Keyierra Collins
Keyierra Collins is an Afro-interdisciplinary dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in Chicago but recognized internationally. In 2020 she was awarded the 3Arts/ Walder Foundation Awardee grant. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2016 with a BA in Dance where she studied various dance forms, including West African, modern, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and improvisation. She studied and apprenticed under the tutelage of educators and international performers, Onye Ozuzu (choreographer) & Dr. Raquel Monroe (writer). As a dance artist Collins has worked with artists like Chicago-based dancemaker and improvisationalist Aaliyah Christina as well as France-based Rwandan performance artist and vocalist Dorothee Munyaneza. She also has had the pleasure of working with many Chicago-based artists like Anna Martine Whitehead, Erin Kilmurray, and Jovan Landry, Sonita Surratt to name a few. Collins’ work lies at the intersection of exploring dance as healing and unpacking the collective and individual trauma experienced by people of the African Diaspora. Her process is kinesthetically driven and often inspired by conversations between peers and abstract reflections related to socio-political issues. Having toured and worked with artists in Haiti, Nigeria, and France, Collins is compelled to continue travelling to work with artists around the world and building spaces for her community. Alongside Brianna Alexis Heath, she co-founded Take Some Leave Some (TSLS): a multidisciplinary performance collective that uses original sound, choreography, film, and installations to create experiences reflecting and celebrating Black women’s worldmaking artistries. TSLS creates experiences inside homes and neighborhood spaces on the Southside of Chicago to reference “home” as a kind of a communal safe space maintained by Black women’s resilient and unapologetic experiential knowledge.
Featured Artworks
- How I Found My Feet Again photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Columbia College Chicago Dance Center A part of Columbia College Dance Center 2022 Spark Plug comissioned programing
- How I Found My Feet Again photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Columbia College Chicago Dance Center A part of Columbia College Dance Center 2022 Spark Plug comissioned programing
- How I Found My Feet Again, a series of writings by Keyierra Collins photo and design: Keyierra Collins, Location: Pullman Chicago The first graphic image apart of my 6 part series with Performance Response Journal in response to my solo HIFHFA
- The Shwang Out: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location Links Hall A part of Links Hall's 2023 CO-Misson Curational Residency
- The Shwang Out: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location Links Hall A part of Links Hall's 2023 CO-Misson Curational Residency
- Tati's Buttah Joint: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Block House Gallery A part of Links Hall's CO-Misson Curational Residency
- Tati's Buttah Joint: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Block House Gallery A part of Links Hall's CO-Misson Curational Residency
- Tati's Buttah Joint: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Block House Gallery A part of Links Hall's CO-Misson Curational Residency
Keyierra Collins has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $6,235 raised of $5,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
I am creating a collaborative, durational installation set inside a house on the South Side of Chicago that uses movement and performance to reflect on lessons learned and passed down to Black women. For one week in 2021, we will …
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