The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography continues to foster long-lasting, professional connections for students and faculty that go beyond our FSU campus and Tallahassee city limits.
MANCC Visiting Artist, Leslie Parker recently collaborated with FSU’s School of Dance MA in Studio and Studio-Related Studies student, Tenisha George, and FSU’s School of Dance Assistant Professor, Farai Maliaga, in the development and performance of her latest choreographic work, Divination Tools: imagine home. Parker, based in Minneapolis, invited both George, originally from Trinidad and Tobago and Maliaga, who joined the School of Dance faculty in 2022, having built a highly accomplished career working out of New York City as a composer, musician and videographer, into her residency. Together with Parker’s collaborative team, they helped create a finished work that had its world premiere at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis May 11-13, 2023, followed by its New York City premiere at Danspace Project October 5-7, 2023.
Parker first came to MANCC February 7-10, 2023 to conduct two Black Improvisation workshops with School of Dance students and community members and make connections with community activists and healers. A longer residency followed in March 2023, during which she and her team further developed the latest iteration of Divination Tool: imagine home as part of her ongoing project, Call to Remember. For Parker, Call to Remember is a shared offering of improvisation, experimentation and conjuring, exploring Black pedagogy, artistry and activism in dance.
FSU School of Dance graduate student, Tenisha George describes working with Parker:
“I loved working with her… It was a challenging experience at first as I had to fully commit and immerse myself in the work in order to bring across the message of the piece for the audience.”
FSU School of Dance faculty member, Farai Maliaga talked about his collaboration with Parker as well:
“I’ve known Leslie Parker for over a decade. We would regularly bump into each other in NY and discuss her work. The conversation around collaboration was always prominent in our interactions, but it was here at MANCC where everything finally aligned.”
Maliaga continues to collaborate with Parker in an upcoming dance project that will be performed on Saturday, June 22 at 4:30pm at The Cedar Cultural Center, which is co-presented by Leslie Parker Dance Project, Twin Cities Jazz Festival and Northrop. Entitled “An Experiment: With Leslie Parker and Collaborators”, the performance will include Black Dance Improvisation Intensive participants of a three-week practice intensive led by Parker and others and her music collaborators, Michael Wimberly, Malianga, Dameun Strange and DeCarlo Jackson. Both Strange and Malianga collaborated with Parker while at MANCC during her March 2023 residency in the creation of Divination Tools: imagine home.
Divination Tools: imagine home is co-commissioned by Walker Arts Center (MN), Pillsbury House Theatre (MN), Pangea World Theater (MN), Danspace Project (NYC) and Counterpulse (SF). It has been created in partnership with Northrop, Twin Cities Jazz Festival, The Cedar Cultural Center, TU Dance Center and Barbara Barker Center for Dance.
This project also includes “Call to Remember Essays & Statements on Collaboration, Improvisation, and Black Creative Research” by Leslie Parker including contributions by respected colleagues including Black Feminist Scholar, Educator and Dancer, Naimah Petigny, Parker’s Embedded Writer at MANCC. This publication was commissioned by MANCC in partnership with Walker Art Center.