Keisha Janae / Eternal Resolve

Fall 2021 Co-MISSION Artist-in-Residence

Graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Keisha Janae resides in Southshore Chicago. She has experience in performance, teaching artistry, and dance making. She co-founded with Trellz Mind “Eternal Resolve”, a teaching platform that uses movement to heal and find self realization. This workshop was presented at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago’s 2020 Fall season. Versatile in a diversity of movement styles, Keisha also teaches House dance at Crown Community Acd and Red clay Dance Company. She has performed with Onye Ozuzu’s Project Tool, Jane Jerardi’s delicate hold, and Damon Lock’s Black Monument Ensemble. Currently, she dances with Red Clay Dance Company, the Instigation Festival, Freedom from and Freedom to events, and BraveSoul Movement. Her desire for her career is to choreograph and create more opportunities through her instructional practice for marginalized groups to exercise their spiritual, physical, and mental power while healing and reawakening.

PROJECTS AT LINKS HALL

3/4 | June 2022

Influenced by the number 3 and an intention to maximize our rhythmic flow, the movement creators of Eternal Resolve share their physical relationship with patterns and cultural contexts that surround the number 3. This is an experimental engine of movement, video, and personal reflections. 

View the performance recording here.

Artist Credits

Movement Collaborator, Mentor, and Reflection: Jonathan St Clair (Inlight)

Music Composer: Elijah Jamal Asani

Ending Song Instrumental: “My Last”, Big Sean

Video Credits: “How do Birds learn to fly”, Bill Oddie; “Elephant saves baby”, Newsflare

Lighting: Giau Truong

Community Circle: Ray Williams, Kolin Smith, Sasha Vulovic

Sankofa | December 2021

Recognizing the power in hindsight to inform the present, and the power in foresight to predict the future. The motivation for Keisha Janae and Eternal Resolve’s work-in-progress is Sankofa, a symbol and interpretation from the Akan Twi and Fante languages of Ghana that depicts a bird with its head facing backward to retrieve an egg and its feet facing forward in position ahead. Follow us as we take you through our first step to hone in on our sense of time, by collecting sufficient breath to prep us for our journey towards our mastery of flow and direction. 

Artist Credits

Artistic Director: Keisha Janae (a.k.a KJ)

Resolve Movement Creators: Selena Lasley, Kolin Smith (a.k.a Reflex), Garrick Whatley (a.k.a Trellz Mind), Sheritta Thomas, Sasha Vulovic

Sound Design: Elijah Jamal

Musician: Torrence Penn

Costume Design: Aamina Haykal and Keisha Janae

3/4. Photos by Zach Caddy.