Tommie-Waheed Evans Photo: Philadanco
By Constance Garcia-Barrio
Philadanco’s dazzling spring production, “Relentless Resident Visions,” spotlights new and classic works by four of the dance company’s choreographers: Christopher Huggins, Ray Mercer, Milton Myers, and Tommie-Waheed Evans. The range of distinctive pieces includes what one could call a visual prayer by Tommie-Waheed Evans, also Philadanco’s artistic co-director.
The concert, presented by Ensemble Arts Philly from April 25 to 27, 2025, takes place at the Perelman Theatre, 300 S. Broad Street and features songs that helped lift Philadelphia International Records to worldwide fame.
Evans, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow and queer Black dance maker, grew up in Los Angeles amid “racial strife, gang warfare, and earthquakes,” he said. Evans started dancing at 15 at Dance Connection, a small family studio—now closed—in Los Angeles. A couple of months later, he joined the dance department at Alexander Hamilton High School as a voice major.
Evans’ vocal arts curriculum included a dance component. Over time, dance captivated him. He began formal training with Karen McDonald, now dean of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, a nonprofit offering dance classes to students from age four, with a focus on disenfranchised Black and Latino communities. “She encouraged me to apply for a fellowship at the Ailey School,” Evans said. He won the fellowship and went on to earn a master’s degree in choreography from Jacksonville University in Florida.
Being queer and Black could have posed problems for Evans from childhood, but at home he grew up with the freedom to be himself.
“I wasn’t raised in an artistic family; I was raised in a sports family” he said. “But my father gave me the middle name Waheed, which means ‘unique’ or ‘to stand alone [in Arabic],’ so in some way without even knowing it, he placed that inside of me. I did stand alone, and that was O.K. Everyone came to my concerts at the church, everyone did the best that they could around it. But, yes, you go through pressure from society as a queer young Black person.”
Evans’ religious rearing shapes much of his art. “The way I entered the arts was through my love of music,” he says. “I’m a lover of all things Black, and in gospel music there’s this deep heritage of who we are as Black people. We use music to protest, to create a sense of freedom, of liberation.”
First raised in a missionary Baptist church, Evans was involved in a lot of gospel choirs. “My grandfather was a deacon of the church,” he said. “Then we moved to a more Pentecostal style of church. Being part of a gospel choir, I visited a lot of churches. I have a lot of friends who became pastors of the A.M.E. Church, the Church of God in Christ or interdenominational, so I have a great scope of all of that. My grandmother thought I was going to be a preacher.”
While Evans didn’t become a traditional preacher, spirituality remains a crucial dimension in his work. “Even when I’m teaching class, I talk in a certain way, as if I’m preaching,” says Evans, a dancer with Philadanco before becoming a choreographer. “I’m trying to cultivate freedom and spirit inside the space.”
Evans seeks that depth in “Promise me you won’t call,” his piece in “Relentless Resident Visions.” This dance, which reminisces about a love affair which has completely ended, incorporates three songs by Patti LaBelle— “If only you knew,” “Love, need and want you,” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow”—from her Philadelphia International Records catalog. “Something I’m saying to the dancers is, ‘How can we use her voice and be possessed by her voice, by her emotion, through our bodies? There’s a certain haunting, ghost-like feeling in the work, of vulnerability, of intimacy.” Evans said.
Evans’ deep history with Philadanco also influenced the development of “Promise me you won’t call.” He has folded the company’s hallmarks, such as high energy, towering technical skill, and amazing endurance into the work. His process also encouraged dancers to reach into the heartache, love, and other emotions in their own lives in creating movements. “That’s another aspect where my church background comes into play because I’m able to go by intuition [in deciding what to amplify or shorten],” Evans said.
Evans has toured and performed in the U.S. and abroad and garnered bushels of awards, such as commissions from BalletX, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Verb Ballet and more. He also won a Princess Grace Award in choreography and a fellowship at the Center for Ballet at Arts at New York University. But he has also faced hurdles. He had to have hip replacements, one 10 years ago and another in 2021. “That forced me to retire as a dancer,” he said. “That was a difficult transition.”
He also chose a profession that took him away from his family. He realized he had to move from L.A. to take advantage of opportunities on the East Coast. “There are moments when you want to see your mother for a couple of hours, but I have to wait until I have big blocks of time to get on a plane,” Evans said. “Meanwhile, nieces and nephews are growing, getting bigger.”
Music and dance have seen Evans over those rough spots. “Dance can be a meditation, a release, and a prayer for its creator, the performers, and the audience,” he says. “It can hearten us, move us. Come to the concert and see.”
Tickets are available at EnsembleArtsPhilly.org.
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