The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project (CBDLP) marked its ongoing commitment to preserving and advancing Black dance heritage with a new production honoring influential figures whose contributions have shaped the city’s dance community. The event, presented in chapters, highlighted legacy bearers across a range of themes including stewardship, cultural memory, and moral courage.

Mashaune Hardy, executive director of CBDLP, emphasized the importance of the project as a living archive that embodies Black stories through movement and expression. “The archive is not pieces of paper that sit. It is a living, breathing thing; we are the archive and we’re dancing the archive because we’re dancing our living, breathing stories,” Hardy said. The production featured works dedicated to honorees such as Carol Adams (Record Keeper), Chance the Rapper (Stewardship), Ida B. Wells as represented by Dan Duster (Wordsmith), James and Pauline Montgomery (Moral Courage), Curtis Mayfield and Lupe Fiasco (Sound), Runako Jahi (Voice), Jackie Taylor (Space Maker), Pamela Crutchfield (Cultural Ally), NAJWA (Cultural Memory Continuum), and Anthony Brown (Transmission).

This year’s theme arose from a broader context of the erasure of Blackness nationwide. Hardy noted the project’s goal “to assert that we are still here and we are still making the work.”

Founded in 2019 in response to data showing a lack of funding for Black dance companies, the CBDLP originated from a collaboration between the Joyce Foundation’s Culture Program and the Logan Center for the Arts. Since its inception, the project has hosted multiple concerts featuring both emerging and established companies, including past events titled “Legacy” (2019), “Reclamation: The Spirit of Black Dance in Chicago” (2022), and “Divination: The Dancing Souls of Black Folk” (2024).

Kevin Iega Jeff, artistic director of CBDLP, described the initiative as a cultural ecosystem nurturing professional, pre-professional, and youth dance companies. The project seeks to level the playing field by offering resources aimed at organizational capacity-building, archiving, and advocacy, thereby enhancing the sustainability and visibility of Black dance institutions in Chicago. Examples of this support include funding for hiring choreographers and purchasing amplified tap floors, a tool that has not only improved performances but also generated revenue for companies.

William Gill, artistic director of the Joel Hall Dancers & Center—a jazz-rooted company participating in CBDLP since its beginning—characterized the annual project as a “family reunion” that unites different companies across the city. He highlighted the importance of the initiative in providing opportunities for Black dancers to be seen, especially amid a challenging political climate.

CBDLP also fosters intergenerational dialogue by connecting veteran artists such as Tony Award-nominated Camille A. Brown and National Medal of Arts recipient Joan Myers Brown with emerging talent. Hardy emphasized the value of these conversations in sharing lessons from earlier generations of Black cultural leaders who advanced civil rights and cultural institutions under difficult conditions.

For the organizers, dance extends beyond performance; it serves as a form of healing, character development, employment, and wellness. Hardy pointed to the broader impact of the medium in expanding audiences’ perspectives and possibilities through creative cross-pollination.

“The work still has to get done,” Gill said, reflecting the collective resolve that underpins the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project’s mission to sustain and celebrate Black dance artistry in the city.