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Opening up the dance floor
Urban Movement Arts' WORKINONIT! opens new creative avenues for adult dance students
Urban Movement Arts (UMA) is giving adult dance students the chance to delve deeper into their movement practice, through a new program called WORKINONIT.
Dancing it out
WORKINONIT gives students the opportunity to work with different choreographers and perform in front of an audience, without having to audition or have professional experience. This is an extremely unique opportunity for both experienced and novice dancers in Philadelphia. In a city with limited opportunities to audition for dance works, this program's way of working is more democratic, inclusive, and community-oriented. It's a model that questions the traditional exclusivity of the dance world, and focuses on education and community.
Vince Johnson, the founder and director of UMA and WORKINONIT, spoke to the democratic nature of the program, and how it fits into the larger picture of UMA as an organization which practices and builds on Black American social dance traditions.
“In Black American social dances, the community, the communion, the witnessing of one another…is really the highest pinnacle… The stage to me is akin to what taking a test is in academic learning.”
Here, Johnson is speaking to the importance of performing to dancers. However, inspired by folks like Brian Green in NYC and the House Dance Conference and other similar events, WORKINONIT isn’t just about performing; it's also a party.
Where's the party at?
“At the heart, WORKINONIT is always a party, where the dancers are encouraged to dance together, to form cyphers… to have a club-like experience.” Johnson went on, “what you find is, the performances and the party feed one another, it's kind of a back and forth. People get excited by what they see in the performances, and then when the party opens up, you notice all these people are erupting with inspiration.”
Johnson spoke to UMA’s legacy of vernacular and oral tradition, and how, in this tradition, not everything comes in a traditional classroom setting. In the case of WORKINONIT, there’s an exchange that happens between the audience and performers, which then becomes activated during the party aspect of the event. This challenges the traditional modes of performing and witnessing performance, where as Johnson put it, it's “a very finite exchange,” versus WORKINONIT, which is more reciprocal and conversational.
Marcus Tucker was one of the choreographers for the most recent WORKINONIT iteration in December 2024. Tucker spoke about the process of choreographing, and the importance of performing, not only for those wanting to become professional dancers, but for anyone pursuing any kind of movement pastime. According to Tucker, the main thing that performing does for a dancer is build confidence.
Sai, a performer and a deeply involved UMA community member, performed in not one, but three choreographers’ pieces in December’s iteration of WORKINONIT. His first time ever performing in front of an audience was in May 2024 at UMA Shows Up at Fringe Arts (a theater which holds 300 audience members). That first time there were a lot of nerves, as one might expect, but, “once you’re on stage you are feeding off the audience’s energy, and it’s thrilling,” Sai said.
Sai also mentioned the community aspect of the show. “You’re still performing for an audience, but it's your community. You know everyone from classes and being around the studio, it's like a family showcase.”
Speaking with Johnson, Tucker, and Sai highlighted how the positive impact of WORKINONIT extends far beyond the offering of performance opportunities for the Philly dance community. It builds confidence for students, creates deep community bonds, and opens new avenues of creativity.
As Sai said in his interview, the teachers do a good job emphasizing that the performance aspect isn’t too deep, since everyone after all, is just workin’ on it.
What, When, Where
WORKINONIT! Presented by Urban Movement Arts. Various times. urbanmovementarts.com.
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