Wednesday, May 27, 2020

RED CLAY DANCE COMPANY LAUNCHES DANCE PAMOJA CHALLENGE TO HELP FIGHT COVID-19


Red Clay Dance Company (RCDC), a nonprofit dance 
company that creates and performs a 
diverse repertoire of Afro-contemporary dance, is 
stepping up in the fight against the threat of 
COVID-19 in its community with the Dance 
Pamoja Challenge, a 12-month project beginning 
June 1 that focuses on controlling blood pressure, 
building resilience, and preventing death from 
COVID-19 among African-American families living 
on Chicago’s South Side.
 
RCDC shifted to providing its program 
participants with virtual dance classes with 
the implementation and extension of stay-at-home 
orders. With the new Dance Pamoja Challenge
RCDC is working with Dr. Audrey Tanksley of 

ACCESS Community Health Network and Clinical 
 Pharmacist Jewel Younge of University of Illinois 
at Chicago College of Pharmacy to target blood 
pressure management, A1C monitoring, and 
psychological stress to reduce or eliminate the 
burden of COVID-19 and the risk of death. 
With healthcare guidelines recommending 150 
minutes of exercise a week, RCDC’s dance 
classes have the potential to preserve and 
improve blood pressure and blood glucose levels.
 
“Red Clay Dance has performed professionally 
and provided dance instruction for thousands of 
Chicagoans in our home-base community on the 
South Side,” said RCDC Founding Artistic 
Director and CEO Vershawn Sanders-Ward. 
“Engaging people in exercise can be very 
challenging, but high-energy and aerobic styles of 
dance are deeply rooted in the African-American 
tradition. The motivation to dance is not just 
practical; there are spiritual, cultural, and 
psychological components that make dancing 
central in African-American homes, churches, and 
social settings. In short, we love to dance 
pamoja, which means together in Swahili. This 
project speaks directly to RCDC’s work 
during the past 11 years to strengthen the 
resiliency of our communities through dancing 
pamoja!”


Participants in RCDC’s online classes are also 
eligible to participate in a 12-month 
observational cohort study. Participants 
receive a blood pressure monitor to log their 
numbers and team up to lower and 
maintain their blood pressure. Dr. Tanksley 
closes the care continuum loop through 
protocol-driven monitoring, escalating, and 
referring participants to testing, or a doctor, 
when necessary. The program 
approaches resilience-building through 
strategies such as counting blessings, 
creating a resilience inventory to reinforce 
the supports people need to navigate 
the pandemic. Dance Pamoja Challenge 
prizes support the goals of lowering blood 
pressure, increasing activity, and building 
resilience. The Resilience Portal provides 
participants with a group blog to share 
their expression and learn more about 
COVID-19 resources, mental wellness 
exercises, and immune-boosting nutrition.
 
“Dance is a great form of exercise 
to include in anyone’s health management 
program,” stated Sanders-Ward. “Now, in 
particular, RCDC is offering an alternative 
to face-to-face classes, which helps 
people keep movement in their lives while 
avoiding the risk of infection.”
 
The Dance Pamoja Challenge will 
culminate in 2021 with an in-person 
Dance Pamoja Celebration hosted by 
RCDC and the project partners. This 
event will celebrate the participants and 
encourage them to continue their 
healthy lifestyle journey, as well as 
potentially attract other individuals in 
the community seeking to live healthier 
and more active lives. Participants will have 
access to free dance classes, healthy 
snacks, food prep demonstrations, blood 
pressure screening, and testing.

For more information about RCDC, 
 
Red Clay Dance Company lives to awaken 
“glocal” change through creating, 
performing, and teaching dances of 
the African Diaspora—change that 
transforms cultural and socioeconomic 
inequities in our local and global 
community. Founder Vershawn Sanders-
Ward conceived the idea of RCDC while 
on her first trip to Senegal, West Africa, 
when she became fascinated by the 
interconnectedness of dance and everyday 
life. The name Red Clay comes from her 
childhood memories of playing in red earth 
during her summers in Mobile, Alabama.
 
RCDC is supported by the Alphawood 
Foundation, the Chicago Community 
Trust, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley 
Foundation, the Field Foundation of Illinois, 
the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, the MacArthur 
Fund for Arts and Culture at the Richard H 
Driehaus Foundation, the Polk Bros. 
Foundation, the Springboard Foundation, 
and the Chicago Department of Cultural 
Affairs and Special Events.
 
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Photos by Raymond Jerome Photography.

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