Destine (D’Roc) Young is a native Chicagoan who began dancing at an early age. Holding a B.A. in Dance from Columbia College Chicago, she works extensively as a performer, educator, curator and choreographer exploring relationships between contemporary, martial arts, and hip-hop street dance. 'The Ground Rhythm Method' is her movement-based healing method that supports social, mental, and spiritual development. Awards include: 2023 Links Hall Co-Mission Residency Award, 2020 DCASE IAP Grant, 2019 Chicago Park District NOIP Grant, 2018 Chicago Community Trust Young Leaders Fund Award, and HCL 2018 Sponsored Artist. Destine is enrolled in the Masters Program at Bradley University to become a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. She is also a company member with Red Clay Dance.

PROJECT AT LINKS HALL

Systems and Sanctuaries | June 2023

Systems & Sanctuaries tells the story of a woman who comes to discover her shadow through embodying the trauma and pain she has endured throughout her life. Through Dance and Verbal expression, she grapples with the conditions of being a black woman in this world, existing in all her ways with her different images she recognizes womanhood as a shapeshifting, sacred, & load bearing transparency. She is curious to explore what it's like to move in and out of the different perspectives of what a woman is, not according to society but by her own euphoric definition. System & Sanctuaries shifts the paradigms of masculinity vs. femininity as an 'either or' quality of what makes up a woman.

Photos by Peter Hinsdale (L) and Jovan Landry (C, R).