South Chicago Dance Theatre will perform in Red Clay Dance’s “La Femme Festival”/Photo: Andy Argyrakis
Through the La Femme Dance Festival and year-round at Red Clay’s studio, Vershawn Sanders-Ward celebrates and nurtures the creativity of Black female artists. The founder of Red Clay Dance started the biennial festival when her company was housed by the Chicago Park District at Fuller Park, presenting her own and guest choreographers’ work in the fieldhouse—which had an attractively low overhead, but limited audience space. Since then, Red Clay has moved into its own multi-studio center in Woodlawn, and the fifth edition of the festival, on March 28, will enjoy its second iteration on the Harris Theater stage.
This year’s festival features a performance by Los Angeles-based tap company Syncopated Ladies in their first Chicago appearance. Sanders-Ward met Maud Arnold, sister of Syncopated Ladies founder Chloe Arnold—both tap dancers who studied under the legendary Debbie Allen—on a panel for an event hosted by Chicago’s Black Girls Dance. “I appreciated their approach to tap and how current it feels,” Sanders-Ward says. “And there’s alignment reaching into communities that are under resourced, working with Black girls.”
Syncopated Ladies, who produce sleek videos and enjoy success in concert and commercial spaces, will be the first tap ensemble to perform in the “La Femme” festival. Sanders-Ward says she’s excited to showcase Black women choreographers across dance forms.
The rest of the program centers Chicago artists, with works by Sanders-Ward, a commission from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago alum Rena Butler, and an appearance by Kia S. Smith’s South Chicago Dance Theatre. Smith, who once danced in the Red Clay Company, will present “Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley,” an ode to the history of the South Side. “Kia has a specific voice in the way she approaches her work,” says Sanders-Ward. “There is theater and storytelling in her work as there is in ours. And there’s definitely elevation of Black diasporic movement vocabulary in jazz.”
Butler’s premiere, entitled “Her Table” is a quartet and, Sanders-Ward says, “a new way audiences will experience Red Clay. There’s floorwork and inversions, but the similarity is the storytelling in the body. It’s a different physicality with Rena but the vocabulary in our dancers’ bodies is diverse, so I felt comfortable asking her to bring work for them.”
Red Clay will remount two pieces by Sanders-Ward, including “Unconditional Conditions,” which premiered at the 2024 “La Femme” fest, and “Love Letters to CHI-IL,” which the company has only performed a couple times. “Love Letters” was commissioned by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for presentation at Millennium Park, and Sanders-Ward says she’s excited to bring it indoors, under the Harris lighting array, and with new costumes. “It gave me the opportunity to refresh the work,” she says. “And it’s a love letter to Chicago.”
The festival includes workshops with visiting artists, with a master class from Butler Friday afternoon and all-ages, all-levels classes Sunday with the Syncopated Ladies Empowerment Camp in tap, Brazilian dance, Afro funk and hip-hop. Sanders-Ward says she would like to create more opportunities for gathering and conversation in future festivals—shared meals, panel discussions and more community-building activities, as well as bringing more international artists to perform and teach. To bring these dreams to fruition, Sanders-Ward emphasizes the importance of community support. “We need folks to find ways to plug in so we can continue to have spaces and stages for artists to make work. Every person that comes in the theater matters.”
Red Clay Dance’s “La Femme Dance Festival” at the Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph. Saturday, March 28 at 7:30pm. $24-$70. Tickets at harristheaterchicago.org.
