Ayan Felix (NC Based) is a Gulf Coast-bred movement artist, dreamy storyteller, and cultural organizer. They perform Southern Black American cultures of excess, slowness, and dirt indoors and under dusky skies. Independently, they have birthed live performances for Barnstorm Dance Festival (Houston; 2018, 2019, 2022), Kuumba Dance Fest (Houston; 2021), and Houston Fringe Festival (2021). Their site-responsive and collaborative practice with spirit, co-conspirators, and the environment has produced screen dances shown at the Collegium for African Diasporic Dance (2022), freeskewl (NYC), and the Black Endurance Community Series at The Movement Lab ATL (2021). Their MFA thesis production How to avoid gas stations and other shit I want to do at night (2021) is also documented in a paper we, present in space: Queer Performance Cultures of Transience and Care based in Black Feminisms as the culmination ofthe MFA experience through the Duke Dance Program. Ayan has joined the dance legacies of SUCHU Dance/Jennifer Wood, Pilot Dance Project, Andrea E Woods-Valdez, and Dance Afrikana. Collaborations ongoing and past include time with SLIPPAGE performance lab, jhon r. Stronks, Brittany J. Green, and Ivy Nicole-Jonet. They also co-host queer burlesque experiences with Les Bimbos in Raleigh, NC. Most of their mornings are spent trying to recall nighttime dreams, playing in the earth, and building bandwidth for a neurodiverse world.
“Thank you thank you and thank you to everyone who made this residency (Black Artist Space to Create) possible. These past two weeks have been a blessing! Not only have I been able to deepen my own personal/artistic practices, I was given the space to connect with people that I love! I was given space to reflect on love, and to prepare for what this next year (2021) will bring! Shout out to New Dance Alliance, Modern Accord Depot and Angie Pittman for the time, the space, and opportunity! I am forever grateful! It felt like a good meal, with dessert!”
– Johnnie Cruise Mercer
New Dance Alliance
182 Duane Street
New York, NY 10013