Aaliyah Christina
Aaliyah Christina | Photo credit Tori Rice
Aaliyah Christina is a dancemaker and curator. Her practice focuses on the act of releasing and addressing past traumas, and the importance of self-care and self-love to shelter vulnerability and connection. She creates narrative-based performance that illuminates the range of the experience of Black American communities, using personal archives, multiple perspectives of Black femmes, and experiences with misogynoir.
Artist in Residence 2021 | Aaliyah Christina| Photo credit: Ally Almore
Image description: A black woman stands with her back to us, her arms outstretched and down, hands facing forward. On her hands she wears several silver rings. Her nails are manicured and long, with square edges. They are painted in an opaque white French manicure. She is wearing a white tank top and lose fitting white pants, her natural hair in an afro down to her shoulders. She is against a brick wall, faded in the background, with audience members sitting against the wall watching her. Also in front of her, to the right side of the photograph, is a large white wall where you can see a projected image on the wall. The image is not fully visable.
The Project
For her HCL year, Aaliyah Christina has a solo work-in-development and is continuing work on The Praise Mother Initiative, a mental health initiative centering Black single mothers in low-income communities who might be experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or other mental illnesses. Her research focuses on studies conducted by Dr. Rahshida Atkins, an authority on the compounding harm to generations of Black women by the systemic neglect of the American health system due to racism and sexism. With guidance from this research, Praise Mother hopes to reach single mothers or those raised by single mothers who may have undiagnosed or uncared for symptoms of the aforementioned mental illnesses. Aaliyah will organize support groups at HCL for the women to discuss their experiences, write letters to self & each other, and create artworks showcasing the process of dealing and healing.
Aaliyah Christina’s imperative is to generate supportive systems and interpersonal relationships sustained beyond the residency. The process includes gathering poetry, essays, and journals, her own and by the participants as an essential document to making performance. For the movement investigation, her solo explores shifts from quick-fast movement to steady, sustained phrases. She will be revisiting dance styles from her childhood (such as majorette, liturgical/praise dance, etc.) to reflect on the process of feeling and healing at each stage of her life — from childhood to adulthood. Praise Mother centers research and experiences with healing from mental illnesses that develop into physical manifestations — from emotional grief to debilitating pain. It touches on the spirituality of growing pains and mending those aches. The solo specifically draws on Black women and girls' relationships between mother and child, then accessing ancestral guidance from the Mothers of our past. It marks the path from inaction to busy-ness. Shifting energies and maintaining intentionality challenges us to grow into healing instead of forcing the transformation. Aaliyah surmises that healing is not linear.
Artist Bio
Aaliyah Christina cites her cultures stemming from Louisiana and Maryland as influences in her curation and dance practice. She founded Catalyst Movmnt (2017) to share spaces with artists and audiences as they negotiate and acknowledge their vulnerabilities as they perform and witness, respectively. She has worked with and been mentored by choreographer-dancers Onye Ozuzu, Kristina Isabelle, Darrell Jones, and Darling Shear. She has presented her work as part of j e l l o, CoMISSION Festival of New Works at Links Hall, and Project Tool in “SET FREE”. She co-curated Elevate Chicago Dance 2018, La Femme Dance Festival 2019, and The Fly Honey Show X.
Instagram: @liyahplainjain