Join us in Guzzetta Hall Studio 194, as part of the Rethinking Race series from The University of Akron, where choreographer Alexandra Barbier (Urbana, IL) will share I’ll Never Be Beyoncé, an excerpt from a brand new solo work in progress. Stations of Black Loss is a 14-part, multidisciplinary, autobiographical work chronicling her journey of loving and embracing Blackness after having grown up in the Catholic Church and a predominantly white community in Louisiana.

Alexandra Barbier (Urbana, IL) is an artist, educator, and performance maker whose practices emerge from dance, performance art, Blackness, and queerness. She promotes whimsy, humor, and playfulness while also inspiring critical thought and cultural/societal commentary and inquiry. Alexandra’s works have been presented through Of Moving Colors Contemporary Dance Company, the University of Utah, Deseret Experimental Opera, Salt Lake City Performance Art Festival, Great Salt Lake Fringe Fest, and Queer Spectra Arts Festival. She has been on faculty for the Joffrey Ballet and Jazz + Contemporary trainee programs and the Joffrey South summer intensive, has guest taught and led residencies in several university dance programs throughout the country (including DeSales University, Davidson College, and University of Georgia Athens), and has held the Raymond C. Morales Post-MFA Fellowship in the University of Utah’s School of Dance. She recently accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the University of Illinois Department of Dance. Alexandra holds a BA in French with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, and an MFA in Modern Dance. www.abarbier.com

Stations of Black Loss and the Community Commissioning Residency are a part of NCCAkron’s Ideas in Motion Initiative. Ideas in Motion is made possible by the support of The University of Akron Foundation’s Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts. NCCAkron is grateful to Stephen E. Myers, trustee of the University of Akron Foundation, the Myers Foundation and son of Mary Schiller Myers, for his support. Established in 1979 under the sponsorship of the Mary and Louis S. Myers Foundation, this endowed lecture series brings significant representatives of the arts to campus and community annually, to share their particular talents with students, faculty, and residents of the community. NCCAkron also raised additional funds from the Peg’s Foundation to support this initiative.

Masks are optional for audience members.