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When Porcia Derival arrived at SU, she experienced an immediate culture shock. Growing up in her suburb of Long Island, she assimilated into a predominantly white lifestyle and suppressed her black identity.
Everything changed when Derival joined DanceWorks. She found a community where she could be herself and learned how to express her own culture through her movements.
“It was all sweater vests, khakis and nice sandals. I let my hair loose.” It really took me into the cultural identity of
On Monday night, 119 Euclid hosted a “fireside chat” with Porshia Derival to discuss the inspiration for her dance career and how DanceWorks is connecting with her culture through art to redefine success.
Growing up as a dancer, Derival always felt strongly about the power of movement and wanted to have that creative outlet in college. Her organization soon became her home on campus and provided her with opportunities to express herself through her hip-hop and other styles of dance.
“DanceWorks was my heart and soul, the team that everyone knew.
During her sophomore year, Derival began choreographing her own hip-hop dances for Danceworks, performing at the Goldstein Auditorium. Her goal was to go beyond her hip-hop conventions and add her own unique touch. She stretched the dance from about 3 minutes to about 7 minutes. Derival also allowed anyone regardless of her experience to participate and perform for her, giving everyone the opportunity to express themselves through dance.
“A lot of the dancers I brought in weren’t trained dancers. They were people with natural movement and groove and soul,” Derival said. “People who knew that if you gave them enough derivatives and grooves to work with and knowledge of hip-hop her dance, they could be really great.”
After studying for her senior thesis, Derival met Safi Thomas, the artistic director of the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory. Thomas saw Derival’s dedication to dance and how much she embodied the artistic vision of what he wanted to do with the organization.
It was also an opportunity to sit down with my own cultural heritage and acknowledge, rather than simply dismiss, everything that black people have been through for hundreds of years. It was an opportunity to say,
Porcia Derival, Co-Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory
A year later, after Derival graduated from SU, Thomas offered her the position of Co-Executive Director of the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory (H+) and they have been partners ever since.
The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory is an organization focused on helping dancers by meeting basic human needs. For example, the organization benefits dancers through her DanceMart, which provides free groceries to all dancers through stores like Trader Joes and Target. The organization also offers free health and wellness programs such as yoga and acupuncture.
Yvonne Chow, Director of Operations and Director of Education at H+, talks about how organizations like H+ are important to black culture as a whole. In addition to providing resources and support for dancers, the organization creates inclusive and representative spaces where black culture is celebrated, including integrating hip-hop into black culture education, she said. Told.
It was difficult for Chow to get a hip-hop education in college. As such, organizations like H+ were critical to strengthening the already strong foundations of black culture.
“We didn’t have a hip-hop dance class in college, so everything was outside,” Chow said. “Coming to H+ was the only way we could study it.”
Thomas said Derival was the only one to appear in his performance of “Black Barbie,” which focuses on black women’s experiences with racism and sexual assault.
“Playing the character of Black Barbie was almost an homage to my entire ancestral lineage,” Derival said. , abuse, and women who have dealt with these issues that are synonymous in our community.”
This shows how an art form can capture the social injustices so prevalent in our society. In addition, these messages in the form of dance and music are much more appealing.
“It was also an opportunity to sit back in my own cultural heritage and acknowledge, rather than simply ignore, everything that black people have been through for hundreds of years,” Derival said. It was an opportunity to look straight at it and say, ‘This is what I’m dealing with.
According to Thomas, this is a common goal at H+, as he and the rest of the team strive to amplify black voices while also examining ways they have been silenced in the past. I’m here.
“Culturally, we continue to be watered down, homogenized, or weakened to make others comfortable,” Thomas said. “We produce many things, but we don’t own them, and we don’t even know they are ours.”
Published October 18, 2022 at 12:47 AM
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