Marguerite Hemmings specializes in emergent, improvisational and social movement styles and technologies. They research the subversive role of dance and music throughout the African Diaspora and channel this research through performance, body, text, social/public media, and moving image. Hemmings’ work is also embedded in alternative pedagogy and social practice/research and they have worked at University of the Arts in the School of Dance, Arizona State University, Princeton University, and many afterschool programs and community centers. Marguerite has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, Harlem Stage, University Settlement, Dancing While Black, Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative, Arizona State University’s Projecting All Voices Fellowship, Abrons Arts Center, Headlong Performance Institute, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Mural Arts, Black Spatial Relics, and Independence Public Media Foundation to further their research.
Dancing While Black
Dancing While Black, a program of Angela’s Pulse, centers the voices of Black dance artists, providing opportunities to self-determine the languages and lenses that define our work. Since the inception of DWB in 2012, they have supported more than 30 emerging Black artists as Fellows, incubated more than two dozen new works, published a landmark digital journal and held countless intergenerational convenings for community members to share, connect and simply be.
Dancing While Black operates at the intersection of aesthetics and organizing. Central to the work is building partnerships – with presenters, organizers, curators and artists. In our first five years, Dancing While Black established ongoing partnerships with BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, NYU’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, the Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center, PURPOSE Productions, Urban Bush Women and Junebug Productions.
The DWB Co-leadership team includes Kayla Hamilton, Marguerite Hemmings, Joya Powell and founder Paloma McGregor.
