Because no one wants what’s happening in our country right now…
Because we believe we have to say out loud for non-believers that Black Lives Matter…
Because we need great and small reckonings…
Because we need everyday protests to counter everyday murders…
Because it has everything to do with dance…
Looking back, moving forward…
Dr. Nadine George-Graves
Professor and Chair
Department of Dance
While all of our inboxes were being flooded with anti-racist declarations from all sorts of companies, media outlets and organizations last June, Ohio State Dance leaders decided that piling another blanket statement on the smoldering flame of racial injustice seemed to be an incommensurate response to the horrific murder of George Floyd. And while this tragedy exposed yet another crack in our country’s brokenness at the time, former Chair Susan Hadley and current Chair Dr. Nadine George-Graves decided to begin the healing process in the summer and fall semesters with action. They immediately scheduled a town hall on June 4, 2020 with the entire Ohio State Dance community in order to hold an honest discussion about the work we needed to do. Over 75 faculty, staff, students and alumni met for over 3 hours via Zoom. As noted in her response to the meeting, Dr. George-Graves highlighted a few of the things she heard:
- Above all, I heard people who are committed to the department and their relationship to the department (past, present and future).
- We all want the department to be a home for everyone to be supported and respected in their authentic selves and safe to be honest with work and opinions.
- We are a family and families are complicated. We are a diverse community of individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives connected through dance.
While the town hall was downright messy at times, the genuine conversation propagated several restorative efforts and orchestrated ongoing departmental initiatives focused on doing the labor of social justice reform, like creating “a radically and unapologetically open social justice committee in a decolonized model open to all faculty and staff to hold the department accountable at a sustainable level,” says Dr. George-Graves. Fortunately, we already had a group of graduate students and alumni already committed to this work. Dr. George-Graves met with the Anti-Racist Working Group (ARWG), a sub-group of Dancers in Graduate School (DiGS), an Ohio State student organization, every week to collaborate on fostering initiatives such as a community anti-racist workshop to be held online twice a week. Just a few days after the town hall, the group hosted a 2-hour interactive Racism 101 Workshop facilitated by graduate student Alex Christmas and alumnae Kathryn Logan and Lyndsey Vader. After this introductory workshop, the group continued the series until the end of autumn semester.
In addition to these workshops, the ARWG established affinity groups where people in the community joined to learn around an identity commonality. Other important work included strategizing a credit-bearing course and certificate program, grant writing, researching potential guest speakers and celebrating black students, alumni, professors, guest scholars and artists connected to the Ohio State Dance community through their social media solidarity platform, #OSUDancers4BlackLives.
“I’ve been thinking about the everyday,” says Dr. George-Graves. “How do we sustain this daily work that preserves our health? We can only do it knowing that we are supported by others. I’m stepping up for this work and so are you. What does this have to do with dance? Everything. I’ve been thinking of: Everyday protests to counter everyday killings. Everyday acts of kindness to counter everyday microaggression. Everyday empowerment to counter everyday disenfranchisement.”