (2021) is a duet commissioned by the Cowles Center for Dance’s Merges in March festival. This annual program pairs artists in unconventional collaboration, culminating in an evening-length performance. Artists often also bookend the evening with original works of their own.
“We’ve connected through the poetry of Rumi, valuing process and output equally, sharing hearts and time in the studio and on Zoom. Researching our lived experiences through the lens of shared and respective grief, we aspire to empower radical transformation from the inside out.” - PF and AM
Photo by Canaan Mattson
“Yam, Potatoe an Fish!”and Black Light re:Search
5 min excerpt
"Yam, Potatoe an Fish!" (2018) is Alanna’s tour-de-force solo and multimedia performing arts project and was developed at the Catharsis Residency through Art On Purpose in Trinidad, W.I., a residency at the Brooklyn Ballet School and Creative Outlet Dance Theatre in Brooklyn, NY, and the TU Dance Center in Saint Paul, MN. This project made Minneapolis’ Star Tribune’s Best Of Dance and Alanna was named City Pages’ Artist Of The Year.
Black Light re: Search [Part 1] (2021) is a collaborative solo work-in-progress that ventures into the nobility of black-ness; the divinity of the feminine expression/creative energy; and the harnessing of the sensual expression. I have undertaken this journey to unmask myself, influenced by masquerade traditions of the Nagot-Yoruba people (Orisha of Nigeria) and its archive in the Caribbean nations of Trinidad, Tobago, and Grenada. Audiences are invited to engage in a work that exalt mythographies of life and death, birth and creation, and venerates ancestors who have cleared the path. We honour these guiding forces throughout the presentation. I am joined by a cast of 10 collaborators, dancers, musicians, poets, healers and designers who are prominent practitioners in their respective avenues of contemporary and traditional performance, healing arts, and design. Black Light premieres at The Great Northern Festival as a full-evening, kaleidoscopic, multidisciplinary work in January 2022.
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Listen Hear Touch Smell Feel
20 min full length
Choreography by Alanna Morris
Performance by Karah Haug
Direction by Alanna Morris and Karah Haug
Listen Hear Touch Here Smell Feel (2020) is a solo commission for Class of 2020 Carleton College graduate, Karah Haug. It is an exploration of sensorial stimulation and the human being’s connection with the natural world.
The Gateless Gate
4 min excerpt / 32 min full length
Choreography by Alanna Morris
Performance by the Minnesota Dance Theater
The Gateless Gate (2019) was commissioned by the Minnesota Dance Theater. A duration-based work, it is interested in experiencing the passage of time and ourselves as both the Watcher of Time and the Experiencer. Grounded in the idea of "with-ness," a term Alanna uses to describe the nature of reality--that we are all interconnected: human to human, human to object, human to the natural world.
Dancers were encouraged to ground their practice in the use of breath, realizing the emergence of another tenet central to Alanna’s work--"the body as home." This created a profound sensitivity--physically, psychically and spiritually within the cast of Minnesota Dance Theater.
This piece brings in the energy of the Yorùbá goddess, Yemoja (as sung and played in the last section by Trinidadian chantwelle, Kieron Keith) to epitomize the Mother-concept. The heart beat of this work becomes the overlay of Louis Alemayehu's poem, "Akhenaten's Dream," in which he asks, " How do we recognize what is sacred in our lives and become centered in that?"
Photo by Jeffrey Pedersen
“Yam, Potatoe an Fish!”
5 min excerpt / 30 minutes full length
Choreography and Performance by Alanna Morris
"Yam, Potatoe a Fish!" (2018) is a multimedia performance art project and solo dance created and performed by Alanna Morris (then Morris-Van Tassel), featuring Elyse Morris (sister and former dancer with Abraham.In.Motion). It premiered at Off-Leash Area’s Art Box in Minneapolis, MN to 4 sold-out performances. This tour-de-force explores the passage of time and movement of people, amidst Alanna’s family's story of migration from the Caribbean to Brooklyn, New York in the 1960's. "Yam, Potatoe an Fish!" examines cultural loss and the meaning of being “lost” and canvasses the significance of the spiritual and corporeal bond of Sisters as Alanna claims her relationship to family, history, culture, legacy, gifts, and story.
This work is available for touring
