Denise Thimes
Over the course of a multi-faceted career spanning just a little under 3 decades, Thimes is no stranger to the music world, growing up in a home surrounded by all types of music from her father & radio icon, the late Lou “Fatha” Thimes.
Thimes has performed with such jazz notables as Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra,(St. Louis, MO) the late Clark Terry(The Blue Note-NY), Dr. Billy Taylor, Earl May, Benny Powell,(Flushing Town Hall) and James Moody(Blue Note-NY). She has also graced the stage with the likes of Houston Person, Jimmy&Tootie Heath, Bobby McFerrin, and Bucky Pizzarelli.
In recent years she has appeared and toured Paris with David Sanborn, sung for the Queen of Thailand(Mandarin Oriental Hotel), Queen Elizabeth II(British Embassy-Washington D.C. (during her 2009 visit to the U.S), President George W Bush(White House 2007), and was hand picked by the Queen of Soul(Aretha Franklin) to perform for her 72nd birthday celebration ( 2015-Ritz Carlton, NY).
Most say that her acting is just as great as her singing and founding director Ron Himes of the St Louis Black Repertory would agree. Thimes has received 8 Woodie Awards( named after Freedom Theatre Founder-Woody King-NY) for her roles as lead and supporting for acting, and musical performances.
Although a native of St Louis, MO Thimes, has recently became a resident of Chicago IL, where she can be seen at Winter’s jazz club downtown Chicago.
When Denise is not performing, Thimes wears another hat and is equally passionate as Founder & Executive Director of the Mildred Thimes Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.(named after Thimes mother). Thimes continues to appeal for more education and awareness for this fatal disease that struck her mother in 1997.
Thimes has truly been one of the cherished voices of modern jazz.
Whether headlining at Dizzy’s Coca Cola Room in New York, or conquering the national jazz festival scene, or sharing the stage with the legendary Tony Bennett, Denise Thimes has an unmistakable tendency to steal the show and astonish crowds of every size and background. As jazz aficionado Phoebe Jacobs stated following another famed New York show, “Denise Thimes is like Ella and Sarah born all over again.” It’s time for you to experience Denise Thimes.
The Seventh Floor Repertory Dance Collective
Founded by Heather Beal, The Seventh Floor Repertory Dance Collective is a St. Louis-based dance company dedicated to the preservation and legacy of Dunham Technique. Heather uses dance to express joy, pain, self-examination, and community through the lens of her blackness. She knows how important it is to see yourself reflected back to you in the way in which you see yourself. Growing up in Dunham, she was blessed to have been groomed to continue a rich legacy where our black culture was celebrated. Dance is her thing, sharing our history and culture with the next generation is her purpose. She is walking in her purpose. https://www.theseventhfloor.org/
Nana Chinara
Nana Chinara creates. She’s Black, Queer, and a gleaming glitterbeam. She dreams up worlds in her body, and offers them in ritual. She wallows in the wild and dances with desire. A performance ritualist, youth educator, and loquacious lover, her artistry is the lens through which she conjures Black healing and liberation as an ancestral practice. Nana is powered by pleasure. She shapes a full body YES. Nana Chinara is an herbalist, cacao lover, and forever a student of Audre Lorde. Planting futures in her palms, Nana is in service of all young people who craft an abundantly free world in the beyond. Nana is the Artistic Director of Healing the Black Body, and she no longer fears her deepest cravings. She is sweetening, softening, slowly, and surrendering. https://healingtheblackbody.org/
Brother(hood) Dance!
Brother(hood) Dance! is a 2020 Bessies Honoree of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies for Afro/Solo/Man. They are an interdisciplinary duo that seeks to inform its audiences on the socio-political and environmental injustices from a global perspective, bringing clarity to the same-gender-loving African-American experience in the 21st century. Brother(hood) Dance! was formed in April 2014 as a duo that researches, creates, and performs dances of freedom by Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine. We have performed our works at FiveMyles, Center for Performance Research, B.A.A.D! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), VCU-The Grace Street Theater, DraftWork at St. Mark's Church, JACK, Movement Research at Judson Church, Colby College, Denmark Arts Center, Universidad de las Américas Puebla/Performática(MX), Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán/Viso Festival (MX), Jean-René Del Solins Institute (HT) and other venues. They are both pursuing an MFA in Dance with a concentration in Agriculture and Technology at The Ohio State University. https://www.bhooddance.com/
Jennifer Harge
Jennifer Harge is an artist and educator based in Detroit, MI. Her work is a constellation of performance, storytelling, language, and ceremonies rooted in Black freedom strategies. She privileges her interiority and subjectivity as form, moving from/moving with/rerouting/reimagining/reinventing the stories sitting in her blood memories.
Harge is currently developing a fable series, FLY | DROWN, which is intimately situated within the context of Black femme flesh, imaginations, dreamscapes, prayers, and homes. The latest iteration of FLY | DROWN, a clearing, made with Devin Drake, is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
In 2023, Harge served as the Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair in Dance at UCLA. This fall she will be a scholar-in-residence at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.hargedancestories.com/
Embodied Sovereignty Project
Brittany, a womanist, a ride-or-die freedom fighter, and an art-maker - creates work that is part reality, part fugitive. She is a graduate of the University of South Florida. Brittany's artistic work biomythically explores her ancestral lineage and memory of growing up in the swamplands of Florida. Brittany has traveled to various places in the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. She is a principal dancer with Olujimi Dance. She is a founder of the Dancing for Justice organization and Obika Dance.
The Seventh Floor Repertory Dance Collective with Siobhan Monique and Lamar Harris
Founded by Heather Beal, The Seventh Floor Repertory Dance Collective is a St. Louis based dance company dedicated to the preservation and legacy of Dunham Technique. Singer, songwriter, and educator based in Florida, Siobhan is also the founding artist of Ancestral Funk TM, Inc. Lamar Harris is a trombonist with a unique style and sound. His influences flow from jazz, hip-hop, and world music to classical themes and is incorporated into his music. https://www.theseventhfloor.org/
Kirven Douthit-Boyd "Film Panel Discussion Moderator
Kirven Douthit-Boyd (Boston, MA) began his formal dance training at the Boston Arts Academy in 1999 and as a member of Boston Youth Moves under the artistic direction of Jeannette Neil and Jim Viera. Mr. Douthit-Boyd studied as a fellowship student at The Ailey School and on scholarship at the Boston Conservatory. He is a graduate of Hollins University where he earned an MFA in dance.
He began his professional career as a member of Ailey II from 2002–2004 and performed at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival as a member of Battleworks Dance Company in 2003. In June 2004, Mr. Douthit-Boyd joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performing both nationally and internationally for 11 years. During his tenure with the company, he performed leading roles in works choreographed by Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Robert Battle, Ron K. Brown, Geoffrey Holder, Jiri Kylian, David Parsons, Camille A. Brown, Ulysses Dove, Christopher Wheeldon, Hofesh Shecter, Twyla Tharp, Wayne McGregor and Ohad Naharin. He joined COCA-Center of Creative Arts in 2015 as Co-Artistic Director of Dance with his husband Antonio Douthit-Boyd. In 2016, Mr. Douthit-Boyd joined Ron K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company as a guest artist.
In 2010, Douthit-Boyd performed at the White House tribute to Judith Jamison hosted by then first lady Michelle Obama. He has also appeared as a guest artist in ballet and contemporary dance galas in Argentina, Mexico and Canada. He is the 2014 recipient of the “Black Theater Alliance Award” for his performance in Wayne McGregor’s “Chroma,” the 2015 recipient of the “Next Generation in Leadership Award” from the Freedom House in Boston, the 2016 recipient of the Boston Arts Academy’s “Apollo Award” the 2021 recipient of the “Excellence in the Arts Award” from the Arts and Education Council in St. Louis, and the 2022 recipient of the Dance Teacher Magazine Award.
Douthit-Boyd has choreographed workshops for The Ailey School, The Juilliard School, Webster University, Boston Arts Academy, Boston Youth Moves and COCA. He has also choreographed works for Dallas Black Dance Theater and Ailey II. He is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum and has completed Lester Horton Pedagogy studies under Ana Marie Forsythe in New York and St. Louis. He has also served as Distinguished Performing Artist at Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught modern dance in the collaborative MFA program between the University and COCA. https://www.thebigmuddydanceco.org/kirven
BERNARD BROWN
BERNARD BROWN is a California-based dance artist, choreographer, and educator. His work is rooted in catalyzing change through dance; dance sparks dialogue which in turn, inspires action, the action being the change within our communities. He is interested in excavating the ways in which art can transform, create ripples of empathy, and foster healing. He received his MFA from the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA and his BFA from Purchase College. Bernard began his dance training at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre School and continued on to the illustrious Idyllwild Arts Academy. https://www.bbmoves.org/
