Renewal Residency: Ogemdi Ude
Danspace is pleased to continue Renewal Residencies in 2022-2023 with a new cohort of artists: mayfield brooks, Andros Zins-Browne, Yo-Yo Lin, and Ogemdi Ude.
Ogemdi Ude’s performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. In 2022, Danspace presented the premiere of Ude’s I know exactly what you mean, which explored the roles of nostalgia, storytelling and lying in recovering cultural memory, establishing kinship amongst Black folks, and processing personal grief. For her Renewal Residency, Ogemdi and her collaborators will be exploring presentations of Black femme sensuality through the lens of Southern majorette movement.
Each artist will receive two weeks of residency time in the sanctuary at St. Mark’s Church, a generous artist fee, and stipends for research in racial equity and accessibility. The artists will have access to curatorial support and technical assistance throughout the year, as well as opportunities to connect with one another, contribute to Danspace’s online Journal, and participate in a DraftWork work-in-progress showing.
Renewal Residencies emphasize recuperation time to create work without the immediate pressure of production, encouraging connection to: creative process and artistic research; collaborators and fellow artists; and to the Danspace Project community.
Renewal Residencies are not open to the public.
Ogemdi Ude is a Nigerian-American dance artist, educator, and doula based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Her work has been presented at Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, Recess Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Streb Lab for Action Mechanics, La Mama Courthouse, and for BAM’s DanceAfrica festival. As an educator, she serves as Head of Movement for Theater at Professional Performing Arts School and has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, MIT, and University of the Arts. In collaboration with Rochelle Jamila Wilbun she facilitates AfroPeach, a series of free dance workshops for Black postpartum people in Brooklyn. She is a 2022-2024 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and Center for Performance Research 2022 Artist-in-Residence. She has been a 2021 danceWEB Scholar, 2021 Laundromat Project Create Change Artist-in-Residence, and a 2019-2020 Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU Resident Fellow. In January 2022 she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine for their annual “25 to Watch” issue. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English, Dance, and Theater from Princeton University.