麻豆影院

Helanius J. Wilkins鈥� project aims to reflect 鈥榬e-bodying belonging to become better ancestors鈥�

Helanius J. Wilkins, assistant professor of dance at the 麻豆影院, has won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a choreographed duet intended to 鈥渉eal and unite鈥� and to reflect 鈥渞e-bodying belonging to become better ancestors.鈥�

Wilkins鈥� initiative is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during a second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding, the NEA announced recently.

With the NEA鈥檚 support鈥攁nd that of the College of Arts and Sciences, which matched the NEA grant with another $10,000 in funding鈥� Wilkins鈥� and the CU dance division will collaborate with several touring, commissioning presenter-partners, including Basin Arts and Acadiana Center for the Arts in Louisiana and Keshet Center for the Arts in New Mexico.

The work is called The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging and is described as a multi-year, multi-outcome work that is 鈥渁n ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resiliency, justice and hope.鈥�

The work will benefit the participating dance artists, university students, faculty and broad and diverse audiences in Colorado, Louisiana and New Mexico, the NEA states, adding that the intended outcome is to support artistic activities and traditions 鈥渢o strengthen the nation's cultural infrastructure.鈥�

鈥淭he National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants,鈥� said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

鈥淭he arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.鈥�

Wilkins said he was grateful for and humbled by the award. 鈥淭his support is huge and one I do not take for granted, especially given that significant national arts funding is super competitive and limited,鈥� Wilkins said.

The award affords Wilkins and his collaborators the resources to continue creative research and work that centers art and social change, and it encourages national visibility 鈥渨hich can be instrumental for cultivating new relationships and constructing new pathways for the continuation of the work more broadly,鈥� he said.

Discussing his work, Wilkins said that his creative research is rooted in the interconnections of American contemporary performance, cultural history and identities of Black men.

鈥淭o this end, as I move through the world as a human and as an artist, I am anchored in my truth鈥攎y identity鈥攁nd by my experiences as an American who is Black, male and queer. This anchoring in turn anchors听my creative research and projects in questions about gaps in an America that (miss)sees the marginalized,鈥� Wilkins said, adding:

鈥淢y projects examine the raced dancing body and ways ritual can access knowledge. My work鈥攁n intentionally decolonizing process that centralizes systems for care and repair and practice over 鈥榝inal product鈥欌�攅mphasizes how our actions generate sensory engagements that reconfigure our relationships to ourselves (and each other) and environments around us.鈥澨�

Wilkins said his work blurs the lines between art and social justice, adding that an aspect of how he uses dance to heal and unite is 鈥渢o first ground myself, and those who join me, by creating brave and courageous environments built upon embracing that there is no social justice without the body. Dance, for me, is听care听飞辞谤办.鈥�

Wilkins says to "re-body" a work is to give new body or a new orientation to 鈥渨ho belongs.鈥� He added:

鈥淚 am anchored by an aspect of my upbringing where I was taught to understand that our 鈥橝merican鈥� identity is one that is shaped by hybridity, resilience and co-existence. In a time of extreme political and social divisiveness, I am metaphorically 鈥榮titching鈥� us back together by drawing attention away from difference as a means to divide/separate but rather to heal and unite.鈥�

Specific to听The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging, Wilkins said his current work requires that he engage communities, with his duet-partner and co-facilitator, A. Ryder Turner (MFA in Dance, CU alum '21), in a series of community-engagements (Systems for Care & Repair) that consist of embodied workshops and community conversation gatherings about belonging.

He added: 鈥淭hrough the听Systems for Care & Repair,听dance becomes a vessel/portal for communities to engage in collective recalling/remembering, sharing lesser known and/or erased stories, actively dreaming and doing.鈥澨�

The work will yield new choreographies, a documentary film, digital archive, and a diversity, equity, inclusion & social justice 鈥渢oykit,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen traveling to each state, experiences in and with community becomes the source material for generating these outcomes.鈥澨�

For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit .