While her work is often rooted in choreography and movement, amara tabor-smith calls herself a performance maker. She’s the founder of Deep Waters Dance Theater and an educator at Stanford University, where she teaches not just dance, but a very sought-after class called Conjure Art 101: Performances of Ritual, Spirituality and Decolonial Black Feminist Magic.

Amara challenged us to reframe our entire thinking about art and protest, by moving from resistance to insistence. “Protest… still centers what you’re protesting against,” she points out. “How do we recenter our awareness on what it is that we are wanting to affirm and insist upon?” She also shared her belief in art as a spiritual practice that can shift vibrations around real-world issues, and we talked about cultivating joy, even while we grieve.

Learn more about amara tabor-smith at deepwatersdance.com.

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