"We are bound by our shared experience of the human body. We all have hearts that pound, skin that feels. Observing a fortuitous company of bodies in a subway car, a classroom or on a sidewalk, innumerable stories are told without words. In our bodies we carry histories that we cannot hide. Being “of the body,” dance is an honest art. In my dance practice I look to explore and draw attention to this propensity for truth-telling. Dance is a means of remembering, interpreting, and expressing overtly those innate stories of the body. In dance we connect all bodies: the body of the individual, the communal, the societal, the global, and the universal.

To explore these shared experiences in dance, I draw from the experience of life in my body. In mining the specificity and history of my body (and mind and spirit) through movement, I aim to create a sense of intimacy between the audience and the performer. It is in this tenuous and vulnerable space that humans of all colors, creeds, genders, and generations can truly connect. It is in this space that we are moved, literally and metaphysically. We are moved to action, moved to tears, moved to think, and moved to remember.

My body is my medium: crooked, nuanced, untethered, and strong. There is nowhere to hide in my body. With my body, I want to tear down walls. I want to build bridges."

Jordan Jamil Ahmed
Artist Statement, January 2016

Header image: "Equal Footing," photo by Terry Cooper (2013)
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