Amara speaks of having family members who were Seers/that didn't talk about it - and how she learned to navigate her own Seeing. She names that we are living in present day traumatic stress syndrome as she talks about her walk with depression, learning to hold both grief and sorrow, and valuing what she has come to view as an opportunity to be bought into a space of darkness - darkness that holds possibility. Orisha traditions gave Amara a feeling of coming home and helped her move towards becoming more herself. Amara says that all her work is about healing. She says, "I am a death doula for patriarchy. Every piece is I make is really in service of helping patriarchy die."

Amara Tabor-Smith is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater.  Tabor-Smith’s work, as described by the artist, is Afro Futurist Conjure Art. Her dance making practice utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity, and belonging.  Tabor-Smith is a recipient of the 2018 USA Artists Award, the 2016 Creative Work Fund grant, the 2017 MAP Fund grant, and the 2017 Kenneth Rainin Foundation grant, and a co-recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital Grant with longtime collaborator, Ellen Sebastian Chang. In 2017, she received the UBW Choreographic Center Fellowship. Her work has been performed in Brazil, the Republic of the Congo, New York, and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area where her company is based. Tabor-Smith is an Artist in Residence at Stanford University and faculty at UC Berkeley.

More about Who Yo People Is: http://whoyopeopleis.com Amara's Ed Mock Tribute: He Moved Swiftly but Gently Down the Not Too Crowded Street | Ed Mock and Other True Tales in a City that Once Was: http://www.deepwatersdance.com/portfolio/hemovedswiftly Support Amara and her collaborator Ellen Sebastian Chang's "New ChitlinCircuitry: Reparations Vaudeville": https://www.gofundme.com/f/ReparationsVaudeville

Check out Amara's website: http://www.deepwatersdance.com

 

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