DiGS Anti-Racist Working Group is hosting OSU Black Dance Roundtable on Friday, Feb. 5. The virtual event will feature a panel of six black artists and OSU dance alumni. Credit: Courtesy of Alex Christmas
Ohio State student organization Dancers in Graduate School’s Anti-Racist Working Group, which began the social media initiative #OSUDancers4BlackLives in June 2020, is hosting virtual workshops every Friday afternoon on Zoom.
The workshops, which are open to students, faculty and alumni, are facilitated by Alex Christmas, a graduate teaching assistant and third-year doctoral student in the Department of Dance, along with Lyndsey Vader and Kathryn Logan, Ohio State alumnae. Each workshop tackles a different topic related to racism in the dance community and initiates discussions about what individuals can take to initiate change.
“Our mission is really about making changes on the hyperlocal level and beyond, so our workshops are open to the community,” Christmas said. “But we are focusing our conversation on the dance field whenever possible.”
Formed in 2019, DiGS’ Anti-Racist Working Group’s primary goal is to create a community of accountability within the dance department. Through weekly workshops where people come together in a safe space to understand and define racism, Logan said they work toward being actively anti-racist in their thoughts and actions.
“A lot of what we’re thinking, in general, is this idea of sustainability,” Logan said. “It was important to us to create a culture where the work is happening and it’s integrated into the department. If that’s happening every week, it starts to become a part of regular conversation.”
Most of the weekly workshops are structured in a “what, so what, now what” model, Christmas said. Participants are given information, asked to participate in activities, polls and discussion groups and shown ways they can implement what they have learned into their own lives.
“This kind of work isn’t work you can do from the sidelines,” Vader said. “It all boils down to being responsive to community needs and uplifting community knowledge. Those two things are the pillars of our philosophy and guide the way in which we are creating these workshops for our community.”
The topic of discussion Friday was “Facilitating Racial Conversations 2.0.” The workshop discussed different ways to handle microaggressions in the dance studio and effective and ineffective classroom conversation strategies. Participants were given scenarios to respond to and discuss with their groups in breakout rooms.
Christmas said the scenarios participants are given to work through and the following conversations aren’t always easy.
“Part of the work is awkwardness and awkward silence, letting people sit with the discomfort of not knowing something, and allowing folks to move through that discomfort,” Christmas said.
Although conversations may be uncomfortable, Christmas said that does not stop their work.
“We are a small group of people doing things we think really matter and hoping that it’ll have a larger impact that goes beyond even us,” Christmas said.
Instead of the usual workshop, ARWG will have an OSU Black Dance Roundtable Friday featuring a panel of Black artists and alumni of the Ohio State Department of Dance.
“We have folks who are in arts administration, independent choreographers, teachers, professors and individuals who are performing for other companies,” Vader said. “It really is a diverse range of how these individuals have navigated their professional careers. The conversion is going to be engaging the whole ecosystem of the performing arts.”
All ARWG workshops are held every Friday afternoon from 3-5 p.m. and are free to attend. The schedule for all spring semester workshops is posted on the ARWG website.
