American writer Margaret J. Wheatley said, “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." This quote encompasses the brilliant work of our recent guest artist, Helanius J. Wilkins. 

Wilkins is an award-winning choreographer, performance artist, artivist, and educator who engages artmaking to forge paths towards social change and equitable landscapes. Before becoming Associate Chair and Director of Dance and a Professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder, Helanius worked professionally in Washington, D.C. He founded and artistically directed EDGEWORKS Dance Theatre from 2001-2014. He also choreographed two critically-acclaimed musical productions for Washington, DC’s Studio Theater – Passing Strange (2010) and POP! (2011). Past performance experiences included the works of nationally recognized choreographers such as Robert Moses and Kevin Wynn and performing with Maida Withers’ Dance Construction Company (DC) as well as a guest with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (MD).

Born in Louisiana, his Creole cultural background has impacted his work over the past thirty years. During his Artist Talk in our First Year Seminar in Dance course, Wilkins spoke about being an extremely shy and scared child: “Dance was my best way to express myself…I saw Alvin Ailey on PBS and that resonated with me.” 

Part of his artistic journey was also about fear—how to unlearn fear and reorient in his surroundings—which is now at the heart of his work. “Art and the work of social change share many things in common - rituals/change, collaboration, and patience.”

Helanius created The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging, born out of the pandemic: a large project where adversity is met by action through the arts. It is an ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resilience, justice, and hope. 

The multi-year work will require Wilkins travel to all 50 U.S. states/D.C./5 inhabited territories and realize specific media outcomes, including choreographic works that connect dance-quilt patches created in and with intergenerational community members in a non-colonizing fashion. When sewn together, these quilts present informal community rituals in site-specific, public spaces and formal performances. 

During his residency at Texas Tech, he collaborated with nine students to create one of these dance-quilts. The focus of this work is about building and having conversations with a community, decentering himself as the artist to learn from the community, and in return, offering something back as an ongoing conversation past the residency. 

Wilkins’ choreographic process starts with who is in the room. Together, they explore collective, group activities to integrate each voice immediately. This material is woven together through a series of movements that facilitate ensemble. With the dancers, he collaboratively merges the movement built from their ongoing conversations about belonging to stitch together a dance quilt representing those in the work—our community.

Helanius’s focus on community building within the choreographic process encouraged our students to see another way to create that is inclusive and involves active listening: “Listen to your environment, listen to your body. Deep listening leads to deeper development of work.”

He also spoke about his curiosity and interest in the power of art and how art can be a vehicle to hold art as his voice of expression, and not making art for the sake of art. In our current political time, now more than ever, art can and should be our voice to care for others and hope of a better, brighter future.

Don’t miss the opportunity to view this collaborative work in DanceTech, February 27 through March 2. Ticket and performance information can be found on the School of Theatre & Dance website.