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Musings

This piece speaks to the lack of spatial justice for Black and Brown individuals, especially during these times, and seeks to 

serve as an expression of hope that people will continue to think about their Black and Brown communities, and speak up

 for them looking ahead to the future. 

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Amanda Morgan(she/her)

Creator, Director, Performer

 

Amanda Morgan is from Tacoma, Washington. She studied at Dance Theatre Northwest and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and she attended summer courses at Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Boston Ballet School, and the School of American Ballet. She participated in PNB School’s exchange with the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, where she also performed with Dresden Semperoper Ballett. Amanda joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2016 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2017. 

 

In addition to her dance career, Amanda is a newly established choreographer. She has choreographed for Pacific Northwest Ballet's Next Step Program, premiering her works "Pages" (2018) and "The Argument" (2019) at McCaw Hall. She also was selected to be a choreographer in the Seattle International Dance Festival in 2019. In 2019, Amanda won a residency at Northwest Film Forum and Velocity Dance Center, giving her the opportunity to create her own show at Northwest Film Forum. Later in 2019, she launched her project titled "The Seattle Project" which is a group of collaborative artists, led by Amanda, that creates new work and dance that breaks down accessibility barriers in the community. In February of 2020, she had her first show "The How of It Sped" premiere at Northwest Film Forum, and in July of 2020 she created and premiered her piece "Musings" for Seattle Dance Collective's Continuum Program. In October of 2020, Morgan made her first piece for Pacific Northwest Ballet's Digital Season.  Ms. Morgan was named “25 to Watch” in Dance Magazine for the 2020 year. She also has been featured on the National Endowment for the Arts podcast in February of 2021.

Nia-Amina Minor (she/they)

Creative Collaborator, Dancer

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Nia-Amina Minor is a movement artist + educator. Her creative work focuses on the body and what it carries. Through performance and teaching, Nia-Amina converses with black realities and investigates the intersections of movement, memory, and rhythm.

As an artist, educator, and arts advocate, Nia-Amina centers community building as a mobilizing space for connection, support, and collaboration. Whether on stage, in the studio, or in the streets, Nia-Amina approaches movement based practice as a site for collective gathering. She holds a MFA from the University of California, Irvine and a BA from Stanford University.  She is a co-founder and former curator for Los Angeles based collective No)one Art House. Nia-Amina currently resides in Seattle and performs as a Company Dancer and Community Engagement Artist Liaison under the direction of Donald Byrd.

 

Nia-Amina has taught and guest lectured at UC Irvine, Saddleback College, Cypress College, and University of Washington. She has presented original work at the Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, WaNaWari, and Central District Forum for Art & Ideas Showing Out: Seattle Black Choreographers Festival, Seattle's Reflection Dance Festival, and the Seattle Black Film Festival. Nia-Amina has performed in acclaimed works suchas A Rap on Race, Shot, and Strange Fruit. She received a Seattle Dance Crush Award for her performance in Shot and was recently recognized as Dance Magazine's 25 Artists to Watch in 2021. 

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Henry Wurtz(he/him)

Director of Photography

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Henry is a Cinematographer, Photographer, and Creative Producer from the Bay Area, California. He produced automotive short films and ads in the Bay Area before moving to Seattle in 2019. In Seattle he found the ballet community and has produced short films for many dance organizations including The Seattle Project, Seattle Dance Collective, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

 

His works have been nominated locally in Seattle as well as internationally at the Seattle Queer Film Festival, Paris Play Film Festival, Fuselage Dance Film Festival, Cinedans FEST ‘21, and the Opine Dance Film Festival. He is currently traveling America in his van named Virgil, aka The Summer Palace.

Special thanks to:  Ms. Edna Daigre, Randy Ford, Akoiya Harris, Zariyah Quiroz, Kenya Shakoor and Hannah Mayree.

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I Was Blind (Mole in the Ground)  by Hannah Mayree Gladstone was recorded by Max Citron/HOMHOMHOM.

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Musings was originally created for Seattle Dance Collective's Continuum Program and premiered in July of 2020.

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Musings is generously underwritten by the Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation

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