Blakk Jakk Dance Collective

My mission is to own and operate and perform arts school and company geared towards community youth and local artists. I have always had a passion for the arts, but dance was my gift. I was in school plays, marching band, and choir. I helped maintain a very active dance team known as Finesse Dance team, coached a youth dance team, and private fitness lessons while keeping up with my studies in college. I became a member of two fantastic organizations, Mu Phi Epsilon international professional music fraternity Inc. and Nu Rho Sigma Fine arts Fraternity Inc in undergrad. I taught dance in several schools in Cleveland & surrounding areas and worked as an administrator in several nonprofit arts programs. I am the current national President of Nu Rho Sigma Fine Arts Fraternity Inc. I founded my own community project-based dance company known as Blakk Jakk Dance Collective. BJDC was created to allow BIPOC dancers of all levels opportunities to grow and perform and build a thriving network and positive community. I create performances with a conceptual approach, a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way. By questioning the concept of movement, I cover various overlapping themes and strategies. Several reoccurring subject matters can be recognized, such as the relation with popular culture and media, working with repetition, and the investigation of the process of expectations. My works often refers to pop and mass culture. By using popular themes such as sexuality, family structure, and social justice, I discover that movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a humor that echoes our own vulnerabilities. My work directly responds to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context.