Dance Place and Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens are thrilled to announce the recipient of a site-specific, movement-based performance commission and presentation to premiere at Hillwood. Congratulations to Krystal Collins/new growth collective!
This summer, from July 21 – 25, 2021, Krystal Collins/new growth collective will present a movement-based performance work that is in dialogue with incoming sculpture installation Rich Soil by Kristine Mays, a California-based sculpture artist.
The exhibition features 29 life-size sculptures capturing bodies in motion. Mays said her sculptures were inspired by Alvin Ailey’s famed work, Revelations, and the way Ailey explored the historical African American experience through movement. Mays apportioned Rich Soil into seven beautiful groupings, including “Not Just Happenstance,” “Ancestral Spin,” “Conjuring,” “Little Worlds Within Us,” “Celestial Prayer Meeting,” “Soon and Very Soon,” and “All Night Worship Service.” The installations are accompanied by narratives written by Mays inspired by African-American sayings, culture, and folklore.
In dialogue with the exhibition, Krystal Collins/new growth collective’s commissioned work has an artistic vision that amalgamates many lenses of Blackness, including: queerness, girl/womanhood, popular culture, joy, ancestral and spiritual practices. This inaugural work as Krystal Collins/new growth collective will leverage these themes with the goal of creating a sustainable artistic practice that is community centered.
Stay tuned for more information on the physically distant gathering, including show dates, times, and ticket information.
The selection committee for this commission was comprised of:
Ronya-Lee Anderson, dancer, choreographer, scholar, singer, songwriter and educator & recipient of past Dance Place physically distant commission
Ben Levine, Director of Production at Dance Place
Jessica Malcom, Hillwood Grants Manager
Ashlee McKinnon, artist, teacher, company manager for BREatheDance Project; Exhibition Committee member for Rich Soil at Hillwood
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More about Krystal Collins/new growth collective: Hailing from the Midwest, Krystal Leniece Collins (she/they) captivated their first audience in the produce section of the local Moo & Oink (may the beloved Chicago grocery chain rest in power). A graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (BFA ‘18), Krystal has performed in many works during their matriculation and throughout the DMV area. They have performed with Contradiction Dance Theatre, darlingdance, Heart Stück Bernie, A.J. Collabs and ReVision Dance Company. new growth collective is a decentralized movement and dance education incubator that champions fluidity, world building and movement as mutual aid.
Header photo by Jonathan Hsu.