My Journey to be Rooted to Flow: Logan Technique
Rooted to Flow is an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary dance born out of my formal and informal dance training in Western classical concert forms including ballet, and modern (Graham, Límon, and Horton), somatic inquiry (Ideokinesis and Laban Movement Analysis) and traditional African Diasporic styles including West African (Djembe, Kutiro, and Sabar), as well as syncretic African-American forms including jazz, liturgical, and praise dance. Rooted to Flow, emphasizes how my Roots, in dance as a means of spiritual ritual, community connection, and social justice helped me to flow through times of change, challenges, growth, celebration, and learning with an authentic sway of my hip and rhythmic phrase guiding my feet. It is a journey that reflects my multicultural heritage (as many of us have), my multifaceted identity as an African-American woman from the South (North Carolina-Virginia) who pursued a dream to live a life immersed in the traditions and dances of all of my ancestors and the dance that currently flows from my center, from my Source to share with my communities past, present, and future.
This journey began dancing at family functions with my elders who showed me dances they knew and I showed them dances I created in my grandmother’s basement, in the back yards, and sometimes in the aisles of the grocery store when I hoped no one was watching. I practiced in the mirror before family functions, so that I could share in the joy of dancing and celebrating with family who cheered me on and sometimes laughed at and with me. I would later dance at my church, collaborating with a few other peers. We created dances together and praise danced in service. In time, we were guided to take formal training, but the seeds of dancing to connect, to communicate, to self-actualize were already deeply rooted.
My passion, led me to study dance in college, earning my BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and broadening my understanding of somatic inquiry. My investment into somatic inquiry helped me to reflect introspectively on my dance goals. I wanted to dance in a way that embodied the complexity of my identity. In my process, I determined that I loved the beauty of classical or traditional styles, but I also found them insufficient to dance my truth, and I determined the path to pursue would be to use somatic inquiry to connect the parts of my identity in European, Native American, and African systems into a unique flow that rooted me and liberated me.
After graduation, I toured with Chuck Davis and the African-American Dance Ensemble. There I met my now husband, David Alston, an accomplished musician. From performing, traveling, and navigating the artist life together, we conversed about the interconnected significance of music and dance. We created new works together and further rooted our artistic journeys, and I invested more in developing rhythmical acuity and musicality as tenets of being Rooted to Flow, because timing matters.
After working with Chuck Davis, and other directors, I danced for some time with Forces of Nature Dance Theater, with Abdel Salam. Both Davis and Salam explored African Diaspora forms and contemporary perspectives. In exploring the diversity of dance through these and other dance experiences, I returned to an early calling to connect stories and legacies through dance and studied Liberal Arts at SUNY Old Westbury, earning by MA with a focus on History and Cultural Studies. While I did not dance in this program, the culmination of this experience helped catalyze my boldness to share Rooted to Flow with greater historical context, ritual, somatic inquiry, and traditional and contemporary dance in an approach that reflects me and all of my ancestors who are represented with me when I enter a room. This journey in being Rooted to Flow is one of truth that prioritizes authenticity, safe and natural alignment, rhythmic acuity, elongation, balance, curves, spirals, and connection.
