Deeply Rooted Dance Theater is preparing to celebrate its milestone 30th anniversary season with a one-night-only show at The Auditorium on Saturday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m.
The lineup will feature the premieres of new works choreographed by company co-founders Kevin Iega Jeff and Gary Abbott. Also, the audience will witness Ulysses Dove’s Episodes and, in honor of the 30th anniversary, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater Artistic Director Nicole Clarke-Springer is revisiting Sacred Spaces, considered a fan favorite.
Deeply Rooted’s continued presence in Chicago is significant, as many dance companies have been facing funding challenges. However, seeds of the company’s commitment to community and dance education are growing on Chicago’s South Side. Construction on the multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art Deeply Rooted Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities at 5339 S. State St. is slated to begin later this year, marking an important moment for the Loop-based company.
Recently, Jeff and current company dancer Ahmad Hill talked with Windy City Times about queer dancers, Deeply Rooted’s legacy and the meaning of dance.
Note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: Kevin, I actually interviewed you and [co-founder Gary Abbott] back in 2006. Back then, I asked you what the philosophy behind Deeply Rooted was. Basically, you said it was about using the arts to empower people—and it was also about speaking on stage about humanity through your work. Has that changed at all?
Kevin Iega Jeff: No. In fact, it’s probably deepened simply because, on a personal level, there’s the need for me to stand on the shoulders of my teachers, like my mentor Lee (Aca) Thompson. [Another] mentor, Bernice Johnson, had a studio in Jamaica, Queens, that was my initial training to dance. And I always thought that she understood the artistic and the business acumen needed to prepare young people like me.
I then trained at the Ailey School and at Performing Arts High School—the Fame school, if you will, in New York—as well as at Juilliard. [Through it all,] I learned the importance of knowing who you are in creation—specifically, Black people knowing who we are in creation because we have been historically diminished and misrepresented.
But the reality of that human development is that everyone should know who they are in creation, no matter what your background is. And if you do, you will understand the connections that we actually all have because of the natural evolution of humankind, which has also been misrepresented, historically and spiritually.
So the company was founded with those principles in mind. But not only do we want to be an exceptional dance company—we want to be a space where process gives light to human evolution.
WCT: And now I’m wondering if both of you could speak to how Deeply Rooted has become a space where Black queer dancers can express themselves.
Ahmad Hill: I think that there is [so much] space for queer dancers in this environment. But I think it’s less about making your sexuality a personality and more about understanding the androgyny inside of who you want to be in this space. However you would like to present yourself in this space, it’s never shunned, icriticized or ostracized. It’s definitely a space and a place where you’re given a mirror and you’re asked to be exactly who you see yourself as.
Jeff: From my [time] at Bernice Johnson Dance Studio, I learned that, as the male dancer, I carry the X and the Y chromosome. So there’s a male nature and there’s a female nature. However we decide to explore that is up to us—and we have the right to explore it to whatever dimension we choose.
I have learned that sexuality is a spectrum, within the X and the Y chromosomes. And so I think that it’s important for each of us to explore that spectrum through our spirit, through our spiritual grounding. It’s you, on that journey, who decides what’s authentic and what’s inauthentic.
WCT: Kevin, what’s been the biggest change that you’ve seen over the 30 years of Deeply Rooted? And, Ahmad, what is it like to be part of this legacy?
Jeff: That’s a really good question. For me, I think it’s witnessing the intentional evolution of growing leadership from within the organization. Deeply Rooted is not only led by artistic brilliance. You can be an incredible choreographer, which is very different from being an incredible artistic director. Nowadays, it’s very important for artistic leadership to have business acumen as well.
Nicole Clarke-Springer, our artistic director, is an example of someone who has come through the process. She found her organic connection to the process right away, but then she also matured to become the woman and leader that she is. And she’s putting her mark on the company through the vision and values that have been established, but also through her vision as a new artistic leader for the company. But also, supporting others is important. There are people like Gary to the entire founding team of Deeply Rooted, which includes Laverne Jeff, my sister who’s an ancestor now; Linda Spriggs, who’s an artistic partner who helped found the company; and Diane Schober, a white woman who aligned with this work and offered some support in managerial infrastructure.
Also, [an area where] I think there has been a big shift in Chicago—and I’d like to think Deeply Rooted has had something to do with it—is equity being inside of authentic conversations about arts. You see even the impact of what’s happening in the government in terms of DEI erasure—but, specifically, I’m speaking about Black people. I’ve seen more of a willingness to have more of an authentic conversation, even though the systems are now resisting and trying to instill fear in people from having those conversations.
In addition, funding inequities have negatively impacted the work of arts organizations of color. We’ve been made to constructively compete against organizations that have far more funding than we do, but we are on the same level of these organizations in terms of artistry.
Hill: I think that being part of this legacy is a beautiful thing. Growing from being a summer incentive student into an apprentice, leaving, getting to use those tools and coming back to receive more tools has just been a beautiful experience for me, but I think it’s also been very challenging.
I think that what this 30th season has shown me is that the work never stops. Plus we’ve shown what we have been able to do within these last 30 years without having the same monetization as these other spaces—and the Chicago audience is starting to really notice and appreciate it.
WCT: Kevin, when I talked with you in 2006, it was to promote the programClassical Rootsthat you did with Darryl Stevens, the actor from the TV showNoah’s Arc. What can the audience expect with this upcoming performance?
Hill: I don’t mean to sound cliche when I say this, but I think it’s really a reflection of what is going on today. I think a lot of the choreographers are really using their voices in order to share their perspectives.
The audience can expect a real conversation. I think that there’s no point in this bill or in this anniversary where we try to minimize or quiet the real-life everyday of what’s happening in America right now. So the audience can expect excitement, accountability and self-actualization, and multiple facets of how people endure. So I think that the audience can expect to see themselves.
Jeff: I echo what Ahmad said. I’ll summarize it by saying that I think the evening is about joy and resilience. And there’s another word that’s literally in the promo. What is it? Love. I think it’s a reflection of humanity, the human factor. Politics obviously affect us all, but even inside of politics, those people are human beings.
We want this performance to be a kinetic apparatus for the audience to experience something that awakens as well as entertains. It might awaken them and make them think about their lives—and maybe do something o advance a better world order.
WCT: I’ll end with a basic question. Simply, what does dance mean to you?
Jeff: Oh, boy. There’s an accountability inside of dance that I love. And there’s also a spiritual connection and a spiritual release that I love and appreciate. In turn, there is also spiritual accountability and intellectual accountability. It’s a trinity of accountability: the spirit, the mind and the body. Dance really fosters the truth of that.
Dancing is not a perfect science. It’s only perfect science if the leadership is committed to the bar that is higher than their own person. Even the leader has to be accountable to these principles.
Hill: I think where I would like to take dance and what I would like to bring to dance is more awareness for our culture. I think a lot of the time, Black culture either gets pushed out of or misconstrued when it comes to ballet or classical forms. So I think—being a young Black artist from the East Side of Chicago—it is my assignment to help not only Brown and Black people but also students who [don’t] have the access and the means to explore classical art forms.
Jeff: I just wanted to add, on a general level, it was so endearing to do this interview with Ahmad. He was born to dance because you have this incredible instrument. The other blessing that he has and has grown into is an innate inner wisdom.
Tickets for the May 30 performance at The Auditorium may be purchased here.