Something Quilted (2021)

Live trio vocal and movement performance ritual for imagining liberation by weaving medicine lineages.

Performers: Rochelle Jamila Wilbun, Ambika Raina, and Aminah Nieves. Original song inspired by Taino culture by Aminah Nieves. Videography by Ogemdi Ude.

 Into the Fire (2021)

Conceived as an improvisational solo on the cliffs of a Hawaiian beach, into the fire investigates non-duality, rebirth, and land based mythology inspired by the topography of Hawai’i.

Performer: Rochelle Jamila Wilbun, Videography: Carlo Prado

 ritual for a 5th world (film 2020)

Film adaptation of the January 2020 performance develops the live solo into a duet in which two women turn to ancestral rituals in order to traverse the unknown future. This work was developed as a response to climate grief through the lens of Black southern femmes.

Performers: Rochelle Jamila Wilbun and Kamryn Vaulx, Videography: Ambika Raina

❀ st. joan’s wort | after the solstice ❀ (2020)

Conceived and performed following the height of June 2020’s social uprising ❀ st. joan’s wort | after the solstice ❀ is a dance happening meant to proclaim resilience and joy. This dance celebrates the arrival of summer the energy of St. Joan’s Wort, a plant the embodies the bright, exuberant energy of the sun.

Performer: Rochelle Jamila Wilbun

ritual for a 5th world (Live 2020)

Hopi cosmology and prophecies predict the fall of a fourth world, and the dawning of a new or “fifth” world coming. In the midst of climate crisis, ritual for a 5th world dreams a ritual for preparing the body and spirit for unprecedented times. This dance imagines the personal rituals of a young woman preparing to traverse unknown terrain.

Performer: Rochelle Jamila Wilbun, Image: Caylee Shimizu

new world colewort (2019)

new world colewort examines  “green(s)” through dance, sound, song, and linguistic play in a 10 minute inter-disciplinary experience. Pulling from Black southern lexicon, this work explore the multi-layered meaning and vibrational resonance of green, the semantics of green-ness, and “greens” as medicine.

Performance and Sound Score: Rochelle Jamila Wilbun, Image: Claire Kim

Cotton Root(werq) (2019)

(cotton) RootWerq is a solo commissioned by fashion brand Official Rebrand as part of their 2019 Earth Month show. Following a year-long research process into cotton history in the Mississippi delta and cotton’s medicinal uses by enslaved African women, Rochelle crafted this solo to honor her ancestor’s technologies of reproductive autonomy.

Image: Satchel Lee