Conversation Without Walls: Jasmine Hearn, Victoria Lynn Awkward, Myssi Robinson, Charmaine Warren
Saturday, April 11 | 12–3PM
Conversations Without Walls (CWW) was designed to bring together voices of artists, curators, scholars, writers, and more, into long-form roundtable discussions. The content of these conversations are intentionally wide-ranging and artist-driven—they can provide further context and insight into an artist’s research, reflect on a Danspace Project program, unpack methodologies and practices, or reflect on larger systemic and structural issues that impact artists today.
This roundtable discussion will center on Black femme dance writing and archiving. The conversation will be rooted in Hearn’s Memory Fleet, as an archive and performance project; Robinson’s role and practice as the Platform 2026 Writer-in-Residence and archivist; Awkward’s ongoing interview series, Harnessing our Gardens; and Warren’s role as a curator, dance writer, and founder/producer/artistic director of Black Dance Stories.
Before you visit:
Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project
Victoria Lynn Awkward is a multi-hyphenate creator, administrator, educator and the Director of VLA DANCE. She pursued her multiple interests at Goucher College and graduated with high honors in Dance, Visual Art and Secondary Education. As the Director of VLA DANCE she is researching how to lead with joy, pleasure, and breath in and outside of art making practices. This work is guided through the lineage of Black and queer liberation practitioners. She is currently directing projects: “For Nina” – a multidisciplinary show celebrating the lineage of Nina Simone, “In The Space Between” – a production where dance, textile, and audio bring audiences into a world of queer imagination, and “Harnessing our Gardens” – an interview series in audio and text celebrating Black femme movement artists.
Alongside directing VLA DANCE, Victoria is a freelance artist, who most recently choreographed for Huntington Theater, Company One Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, and Commonwealth Shakespeare. As a performer she has worked for Jasmine Hearn, Shura Baryshnikov, Jenna Pollack, and others. Victoria is also an educator who has worked at Salem State University, Brown University, West End House, Middlesex School, and Urbanity Dance. She continues to deepen her teaching practices as a mentee with Midday Movement Series. Notably, Victoria is a Brother Thomas Fellow, a recipient of the Next Steps for Boston Grant Dance Program, as well as a recipient of the Queer (Re)public Theater Offensive Residency. Through her work she aims to inspire people to pause and reflect on their actions towards themselves, their community and their environment.
Jasmine Hearn, born and raised on occupied Akokisa lands (Houston, TX), is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, doula, performer, and organizer. Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2025), Jasmine is a recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award (2023), a Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize in Design with Athena Kokoronis of DPA (2023), a Jerome Foundation Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019), and two NY Dance and Performance Bessie Awards for Outstanding Performer (2021, 2017* with the cast of skeleton architecture).
Jasmine has collaborated with Dream the Combine, Bill T. Jones, Saul Williams, Solange Knowles, Alisha B. Wormsley, okwui okpokwasili, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Tsedaye Makonnen, Holly Bass, Bebe Miller, and with dance companies, Urban Bush Women, and David Dorfman Dance, performing choreographic works at the Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Live Arts, Guggenheim Museum, Getty Center, Venice Biennale, Ford Foundation, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Danspace Project, and the Hobby Center for Performing Arts.
Jasmine is currently leading an archive and performance project, Memory Fleet, which has been awarded a Creative Capital Award (2022), a Creation Fund Award from National Performance Network (2022), and a National Dance Production Grant from New England Foundation of the Arts (2023). With its premiere Houston, TX as part of DiverseWorks Spring 2024 season, Memory Fleet continues to deepen and will be presented at Kelly Strayhorn Theater in April 2026 and New York Live Arts in June 2026.
Myssi Robinson (she / her) is a Bessie award winning performer, multi-disciplinary maker and caregiver raised on and returned to Powhatan lands (Richmond, VA). She has interpreted many dances and dances through many interpretations. Her practice quilts together imaginative archiving and mixed-media marking beside experiments in improvisation, ritual and spatial design. Intuition and empathy play with maximalist instinct to give life to what comes. Gratitude to Carolyn, Darrin and all that is unseen for her life and abilities to create freely within it.
I am a performer, historian, consultant and dance writer. I began the online series “Black Dance Stories” in June 2020 as a platform for Black dance creatives during the Covid pandemic, but it has been my charge to support Black dance creatives for years. I am the founder/producer and artistic director for “Dance on the Lawn:” Montclair’s Dance Festival which ran for 10 years, a co-curator for Harlem Stage’s dance series, EMoves for 11 years, and the lead curator for Dance @ Wassaic Project Festival for more than nine years. In 2019 I became the Producer of DanceAfrica at BAM.
After performing for many years with major New York dance companies, I joined the internationally known, New York-based, dance/theater company david rousseve/REALITY in 1989 – 2000. I received a 2017 Bessie Award Recipient for “Outstanding Performance” as a member of Skeleton Architecture Collective. I was the recipient of the 2021 “Angel Awardee.” I currently perform with Jasmine Hearn.
I write on dance for The New York Amsterdam News, and over the years The New York Times, Dance Magazine and other print media. I have been published in the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAM: The Complete Works, Steven Serafin, editor., and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Playbill. My most recent article was for The Kennedy Center’s CENTER Magazine – “The Nutcracker Remix/es.”
I am a former faculty member at Hunter College, The Ailey School and the Alvin Ailey/Fordham University dance major program, Sarah Lawrence College, Kean University, Duke University and Howard University. I hold a Ph.D. in History from Howard University, a Master’s Degree in Dance Research, Reconstruction and Choreography from CUNY, and Bachelor’s Degrees: Speech & Theatre/Dance; and English from Montclair State College.
I was a member of the New York Dance and Performance Awards Committee (BESSIES) for more than ten years, and also a member of the Steering Committee for four years.
