Words to Live By: "Glocal"
The leadership of Red Clay Dance Company explores themes and topics inspired by various words that resonate among its artists, students, administrators, and supporters. We will offer some examples in a series of stories during the next few months and ask for your responses to them as well.This month, we continue with GLOCAL:
Reflecting or characterized by both local and global considerations
Of or relating to the interconnection of global and local issues
What does glocal mean to Red Clay Dance Company?
Vershawn Sanders-Ward, Founder and Artistic Director
We started using this word during our strategic planning process about eight years ago. My understanding is that it is more of a business term, but we adopted it because we felt that it reflects how we wanted our work to sit in the world. “Glocal” is obviously a combination of the words global and local and infers both the human body and society at large, a dichotomy I address consistently in my work. One definition of the word “local” in the dictionary is "pertaining to or characterized by place or position in space; spatial,” so this can mean the body as a local entity. Through movement, one can express global issues, experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
Dance is a powerful form of communication. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and her company, Urban Bush Women, and Ronald K. Brown are among my artistic influences. Glocal could be applied to their work as well—the shaping of the local, or individual, to express the global, or universal. I want my work to inspire awareness of issues in all marginalized communities, to promote dialogue and discussion, and ultimately to become a call to action.”
Red Clay Dance Company incorporates a glocal focus in a number of ways. Our community engagement and education work is hyperlocal in that we serve South Side communities, school, youth centers, churches, parks, etc. We hire local artists who aspire to see their work on a global level/platform (both performing and teaching). We aim to be a global model for seamless integration of teaching and performing—both on an equal playing field and one informing and influencing the other within the company. We connect local partners and individuals to our global partners, such as Keiga Dance Company in Uganda. We impact the lives and future of local youth who have the potential to spread the values and skills we have activated in them on national and global platforms/spaces. We are aiming for more exchanges like the one we have with Keiga, but also including teaching and other creative opportunities for our artists.
We are standing in the space of truly creating a local community of creatives with aspirations for global impact!
Marceia Scruggs, company member
When I hear the term “glocal,” I imagine ginormous hands that stretch far beyond the Northern Lights. A wee droplet of blue dye into a half full glass—it prints, it splashes, it begins to reach. It breathes expansion, both near and far. Glocal, I believe, is where potential and action are unlocked on both a wide range and more local community spectrum. In this world, necessary and relative topics of change are met, sparking inquiry, curiosity, and transformation.
Whether through dialogue, performance, teaching, or collaborating, Red Clay Dance Company actively creates relative, resounding, and reflective conversation that can be witnessed by a spectrum of people. From topics of the importance of community, to economic inequities, to ancestry, the company constantly generates vital dialogue and impact. Recently, I was fortunate to witness its Youth Ensemble, led by Chaniece Holmes, in a conversation on the needs of their community and how in particular this impacted them. At this moment, I was awakened yet again as to why this work is important. Red Clay Dance Company is actively birthing change agents near and far.
Catrina Franklin, Vice Chair, Board of Directors
In respect to Red Clay Dance Company, glocal means to impact the local environment with global influences and the opportunity for this company to expand globally. Red Clay Dance was created out of Vershawn’s global experience, but the company is on the move to be a global company giving back to the local community.
We would like to know what GLOCAL means to you! Please email info@redclaydance.com and share your thoughts with us.
Photos top to bottom:
Red Clay Dance Company and Keiga Dance Company performing EKILI MUNDA | What Lies Within (L–R: Marceia Scruggs, Robert Ssempijja, Chaniece Holmes). Photo by Raymond Jerome.
Vershawn Sanders-Ward teaching class at the Kampala National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda
Back Stage for the premiere of EKILI MUNDA | What Lies Withinat the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, November 2018.
Company member Chaniece Holmes performs in Art of Resilience 2.0 at the DuSable Museum Roundhouse.
Keiga Dance Company Artistic Director Jonas Byaruhanga leads a masterclass at Red Clay Dance Company's home space, Fuller Park.
