PHOTO COURTESY: PHILADANCO!
By Kharisma McIlwaine
When PHILADANCO! takes the stage at the Kimmel Center, it is never just a performance — it is a homecoming. This spring, the beloved company returns to the Perelman Theater with “EXPLOSIVE!” — a program that celebrates the legacy of PHILADANCO! as a cornerstone of Philadelphia dance while highlighting the works of multiple choreographers, including Nicole Clarke Springer, Thang Dao, Christopher Huggins and Roderick George.
Roderick George is a Houston-born choreographer, performer, and director. Trained at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy, The Alvin Ailey School, and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, George danced professionally with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Basel Ballet/Theater Basel, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and The Forsythe Company. Those experiences continue to shape George’s approach to dance and choreography as he continues to establish himself as a vital voice in contemporary dance. Roderick George spoke with the SUN about the power of dance as a tool for connection and the world premiere of his work, “Temple Without Prayers.”
George first found dance through gymnastics. He credits navigating the worlds of both dancer and choreographer with shaping how he translates and creates movement while connecting with the dancers he leads.
“I’m still a performer with my own work,” George said. “I also still work with William Forsythe, who’s a choreographer who has his own installations of how he brings in his artists. I think because of that experience of being an artist and knowing what it feels like to be on the stage — knowing how to translate dance making onto other dancers, I think it helped me to be a little bit more poignant and also feeling like I’m a part of the soil and a part of that experience with those artists as well.”
George trained at the Alvin Ailey School in New York, where he first encountered PHILADANCO!
“I think I really first learned a lot about PHILADANCO! from my experience of being in New York in 2000 and being a young dancer at the Alvin Ailey School and seeing dancers who would go into Philadelphia from the school,” George said.
That early introduction to PHILADANCO! would come full circle years later, with George now returning to the company as a choreographer, contributing his voice to its legacy, and bringing his experiences as a Black artist and his work in Europe to PHILADANCO! with “EXPLOSIVE!”
“My role is a choreographer in this program,” George said. “I don’t know what the program entails, so I will be also experiencing it in real time when I see the premiere. My work, “Temple Without Prayer,” is really focused on trying to find a way to connect my experience as a new generation of a Black artist and a Black choreographer, bringing my experience from when I was working in Europe, and bringing my experience as a choreographer into PHILADANCO! I’m grateful that Ms. Joan Myers Brown is seeing my trajectory as an artist and as a choreographer and seeing how I get to contribute to the discourse and the dynamism of choreographers of Afrofuturism.”
George’s work does not shy away from difficult conversations — it invites them. Through his work, he channels the exhaustion of hearing “thoughts and prayers” into a call for action and collective care for society today.
“The work that I’m playing with is really an exchange — or let’s say a small particle from the work that I just did with my company — called kNoName Artist,” George said. “That work is called “The Missing Fruit.” I wanted to play with what’s happening currently right now as we are constantly hearing “our thoughts and our prayers” when things are happening in our system. I think a lot of people, we are exhausted [from] hearing that! So, the idea of the temple is really the system, and the system at this point is not giving us what we’ve been praying for. So now at this point, this work is really about kind of creating this rebellion of, ‘I need answers now, and if I don’t have the answers now, [and] we are going to figure it out as a community — we’re going to support each other.’”
The contrast between George’s experiences in Europe and the United States have given him a unique perspective on what artists need to thrive. At PHILADANCO!, he found a space that prioritizes the elements often overlooked in the push for productivity.
“I think one of the things I can speak about heavily [regarding] my experience between the two is about productivity in this country,” George said. “We’re constantly pushed right away to create productivity without the time. We’re pushed to create something great without having the time to really explore, research or having the resources to support that research, to support that work, to support those artists. In Europe, there is this clarity of what that means. That’s number one.”
Number two, with that time, you’re also getting to develop a clear synergy that’s happening inside of the space, inside of the room,” he continued. “I think that one of the things that people lose sometimes is that time of really getting to know each other and using that space and that dance space as their language. That’s their way of communicating. We’re having to produce that language in such a rapid way that people don’t really understand what they’re doing. They aren’t having this deepness inside of that. I think that’s what’s beautiful about the culture that PHILADANCO! has. There’s a culture inside of that. Even when people come in new, they’re learning the culture of what PHILADANCO! is about. Even for me as a choreographer, I’m coming in, learning the culture and inserting myself inside of that culture.”
Rather than dictating how his work should be received, George invites audiences to interpret it for themselves.
“One of the things that I’ve recognized as a choreographer and as an artist is that sometimes people don’t really like your work at first — but I rather people don’t like my work, because I’d rather them have discourse,” he said. “That’s what I want– for people to feel something. Instead of me going in and saying, ‘You should look at my work in this way,’ [or] ‘You should look at my work in that way.’ I don’t want to do that to people. I think it’s also selfish for me to articulate that for our new group. What I want them to do is have their own experience, and see what they can see for their own gaze and their own eyes and have an experience within it.”
In addition to experiencing “Temple Without Prayers” at EXPLOSIVE!, fans of George’s can support his work during his Joyce residency program this summer, and at the premiere of “The Grace Tears” at Guild Hall in the East Hamptons. For more information, visit: https://www.knonameartist.com/.
PHILADANCO! EXPLOSIVE! will be at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater from April 17–19. For more information on tickets and showtimes, visit: ensembleartsphilly.org.
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