Kenyetta Dance Company
Fourteen beautiful flowers will perform an hour-long piece Saturday.
The word Kenyetta, pronounced Ken-yet-tay, is Swahili for beautiful flower.
The Kenyetta Dance Company was founded in 2004 by Nicholas and Vanessa Owens. The Kenyatta Dance Company began as a dance studio, but Nicholas and Vanessa wanted to give their students an opportunity to perform more.
Lalah Hazelwood, Vanessa’s daughter, was one of the first members of the now 14-member dance company.
Hazelwood has been dancing since the age of 5 and is looking to make a career out of dancing.
Hazelwood, a sophomore kinesiology major at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. said Kenyetta’s choreographers push her to become a better dancer.
“We’re pushed to our limits,” Hazelwood said. “It’s challenging, but I appreciate it.”
Nicole Clarke-Springer will be Kenyetta’s choreographer for the night. The hour-long show is broken into two parts; “Nine” and “Still walking in the light.”
For Clarke-Springer choreographing a piece starts within. Clarke-Springer said before she can begin to give movements to dancers, she has to take some time to meditate on her life.
Reflecting on her life is exactly what inspired Clarke-Springer to come up with the show the Kenyetta Dance Company is currently performing.
Clarke-Springer said there was a point in her life where she was on the verge of losing herself.
“I was trying to keep my center, but everyone was trying to pull me in different directions,” she said.
This inspired her choreography in the first part, “Nine.”
The second part, “Still walking in the light,” Clarke-Springer said represents her self-discovery of her inner light and her place in the world.
“You have to know who you are in the world and let your light grow,” Clark-Springer said. “Then continue to remind yourself, ‘This is who I am.'”
Joe Musiel, one of the newest members to Kenyetta to perform on Saturday, said he is a little nervous to perform the first half, “Nine,” because it is a very demanding piece physically and emotionally.
Musiel has studied ballet and contemporary dance for three years and is a contemporary dance major at Indiana University.
Even though he has technical training, he still finds dancing black aesthetics extremely stressful and emotional because it demands that the dancer dances solely from emotions, he said.
Hazelwood defined black aesthetics as a theory that encourages Kenyetta’s form of dance. This theory originates from African dance that combines all types of dance to create an emotional driven piece.
The Kenyetta Dance Company will be performing at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in The Theatre of the Doudna Fine Arts Center. General Admission is $5 for students, $7 for Eastern employees and seniors and $10 for general admission.
“The audience will leave in awe,” Hazelwood said.
Zinika Livingston can be reached at 581-7944 or denverge@gmail.com.
