Come Home to Yourself – A Preview of SLMDances at Dance Place by Ashayla Byrd

Thirteen dancers sit and lean on chairs placed in a line in a forest. They are all wearing bright colors such as blue, red, green, orange, purple, teal, brown, and pink.

Photo by Travis Coe, courtesy of Dance Place

Come Home to Yourself: Venture Into the PURPLE Universe with SLMDances

by Ashayla Byrd (she/they)

Imagine a universe imbued with the saccharine taste of honey. The scent of dried lavender buds wafts through the atmosphere. You are immersed into a great expanse of iridescent light that beams onto your skin. As you traverse the tranquil space, you are pulled into the embrace of your dearest loved ones and wrapped in a quilt made just for you. Your fiercest ancestors whisper prophecies in your ear, guiding you through this unknown land. You’ve entered the PURPLE universe, one meant to ground and nurture you. 

When asked about her elevator pitch for PURPLE: A Ritual in Nine Spells, Sydnie L. Mosley, Founding Artistic and Executive Director of SLMDances, shared sisterhood’s integral role in the formation of the evening-length work: “It is a universe with multiple projects that live inside of it, and it is a work that has a certain number of values. It is a work that really centers on sisterhood, in particular, as sisterhood as defined through the lens of Black women, through storytelling and movement.” 

There are seven values, or guiding principles, that audiences can reflect on as they experience the immersive world that Mosley and SLMDances create for them. Works in the PURPLE universe must be iterative, multi-generational, be sacred rituals, work within a feedback loop, contain oral history, involve collective decision-making, and center the practice and legacy of the revolutionary Black poet and playwright Ntozake Shange. In terms of which came first, the universe or its principles, Mosley figures that “it’s almost a chicken and egg question. [She’s] not sure what came first.” Perhaps it all happened in tandem. 

Speaking of sisterhood, one of the origins of the work came from artistic adventures Mosley experienced with someone we Black folks like to call her “play-sister,” someone who is not technically her sibling, but sure does move through life with her like one. “We were attending a lot of events around New York City…most of those events centered the work of, or featured the work of Black women and oftentimes Black feminists.” With each event that Mosley and her play-sister attended, the energy in the spaces they navigated felt unlike the traditional artistic spaces that were dominated by Eurocentric culture and practices. “We were like, ‘Oh, there is a certain vibe up in here that is cultivated by not only who is here, but also what we’re gathering around. And so we started to call that ‘purple’ in reference to Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.” Purple is not only a color; it’s a vibe. 

Mosley then worked to cultivate a purple space within SLMDances and to define what the vibe, what that feeling truly is. The Color Purple, a seminal work of the American literary canon, is another artistic landscape rich with text that appeals to the senses. Mosley describes PURPLE as a “sensual” experience. It’s not in the provocative sense, although that’s acceptable, too. “The work is very sensual as in, it activates all of the senses and it does that intentionally. My intention for the work, my intention for the audience–which I call ‘witness participants’–is that they have this experience of purple and a sense of healing, permission, and joy.” Appealing to the senses can also be a particularly grounding experience. Mosley mentioned the healing practices and nervous system regulation techniques that ask us to ground ourselves through our senses. We ask, “What do I feel? What do I see? What do I hear? What do I smell? What do I taste?” This brings us back to ourselves, even while life continues to throw us off center. 

Throughout the formation and production of this work, Mosley recalls many moments of feeling pulled from herself as extraneous factors often tried to complicate the process. Mosley shared that “trying to put the show on, dealing with institutions, dealing with funders, dealing with management teams and people and project management and all of that kind of stuff…that is the stuff that pulls me away.” There’s nothing like chocolate, a Beyoncé dance party, some breath work, and a sun salutation to get Mosley’s creative wheels turning again, though. These grounding moments allow Mosley to return home to herself, the safest place to be. As Queen Mother Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter would say, “Turn a bad night to a good time, On a trail ride to the zydeco, I’m coming home.” (Stream Cowboy Carter now!)

When speaking about coming home to one’s self and maintaining a sense of groundedness, the notion of trusting intuition especially rings true for Mosley. When she has what she calls “an intuitive directive,” she follows it. She knew that she had the intention to work with older adult artists from the onset, and she knew that she wanted the opportunity to work directly with Ntozake Shange in some capacity. “I was holding that intention, which was how I started with, I wanna work with Ntozake Shange, right? And I wanna work with community elders…I had this whole vision about doing this deep dive into working with older adults.” In walks Dianne Harvey-Salaam, a longtime friend and collaborator of Ntozake Shange and an essential elder of the PURPLE universe. “She has done everything. Broadway, plays, dance, concert dance, and she’s run a company. She’s done everything.” Mosley met Dyane Harvey Salaam in 2019 at Gibney Dance’s Solo for Solo series curated by dance artist, scholar, and curator Eva Yaa Asantewaa in New York City. “When [Dyane Harvey Salaam and Mosley] got together, Ntozake Shange had just passed like a couple months before.” After many enriching conversations and creating a solo for Dyane Harvey Salaam, Mosley and Harvey Salaam both set out to honor Shange in some way, even if they were not exactly sure how. 

Collaboration is essential to the PURPLE universe; feedback is imperative while Mosley is in process with her artists. PURPLE: A Ritual in Nine Spells is a devised work that continuously invites contributions from Mosley’s collaborators. “There are prompts, and we develop phrase material based on these prompts. ‘Let’s co-write this poem based on this thing.’ There’s a lot of dialogue, a lot of creative thought partnership in the development of the work. And then it is my role as visionary and director to shape that and shape it toward the intention of the work.” There are cast members who have danced with the company since 2017; most of the cast has had an extended collaboration period with the work. There is “physical institutional knowledge of the work”; it is a movement text that lives within and is read by the bodies who perform it. Even when the cast has shifts, Mosley is still grateful to watch the work evolve. 

In PURPLE, audiences can expect to connect. With the artists. With each other. With space. With themselves.They will witness and participate in poetry and prose in motion. This sensual, grounding, rich, joyous universe welcomes people to come as they are, tap into their ancestral wisdom, heal as they can, and hold onto all that resonates. May they come home to themselves, being reminded that all that they need is already inside of them.

PURPLE: A Ritual in Nine Spells by Sydnie L. Mosley Dances / SLMDances premiers April 27 at 7pm and April 28 at 4pm at Dance Place.

You can follow Sydnie L. Mosley Dances at @sydmosley

You can follow SLMDances at @slmdances

SLMDances via Linktree

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Ashayla Byrd (she/they) (@abyrdnyca) is a DC-based dance artist and writer who is dedicated to amplifying the voices of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ folks. Originally from Virginia Beach, Ashayla is eager to explore the richness of DC’s dance and writing communities!