Errin Weaver

The Continuum: Drum, Song and the Dancing Body

Abstract

In collaboration, Mojuba! Dance Collective (Cleveland, OH), an African Contemporary dance company dedicated to sharing the stories, culture, and embodied knowing of the African Diaspora to cultivate rich and transformative community experiences and Imamou Lele (New York, New York), an ensemble of dancers, percussionists, and vocalists sewn together in the spirit of Haiti to uplift, preserve, and promote the traditional works of the island will present traditional drum rhythms played by master musicians along with ritual dances and invocation.

We are interested in actively engaging through an embodied ritual experience which connects altar building, song, and dance in a tapestry of spiritual collaborative encounter. We plan to share a performance piece which would incorporate spiritual elements such as traditional Vodou songs of invocation, drum patterns, ritual dance, and colors that the audience would first experience collectively through lecture demonstration. This effort to tell the stories of people of the African Diaspora strategically employs spirituality in a digestible way which will be translated through performance in its actual ritual form. In combining altar set up, libation, and brief lecture, the audience will be taken through a hands-on ritual experience which will then be carried out throughout the performance. There is potential for transcendence and spiritual connection, and certainly greater understanding and community activation through this transformative experience.

Bio

Errin Weaver is a choreographer, community activator, and the Executive Artistic Director of Mojuba! Dance Collective, an African contemporary dance company dedicated to exploring spiritual and cultural dance traditions of the African Diaspora to restore community wellness, share and validate the Black narrative experience, and reestablish cultural connection, based in Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a Masters in Public Service from DePaul University and will complete her thesis in May toward an MFA in Choreography and Interdisciplinary Studies from Wilson College. 

Errin has taught, been in residency, and sat on panels regarding sacred dance rooted in the Gospel tradition and Africanist dance forms extensively. Through her work, she has created the Emerging Black Choreographers Incubator, hosted countless workshops and festivals, and become a published author. Her choreography has been presented regionally and internationally, and has received awards and commissioned support. She has been deeply vested in wellness and the community arts where she has facilitated training sessions, free outdoor movement workshops, and a collaborative evening length work uniting professional and aspiring artists in a telling of Black American history.

Errin is certified at the M’Singha Wuti level for the Umfundalai Contemporary African Dance technique and has taught spiritual and African based dance forms extensively.  She has worked with such notable choreographers as Abdel Salaam, Jeffrey Page, Monique Haley, Ronald K. Brown, Babacar N’Diaye, and the late Baba Chuck Davis.