The Office for the Arts Dance Program presents a RootsUprising open rehearsal of Witness Trees, a work-in-progress created by choreographer, dance scholar, and educator Nailah Randall-Bellinger. Witness Trees is inspired by the historic gardens and former plantation of Middleton Place, in Charleston, SC, as a backdrop to a thematic narrative of landscapes, rememory, and healing. The work explores the symbiotic relationship between nature and the enslaved African laborers who lived and worked there, and who dared to listen to the hidden and meaningful stories housed in the roots of the trees and the dirt of the earth. Witness Trees is intended to be a site-specific work, a dance film, and as a stage performance.

This open rehearsal will include a Q&A with choreographer Nailah Randall-Bellinger and dancers of RootsUprising, moderated by historian, memorializer, and 2023-24 Hutchins Center Fellow  Dr. Alexandria Russell.

Randall-Bellinger is a dancer, choreographer, scholar, educator, and the founding artistic director of RootsUprising Dance Company. She has been a teaching artist with the Office for the Arts (OFA) at Harvard Dance Program for 13 years and this open rehearsal is part of an OFA Dance Program pilot residency which recognizes long-service (decade or more) teaching artists and their contributions to the dance community.  

Free and open to the public. Capacity is limited. Register to reserve your seat!

Accessibility
Live CART captioning will be provided for the speaking portions of the event via a livestream link which can be accessed on your personal device. QR codes with the link will also be provided. The Harvard Dance Center is accessible for wheelchairs and other mobility devices. If you have questions about the accessibility provided or anticipate needing any accommodation to participate, please email dance@fas.harvard.edu. We welcome the conversation! 

About Nailah Randall-Bellinger

Nailah Randall-Bellinger is a dancer, choreographer, scholar, educator, and founding artistic director of RootsUprising Dance Company based in Boston, MA. She has studied, performed, and lectured throughout the U.S. and abroad including Brazil, Ghana, Haiti, The Czech Republic, and Senegal. With a Masters Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies: Dance and African American literature from Lesley University, Randall-Bellinger’s choreographic work is rooted in interdisciplinary research, often drawing from literary and historical source materials. She has a keen interest and expertise in dance as epistemology and has developed the concept of the “dancing text” as a means to explore the corporeality of dance. 

She has presented her choreographic and scholarly works at conferences, universities, and theaters across the country including Miami University’s Gendered Resistance Conference, Harvard’s Black in Design conference, Watertown’s New Repertory Theater, Cambridge Multicultural Art Center, and the A.R.T.’s The Arboretum Experience. Her work has been supported through Harvard University, Art for Social Justice, Cambridge Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), and the Alorie Parkhill Learning and Travel Grant for dance research in Kenya.

In 2021, Randall-Bellinger was one of seven artists commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) to create a new work on campus, titled Initiation– In Love Solidarity, and which was developed through a residency through the Office for the Arts Dance Program as film, site-specific work, and stage performance. It was presented in various formats across campus alongside robust public discussions and is included in the Webby nominated Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Tour Experience digital archive and walking tour, developed by Dr. Alexandria Russell.

Randall-Bellinger has been teaching modern and contemporary classes throughout the U.S. and abroad for over 35 years. She currently serves as Chair of the Dance Department at The Cambridge School of Weston, in Weston, MA, and is also Teaching Artist for the Office for the Arts Dance Program at Harvard University, where she has been teaching for 13 years. 

Learn more about Nailah Randall-Bellinger

About Dr. Alexandria Russell

Dr. Alexandria Russell is a historian, public history practitioner, and digital humanities scholar who is passionate about making African American history accessible to people of all backgrounds. She is a W.E.B. Du Bois Research Center Hutchins Family Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research and the Interim Vice President of Education & External Engagement at Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her professional experience extends to her employment on Capitol Hill with Congressman James E. Clyburn (SC-06), as a middle school educator in South Carolina, and as a public history consultant with the National Park Service.

She earned her Ph.D. in History from the Department of History at the University of South Carolina. She has worked on public historical projects including the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery presidential initiative, and most recently was the Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Curator for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her forthcoming book project, Sites Seen and Unseen: Mapping African American Women’s Public History (University of Illinois Press), is a national study that examines the evolution of African American women’s public commemorations in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present. As the Founder and Executive Director of Black Women Legacies, she is committed to raising awareness about past and present memorials that have been created to celebrate the legacies of Black women.  

Her work in the digital humanities has yielded several flourishing projects, including the Webby Nominated Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Tour Experience and A Legacy of Leadership: Early African American Alumni of Harvard & Radcliffe.

Learn more about Dr. Alexandria Russell

About RootsUprising

Founded by choreographer and artistic director Nailah Randall-Bellinger, RootsUprising is a dance artist collective of intergenerational dancers representing diverse identities. Performing primarily in educational venues, the company’s work reflects the intersection of dance, music, spoken word, and digital technology creating multimodal dance experiences.

Learn more about RootsUprising dance collective