S C H O L A R | CiCi Kelley

THAT'S MY PHENOTYPE!

Launching her filmmaking Debut, Choreographer CiCi Kelley Explores The Dynamic Personalities Of Black Womanhood From Past To Present, in Relation To Social Politics, Commercialism, and Reclamation.

ATLANTA, GA- Hailing from the intersection of Boulevard Lorraine and Venetian Dr., between two of Southwest ATL’s, aka “the S.W.A.T.S.,” most notable thoroughfares of Cascade and Campbellton Rd., Choreographer CiCi Kelley utilizes her deeply rooted vernacular of Afrocentric Jazz Dance movement, in synergy with Atlanta Influences Everything (Bem Joiner, aie.life) social dance styled choreography and gestural devices, to further explore who she is as a black woman through black performance theory and the concept of Diasporic Spidering (Black Performance Theory, Thomas DeFrantz, Anita Gonzalez).

“Diasporic Spidering is a philosophical sort of method or way to understand how we as black people share information across time and space. How do we catch a move or drop a beat and know that it’s going to land in someone else's consciousness, and to help someone else's spirit across town, or across the country, or across the planet…. So diasporic spidering is away for us to account for how we listen to music from South Africa, or music from Algeria, and understand it to be in relationship to music from Detroit or Los Angeles” – Thomas DeFrantz, Duke SLIPPAGE laboratory, NorthWestern University.

NATIONAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL

MOVE / DANCE! PROGRAMING

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Partnership/Media Contact:

Iymaani Aytes, Founder & Principal Consultant

The Aytes Agency, office, (678) 383-0134

iymaani@theaytesagency.com

For Immediate Release

February 28, 2022

NBAF Youth Program Move/Dance! Kicks off New Partnership with Spelman College Dance Performance & Choreography Department

ATLANTA, GA — National Black Arts and Spelman College Dance Performance & Choreography Department partners to provide a pipeline to collegiate dance for Atlanta’s youth. Move/Dance! students in Atlanta Public Schools will engage in immersive collegiate-level dance training and pedagogy taught by Spelman instructors and student teachers from Spelman’s Dance Performance & Choreography pedagogy course, “The Art of Teaching Dance.”

This course was designed by Dr. Julie B. Johnson to hone students’ knowledge of pedagogical strategies, theories, and tools, while giving them hands-on experience developing dance programs in collaboration with community partners. Professor CiCi Kelley now instructs the course and has further developed it to help Spelman delve deeper into service learning objectives through introducing local Atlanta youth to collegiate level dance technique, and curriculum.

Through theory and practice, students are introduced to the profession of dance education. Current scholarship on dance pedagogy and interactions with leading professionals in the field prepare students to design and implement dance experiences with/for the community. Students leave this course having identified their own pedagogical values and philosophies, situated themselves within the broader field of dance education, and set a course for professional careers

as future dance educators.