"Collaboration is the key to breakthrough innovation."
-Keith Sawyer
The"411"
Admittedly, I am a lot of things. I was born and raised in Washington, DC, to an educator, my mom, Dr. Rosa Trapp-Dail, and a PR guru and Civil rights activist, my dad, Ofield Dukes. I am an only child but a wife and mother of three. While titles are always difficult for me, today, I am a proud Hip Hop womanist with a passion for dance arts and dance scholarship. I'm currently working on my Ph.D. in Dance and Performance Studies, and I hold a BFA and an MA in Dance Education. I love music and visual art, and I am happiest curled up with a good book, listening to my children play -- quietly or in the studio, creating with dancing bodies, music producers, and all-around creatives. My life's work, in all of its iterations, is to uplift and support Black people first. I seek to illuminate through my scholarship, creative works, and teaching the beauty, power, and genius that emerges from Black diasporic people and our unique cultural expressions. Say it Loud, I'm Black, and I'm Proud, Ultra Black! Thanks for stopping by my website. I'm not totally a fan of self-promotion, but I'm trying. How did E.Badu say it?, "I'm an artist, and I'm sensitive about my shit!." Take a look around, and if you're so inclined, "Let's Connect." I look forward to hearing from you. Peace.
Roxi Victorian
She/Her/Ma/Sis/Girl
"To be who you are and become what you are capable of is the only goal worth living."
-Alvin Ailey
Pictured: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar: Urban Bush Women
"I dance not to entertain, but to help people better understand each other."
-Pearl Primus
creative works, Scholarship & Teaching
"We weren't preaching Black is beautiful, we just showed it."
Katherine Dunham
Creative Works & Performances
Scholarship
Teaching & Residencies
Event Planning & Production Management
Social Impact
Mothering for Social Change - Community Outreach
"Mamas Gun: The Choreography of Mothering While Black" began as a one-woman piece that explores the heart and physical labor of mothering from infancy to adulthood. It further complicates the exploration by inserting the lens of mothers of unjustly slain black and brown youth.
Through the work, I aim to illuminate through cathartic movement connectivity what black and brown mothers experience when a child is lost to racial violence. At its inception, "Mothering" began as one of a suite of 4 pieces currently in workshop with my dance company, Nyama Contemporary Dance Company. In workshop during our residence at the Kennedy Center in February 2022 as a recipient of the Office Hours at the REACH residency and fellowship the piece transformed into a full-length piece of hip-hop dance theater. Mothering meets at the intersection of concert dance, hip hop theater, and performance activism.
"There may be moments where this work is uncomfortable. We will meet those together, and I pray that we breathe them in with a quiet examination of why we are uncomfortable. Most importantly this work is meant to be a different kind of fun, a different kind of healing, and a chance to build a community around safe creative spaces, dialogue, empathy and truth.
This work is a prayer.
This work is dance and protest."
R.
mama's gun
The choreography of mothering while Black
I am a Black woman. My mothering in many ways is colored by my cultural expressions and experiences, feelings, biases, oppressions, insecurities, and strengths - all held within the space I own in my Black female body. Mothering my children, my Black children, inspires this work.
-Roxi Victorian
MAMA's Gun:
the choreography of
mothering while black
movement. music. mothering.change
"Raising children is a social responsibility,
one that requires robust community support.
3.
Maternal Mental Health (MMH)
Mindful Mental Health & Community Support
-Angela Garbes
- 1 in 5 women will experience MMH conditions during pregnancy or 1st year following pregnancy.
- 75% of women who experience MMH symptoms go untreated. Cost of not treating MMH conditions annually is $32,000 per mother-infant pair– adding up to $14 billion annually.
- The black and Latina population suffer from postpartum depression at double the rates of white mothers and are up to 57% less likely to receive treatment.
- Mama's Gun has partnered with local organization Conscious Moms, Baton Rouge to create and financially support local engagements and initiatives that bring attention to the inequities concerning MMH. A portion of all sales from Mama's Gun are used to support these community efforts.
- Mama's Gun facilitates "Sister Sharing" workshops for mothers in local communities that center mindfulness and somatic exercises alongside conversations on mothering and race relations that promote racial healing and intentional mothering for change.
Black Maternal Health
2.
Reproductive Justice
The United States has the worst maternal mortality rate among developed nations. Each year, approximately 17 mothers die for every 100,000 pregnancies in the country, with rates much more common among Black womxn than other racial groups. In Louisiana, maternal mortality for Black womxn is four times that of White women.
The Louisiana Department of Health is actively working to implement strategies to eliminate these inequities. The Department is focusing on policies, systems, and environmental initiatives throughout the agency to drive change for mothers and infants and the systems they encounter.
Key to these efforts is an approach that includes analyzing the data, aligning resources and efforts, building coordinated partnerships, and developing, testing, and spreading solutions to make an impact. Through the creative work of Mama's Gun..., and in support of the Reproductive initiatives set forth by the Power Coalition, Victorian seeks to further illuminate disparities of race that have a harmful impact on Black Maternal and Infant Health.
Social
impact
Public Service Initiative
Mama's Gun, the creative work, offers audiences an opportunity to consider motherhood as a an action and active undertaking for social change. We value the impact of mothering on interpersonal community relations that can have broad and universal implications for positive and equitable social change. Our social impact initiatives focus on community support in 3 areas.
1.
Mothering for Social Change
Action & Activism at Home
Mothering, a verb. Mothering for social change is the intentional action of mothering in a manner that promotes equity and anti-racist practices in homes and communities.
artsbr.org/healing-history
creme de la rouge
In order to foster equity and inclusion,
we must create environments where that is possible.
-Roxi Victorian
Creme de la Rouge is an All-District Holiday Ballet I produce in my current role as Content and Instructional Specialist for East Baton Rouge Parish Schools. The ballet and program design are modeled after the American Ballet Theater's "Make A Ballet Program," their ballet "Whipped Cream," and Debbie Allen's "Hot Chocolate Nutcracker." In its inaugural year, we were successful with partnering with The American Ballet and international platform Brown Girls Do Ballet Inc., along with local vendors and businesses. Boasting a participation rate of 99% students of color, the ballet provides the experience free of charge to student dancers and parents. In year two the ballet served a total of 115 students across the district from 14 different schools, 7 of which are designated Title I schools.
event planning & production management
Since 2001, I have worked in production management and event planning. From humble beginnings as a production assistant at the National Black Theater Festival working with the then Hip Hop Theater Junction, I have grown into lead project manager and festival producer. A fan of all things the arts, producing a successful event is an art itself.
There's nothing like a good clipboard and a walkie talkie to make me feel at home. My most memorable moments in Production Management were when working as a Talent Coordinator for HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Having the opportunity to work with artist like Dave Chappell and Mos Def to observing Stan Lathan's candor and genius as a producer remains a highlight of my career.
scholarship & research
"Ignorance is a cure for nothing."
-Dubois
"fubu dances"
three BLACK WOMEN CHOREOGRAPHERS
& THEIR LIVED EXPERIENCES OF
DANCE & ACTIVISM
In My Masters research project, I explored the creative methodologies and work of Black women choreographers engaging in dance activism, and creating dance works for social change. The following questions guided the research.
How do Black women choreographers who self-define their dance practice and choreography as a form of protest and activism perceive and describe their lived experiences of dancemaking and performing? Further, how might they describe their teaching and identity concerning this work?
I will present my research for the first time at the 2023 International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference in Ontario, Canada.
I view my scholarship and creative works as interrelated as I investigate the efficacy and importance of Dance Activist performance presentation, with the hopes of lending my voice alongside colleagues working with similar intentions. I am inspired by the women of this study and encourage you to explore and support their creative efforts.
View full presentation of Research Here.
Research Participants: Holly Bass Paloma McGregor Syndie Mosley
"Poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. Each time we enter its word-woven and musical invocation, we give ourselves over to a different mode of knowing: to poetry's knowing and to the increase of existence it brings, unlike any other" (Hirshfield, 1997: vii).
METHODOLOGY
poetry
Rough warm ground
Grass, Hard and unforgiving under my feet
Arms free
Wind
Air Spirit
Wrapping
Wrapping inside
Connection
Poetic Inquiry:
Poetry writing has established itself as one such method of analysis and as a viable research output in itself, although it is still struggling free from the margins.
In rhyming verse (NEW)
Rough and warm was the grass around my feet
Air spirit wrapping arms free inside me
practice as research:
DESIGN, theories, Scholarship & LiterAture
The process of exploration in Practice as Research, for me, is first engaged in the spiritual and sensory nature of how I approach being. Being open and allowing work, thought, action, dance, inquiry, and movement to come and move through me from God, my ancestors, my connection to the earth, and the purpose placed upon my life. Sensing and feeling are the impetus from which I begin.
Allowance is uncomfortable. It seems forced at first, a need to do...but what is doing? Today I make meaning by feeling and collecting. I give in to my body, I resist the urge to think it into doing, and I move. I rest, I leave, and I emerge with quiet insight. Sometimes crowded in the creases of my brain. I breathe. I collect. I collect images and words, people and feelings. I collect the sensorial experience of being and learning. I steer blindly in search of more questions. The explorations included here are part of a larger work cataloging my research practices. Use the link to view the full exposition.
This expository assemblage is also formed as a visual critique of the ways in which humans convey identity in a contemporary context. I am inspired by editorial, graphic, and print media images and the use of typography to present narratives. I've become increasingly interested in photography and film images in my artistic processes, and I'm inspired by portrait artists like Amy Sherald, Barkley L. Henricks, and photographer Gordon Parks. I feature Sherald's work as background to many of my exposition pages as I explore the application of layering as a means to meaning-making and sharing out.
the kaliedescope of identity
This exercise lead to me thinking on the curated identities of social media presentations of being and self.
I bring along with me an internal leaning towards Black Feminist Creative Practices, Hip Hop Feminist Theory (The drum, the Dj, and The music drive my vernacular embodied expressions) , and Critical Race Theory as integral to the methodology and theoretical framework from which I explore. I'm intrigued by my inner child and the elements of play as a vehicle for learning. From this, I research Black girlhood and the somatic expressions of Black girls as part of a larger body of explorations.
I am newly interested in sensory ethnography, visual ethnography, and spiritual creativity, and "embodied spirit wisdom," as I recently heard dance scholar Andrea Woods describe it. I have been heavily engaged in the practice of Poetic Inquiry for the last two years -- a reclamation of self that has implicated my work and practices in a way that feels authentic.
embodied
metaphor
I've found Dr. Nicole Brown and Sarah Pink's scholarship and books to be instrumental in developing a concrete understanding of the practice. Brown's blogs, interviews, and especially her book, Embodied Inquiry, have offered examples of practical applications in Practice as Research that have solidified and given more language to processes I have engaged in for years.
The practice of body writing explores movement language in relation to self, a gathering of shapes to explore personal meaning. Meaning given literal shape in movement form. The vernacular communication of mind, body, thought & expression.
Body Writing
teaching & residencies
"movement is the foundation of life. Dance takes this human imperative to an expressive imperative that supports our ability to make meaning and deepen our understanding of this world."
urban bush women
summer leadership institute 2022
My time in "the bush"
Words cannot express how much I enjoyed my month-long engagement with Urban Bush Women, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar as a member of the 2022 Summer Leadership Institute. Jawole is a pioneer of the work I engage in, and an inspiration in the field. Urban Bush Women’s 2022 Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) in New York City is an intensive 10-day convening where renowned dance artists learn effective ways to deepen work as artists who want to connect art works to community organizing and progressive social change strategies.
The SLI forges an “artist as activist” methodology that offers a complex set of competencies and techniques that have evolved from a 35+ years of practice in art-making.
My experience was invaluable to my practice and research. Alongside scholars, creatives , activists and dancers from all over the world, I was immersed in the work of creating for social change for 8 hours a day, including intensive workshops lead by PSAB (The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond) on cultivating anti-racist engagements and conversations for transformative social change.
-Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
teaching & residencies
residency & fellowship
"Social critique, autobiography, dance, and hip hop enable me to sift through difficult emotions surrounding motherhood and change while navigating the racial complexities of the deep south."
Office Hours
-Roxi Victorian
at the REACH
Creating at home again...
As a Kennedy Center Office Hours at the REACH fellowship recipient, I was awarded $10,000 to travel with my company, Nyama Contemporary Dance Company to create for a week at the Kennedy Center. At the time Mama's Gun, in my mind, was a short solo performance work. What emerged during the week was a Hip Hop dance theater work that returned me to the roots of my artistry. With creative development support from my creative partner N'Sangou Jikam, and Professor Sybil Roberts what began as just movement with text to help frame building the work emerged as a theatrical presentation and expansive piece of theater. In process we engaged Howard University theater and dance students as audience and creatives through movement lead story circles and creative exercises to inspire movement and connectivity. Still in process, the work will debut at the Manship Theater and Shaw Center for the Arts in Baton Rouge in the summer of 2023 commissioned by The Power Coalition of New Orleans. Learn more about the work here.
teaching & residencies
methods and pedagogy
"I celebrate teaching that enables transgressions - a movement against and beyond boundaries It is that movement that makes education the practice of freedom."
I am passionate about:
-bell hooks
- meeting my dance students where they are
- being culturally and artistically responsive
- differentiated learning strategies
I believe that among students of any age, dance education has the potential to foster social-emotional development, life-long learning skills, and assist in learning to develop meaningful relationships with themselves and others.
I ground my methods in the classroom/studio space on the belief that students learn best when there is an interactive relationship between student and teacher (engaged pedagogy), and a practice of caring that includes concern for the students’ person and performance, both in dance and their core or other academic subjects. I value personal integrity and accountability as an integral part of the student/teacher relationships I nourish.
I think often about the level of willingness to engage in lessons and thus strive to avoid boring, monochromatic lessons and work diligently to incorporate multiple levels of engagement. Inside the discipline of dance, I am committed to dance history and technical proficiency as a part of my curriculum design, and provide instruction that supports students’ further study of dance at the collegiate and professional levels should they choose. While some students typically lack interest in traditional Western forms of dance (ballet, modern). I aim to impart the value of ALL dance forms inside my instruction and equip my students with a “tool kit” for success in the discipline that includes appreciation and technical proficiency in the studied styles and genres.
I also aim to build physical and cardiovascular strength and stamina inside the studio/classroom. I champion mental and physical discipline toward the development of a healthy student work ethic in artistry, academia, and life.
In the dance studio/classroom, I have developed a philosophy and personal pedagogy based on the belief that no matter the subject matter, the relationship between student and teacher has the potential to awaken a sense of self and accountability that can be beneficial in any environment.
LET'S CONNECT
Phone Number
(202) 498-0343
Mailing Address
1514 Stoneliegh Drive Baton Rouge, LA
Email Address
victorianroxi@gmail.com
Choreographer Roxi Victorian & Nyama Contemporary Dance Company
Present
mama's Gun
the choreography of
mothering while black
July 28-29, 2023
Manship Theatre
100 Lafayette St
Baton Rouge, LA
7:30 pm
movement. music & mothering for social change
@nyamadance
www.roxivictoriandance.com
www.nyamadance.com
Gigi
$5,500 -10,000
SPONSORSHIP & PARTNERSHIP
15K
goal:
opportunities
Big mama money! Our "Gigi" level sponsorship is named for Rosa Trapp-Dail, and Kathy Victorian, the mother, and mother-in-law of our Artistic Director and Founder. Gigi's are too fly to be grandmothers, yet love their grands with the same deep intensity. They are community shakers and world travelers. Our Gigi sponsors encourage us to dream big and work towards maximizing our community impact. We name our "Gigi" level sponsors our forward sponsors, as they support us with the capital to propel the movement forward to greatness. Our Gigi-level sponsors are offered priority access to our performances and engagements, 10 tickets to each performance, a logo included in promotions and advertisements, and a full-page program ad. Gigi-level organizations receive discounted workshop and performance rates.
Mimi
$1,500-$5,000
The Mimi Sponsorship is named for Jacqueline Yvonne Blaney - the Mimi and mother-in-law to our Artistic Director and Founder, Our Mimi sponsors represent our "bonus" mothers in life. Those that love and support unconditionally regardless of blood relation. Jackie Blaney is a life-long social worker and in-home healthcare provider. She is always mothering and advocating for social change. We name our "Mimi" level sponsors our grow sponsors, they plant the seeds that grow our gardens. Support sponsors are offered 5 tickets to each performance, logos included on promotions and advertisements, and a half-page program ad.
"Mom"
$550-$1000
Some moms have a knack for planning parties and full, fun experiences. A gift for packing lunches and scheduling activities. Moms are knee-deep in the choreography of mothering. Our "mom" level sponsors assist in making sure our performances, workshops, and community offerings are well-organized, thoughtful, and sustainable. We value our "Mom" level sponsors and name them our support sponsors. Support sponsors are given priority access to workshops and ticket sales, two complimentary tickets, a reception drink package, and a listing in the performance program.
"Ma"
$100-$500
We all remember the infamous mom question..." do you have McDonald's money?" A phrase familiar to children around the world negotiating after-school snacks. The rides to and from school, and general moments of travel are precious moments between mothers and children. McDonald's money and moments go a long way. We value our McDonald's money "Ma" sponsors and name them our foundational sponsors. Foundational sponsors are given priority access to workshops and ticket sales prior to the general public, and a listing in the performance program.
DONATE
GROW,REACH,IMPACT.
EXPANDING Our REACH & Maximizing our impact
- The success of the production and workshop offerings can not sustain themselves on ticket sales alone. We need the support of community partners like you to maximize our impact and truly affect change.
- For next steps to move forward in securing your donation and partnership, please complete the google form link below.
- Donations of $250 or lower or donors that do not require a Donation receipt or tax deduction may make donations using our CashApp and Paypal donate handles. $NyamaDance
- Donations of $300 and higher requiring a tax-deductible receipt are to be paid to our fiscal agent Brown Girls Do Ballet, and may be submitted via check, money order, or wire transfer.
Thank you for your support!
grow with us.