Reflections Dance Festival 2021 & Watch Party
Pier 62 | Free
Friday November 19, 2021, 3–9 pm
Thursday November 4, 2021, 6–9 pm
This event has passed
NOV 19 ‑ Reflections Watch Party: Come relive the magic with food, drink, heaters, a dance party, and an artists reception at Pier 62.
NOV 4 ‑ Reflections Dance Festival 2021: Artists of color bring rays of light to pandemic life this fall via a virtual livestream event.
Friday Nov. 19 from 3pm to 9pm
Do you want to relive the magic of the Reflections: Dance Festival surrounded by scenery that helped inspire it? Or maybe you want to experience it for the first time. Either way, please join us at an in-person viewing on Pier 62. Join curators and artists for a reception featuring a beer garden and local food trucks. Following a view of the Reflections Dance Festival, stick around to dance the evening away a DJ. This just in: DJ Cutz will be in the house to spin the night away!
RSVP and tell your friends via the Facebook Event Page here
Thursday Nov. 4 from 6pm to 8pm
Ready for a beautiful love letter to the city during Delta times? Reflections Dance Festival returns as a ray of light during the dark times of fall and winter during the pandemic. Reflections, which was filmed on Seattle’s Pier 62 and will be presented as a virtual event, is co-presented by The Seattle Public Library and Friends of Waterfront Seattle with lead partners Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects. It is free and open to the public.
The special dance series debuted to a virtual audience of more than 5,000 viewers in the fall of 2020. Back again with a dynamic lineup, Reflections features the following artists and cultural practitioners, whose performances were filmed by Futsum Tsegai, artist-in-residence for The Seattle Public Library and filmmaker. Tsegai also filmed Reflections in 2020, and provided the artist portraits below.
RSVP to Reflections 2021 on Facebook; a streaming link will be posted there several days before the event.
Abriel Johnny (Cowichan and Tlingit)
With the Salish Sea beckoning behind her, dancer and civic leader Abriel Johnny (Cowichan and Tlingit) shares a jingle dress dance as ceremony and remembrance. Powerful drums Johnny’s dance. She said, “Our culture is our medicine. When we practice our medicine, it restores balance to all physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.”
The Coast Collective ‑‑ Aiyanna Reid (Cowlitz), Chayil Brooks, Drew Gorospe, Michaila Taylor
Moving softly at sunset to the lyrics of a “rising sun” this ensemble of deftly choreographed modern dancers holds up inclusive communities with joy, beauty, and collectivity at heart.
Giavonna White with Inner G
Educator and dancer Giavonna White has chosen Seattle children who are her dream team for their Reflections performance entitled “Young, Gifted, and Black.”
Larry Lancaster
18-year-old Baltimore-born ballet dancer Lancaster, who performs courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet School, is accompanied by classical violinist Swil Kanim (Lummi).
“Culture shifts when we lift each other up,” said Swil Kanim. With Swil Kanim’s advice that now is a time for taking on the impossible, his song “Ascending Mourning” is dedicated to our frontline health workers. Lancaster’s spare and graceful performance brings this crucial point home.
Makeda Ebube with Lungusu Malonga’s Traditional Congolese Ensemble
Veteran dancer Makeda Ebube celebrates the Motherland in her collaboration with Lungusu Malonga. As the choreographer and artistic Director of the Traditional Congolese Ensemble, Lugunsu’s “ancestral arts” exist in the beautiful vein Ebube values and lifts up. Featured talent also includes: assistant choreographer Maxie Jamal, dancers Decontee Wea and Ma’Syiah Malonga, with traditional music by Kiazi Malonga and drumming by Eugene Yaw Amponsah.
Pasifika Wayfinders
This gorgeous dance ensemble brings to light stories of ancestors from each island in the Pacific, holding past and present together. Their program also uplifts these young leaders’ outstanding work in public health during vaccine drives. Featured young artists are Destinee Harris, Keleni Tavaiqia, Donna Tavaiqia, Rachael Waqaitanoa.
Tloke Nahuake
Coming together to dance after nearly two years of being separated by the COVID pandemic, Tloke Nahuake brings prayer and a breathtaking moment of witness by the water and with clouds breaking the heavens open.
Presenting Partners
This event is co-presented by Friends of the Waterfront, Seattle Public Library, African American Health Board, Washington Community Alliance, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, the Office of the Waterfront Seattle, Seattle Together and our community partners and made possible with support from the Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Co-presented with Spectrum Dance Company, Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas, KVRU, Wa Na Wari, Pyramid Communications, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development.was
Co‑hosted by Friends of Waterfront Seattle
Friends of Waterfront Seattle (“Friends”) is the nonprofit partner to the City of Seattle responsible for helping to fund, build, steward, and program the park — today and into the future. In deep collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutional partners, Friends’ mission is creating, caring for, and activating a renewed place on Seattle’s central shoreline to connect — to the water, to the mountains, to our city, and to one another. In addition to raising $110M by 2024 to fund park construction, Friends will provide funding and manage the programming and operations of the future Waterfront Park through a joint-delivery partnership with Seattle Parks & Recreation. Park construction has begun following the Viaduct’s removal and the first piece of the park — Pier 62 — is now open.
