Red Clay Dance Company: Words to Live By: Glocal

Words to Live By: Glocal

The leadership of Red Clay Dance Company explores themes and topics inspired by various words that resonate among its artists, students, administrators, and supporters. We will offer some examples in a series of stories this fall and ask for your responses to them as well.

This month, we continue with GLOCAL:

• Reflecting or characterized by both local and global considerations
• Of or relating to the interconnection of global and local issues

What does glocal mean to Red Clay Dance Company?

Vershawn Sanders-Ward, Founder and Artistic Director

We started using this word during our strategic planning process about eight years ago. My understanding is that it is more of a business term, but we adopted it because we felt that it reflects how we wanted our work to sit in the world. “Glocal” is obviously a combination of the words global and local and infers both the human body and society at large, a dichotomy I address consistently in my work. One definition of the word “local” in the dictionary is "pertaining to or characterized by place or position in space; spatial,” so this can mean the body as a local entity. Through movement, one can express global issues, experiences, thoughts, and feelings. 

Dance is a powerful form of communication. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and her company, Urban Bush Women, and Ronald K. Brown are among my influences. Glocal could be applied to their work as well—the shaping of the local, or individual, to express the global, or universal. I want my work to inspire awareness of issues in all marginalized communities, to promote dialogue and discussion, and ultimately to become a call to action.”

Red Clay Dance Company incorporates a glocal focus in a number of ways. Our  community engagement and education work is hyperlocal in that we serve South Side communities, school, youth centers, churches, parks, etc. We hire local artists who aspire to see their work on a global level/platform (both performing and teaching). We aim to be a global model for seamless integration of teaching and performing—both on an equal playing field and one informing and influencing the other within the company. We connect local partners and individuals to our global partners, such as Keiga Dance Company in Uganda. We impact the lives and future of local youth who have the potential to spread the values and skills we have activated in them on national and global  platforms/spaces. We are aiming for more exchanges like the one we have with Keiga, but also including teaching and other creative opportunities for our artists. We are standing in the space of truly creating a local community of creatives with aspirations for global impact! Marceia Scruggs, company  member When I hear the term  “glocal,” I imagine  ginormous hands that  stretch far beyond the  Northern Lights. A wee  droplet of blue dye into  a half full glass—it prints,  it splashes, it begins  to reach. It breathes   expansion, both near  and far. Glocal, I believe,  is where potential and  action are unlocked on  both a wide range  and more local  community spectrum.  In this world, necessary  and relative topics of  change are met,  sparking inquiry,  curiosity, and  transformation.                                                                                                                          Whether through  dialogue, performance,  teaching, or  collaborating, Red Clay  Dance Company  actively creates  relative, resounding,  and reflective   conversation that can  be witnessed by a  spectrum of people.  From topics of the  importance of  community, to  economic inequities,  to ancestry, the  company constantly  generates vital  dialogue and impact.  Recently, I was  fortunate to witness  its Youth Ensemble,  led by Chaniece  Holmes, in a  conversation on the  needs of their  community and how  in particular this  impacted them. At  this moment, I was  awakened yet  again as to why this  work is important.  Red Clay Dance  Company is actively  birthing change  agents near and far.

Catrina Franklin, vice chair, board 

of directors
In respect to Red Clay Dance 

Company, glocal means to 

impact the local environment 

with global influences and 

the opportunity for this 

company to expand globally. 

Red Clay Dance was created 

out of Vershawn’s global 

experience, but the company 

is on the move to be a global 

company giving back to the 

local community.

We’d like to know what GLOCAL means to you! Please email info@redclaydance.com 

and share your thoughts with us.

Photos top to bottom:

Red Clay Dance Company and Keiga Dance Company performing EKILI MUNDA | What Lies Within (L–R: Marceia Scruggs, Robert Ssempijja, Chaniece Holmes). Photo by Raymond Jerome.

Vershawn Sanders-Ward teaching class at the Kampala National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda

Getting ready for the premiere of EKILI MUNDA | What Lies Within at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, November 2018.

Company member Chaniece Holmes performs in Art of Resilience 2.0 at the DuSable Museum Roundhouse.

Keiga Dance Company Artistic Director Jonas Byaruhanga leads a masterclass at Red Clay Dance Company's home space, Fuller Park.