A. Raheim White
Project Title: ICU : I AM U
Performance
Friday, June 5
7:30p
$10 suggested donation
more info on Raheim press green circle
ICU: I AM U is ultimately an act of self-witnessing and self-recognition, exploring how lineage,memory, and imagination live in the body. Through this process, I aim to deepen achoreographic language that honors multiplicity, continuity, and the radical tenderness of seeingoneself across time.
ICU: I AM U is a choreo-poem and embodied inquiry that explores time as a living, relationalfield rather than a linear progression. Rooted in African cosmologies and resonant with quantumthought, the work begins from the understanding that past, present, and future selves coexist—continually shaping, informing, and speaking to one another.This residency is an invitation to listen deeply to those conversations. Drawing from archivalmaterials such as poetry written in my teenage years, contemporary texts from my currentadulthood, and emergent movement scores, song, and storytelling, I seek to build a performativeworld where my younger self, present self, and elder self meet—not as separate chapters, but assimultaneous truths. The work asks: What wisdom was I already carrying as a child? Whatquestions am I still holding as an adult? What guidance does my elder self offer from a futurethat already exists?During the residency, I am less interested in arriving at a fixed product than in creating theconditions for something honest to be birthed. This may take the form of focused attention on asingle temporal self, or it may reveal itself through layered dialogues across time. The residencyoffers the essential resource this work requires: space—to move, to write, to sing, to remember,and to listen for what wants to emerge.
ARTIST STATEMENT GREAT READ! I am a multidisciplinary movement artist, choreographer, educator, embodiment researcher, and facilitator of healing space. My practice lives at the intersection of dance, ancestral wisdom, and embodied leadership, guided by a lifelong inquiry: What does it feel like to move through life remembering we are already whole? Movement is both my language and my lineage. I am deeply interested in how the body holds memory, wisdom, and possibility—how it carries ancestral knowledge forward even when the conscious mind forgets. My work is informed by African diasporic movement practices, African traditional religions, Vedic philosophy, and Eastern wisdom traditions, all filtered through my Black, queer, diasporic lens. These lineages do not sit beside one another in my work; they converse, overlap, and inform how I understand presence, healing, and collective becoming. At the core of my embodiment research is the integration of movement, breath, meditation, and ancient wisdom traditions as tools for expanding lived experience. I am interested in how these practices support people in becoming more grounded in their bodies, clearer in their voices, and more expansive in their capacity to imagine and inhabit their lives. The ancients understood the body not as an accessory to thought, but as a site of intelligence. I return to these teachings as necessary technology for navigating the complexity of our present moment. Dance, for me, is not simply performance or aesthetic form. It is a practice of listening. I often say, “I don’t teach dance. I teach people how to move through life with dance as my medium.” Whether in the studio, the classroom, or communal healing spaces, my work invites people back into deep relationship with their bodies as home. This body—the vessel that carries us through reaching, leaping, loving, grieving, connecting, and communicating—is not separate from who we are. It is how we know, discover, learn, and play. My creative and pedagogical practices ask participants to slow down, feel more, and trust the intelligence already within them. I am committed to creating spaces that honor the fullness of the human experience—spaces where softness and strength coexist, where ancestral memory meets contemporary life, and where people are supported in remembering their inherent power. Ultimately, my work is about a return: return to the body, return to breath, return to wisdom that has always been present. In remembering our wholeness, we reclaim the capacity to move through the world with clarity, care, and collective responsibility.
BIO FABULOUS. A. Raheim White is a multidisciplinary movement artist, choreographer, educator, and embodiment researcher whose work lives at the intersection of dance, ancestral wisdom, and embodied leadership. They currently serve as Assistant Professor and Head of Movement in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah, where their teaching and creative practice center the body as a site of knowledge, healing, and transformation. Raheim holds an MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both in Dance with emphases in performance and choreography, and completed formative study at Taipei National University of the Arts. Their work is deeply informed by African diasporic movement practices, Vedic philosophy, and Eastern wisdom traditions, all filtered through a Black queer diasporic lens. As a choreographer, Raheim’s work has been presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, French Institute Alliance Française, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Harlem Stage, Dance Africa Pittsburgh, The Den Theatre, and MAD Dance Festival. Recent choreographic credits include Fun Home, Spring Awakening, The Prince of Egypt, and Legally Blonde, with Legally Blonde becoming a sold-out production at the University of Utah’s Meldrum Theatre—an unprecedented achievement for the department. Raheim has performed with and been an ensemble member of nationally and internationally touring companies including Seán Curran Company, Lucky Plush Productions, Brother(hood) Dance!, CabinFever, RAREDanceWork, Project44, Trainor Dance, and The Fly Honeys, and has collaborated with a wide range of influential artists across dance, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance. Beyond performance and choreography, Raheim is a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator, presenting on embodied leadership, student wellness, and transformational practice for organizations including Dance/USA, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Collegium of African Diasporic Dance, and universities nationwide. Their writing and thought leadership have appeared in Thrive Global, Authority Magazine, WellnessVoice, VoyageATL. For their impactful work within Chicago’s LGBTQ community, Raheim earned a coveted Windy City Times’ 30 Under 30 Award. Certified as a 200-hour yoga instructor and social-emotional learning facilitator and trained as a Reiki Master-Teacher and Akashic Record Reader, Raheim approaches their work with a holistic commitment to personal and collective liberation. Across classrooms, studios, and communal spaces, they are devoted to helping people return to their bodies, remember their inherent wholeness, and move through life with clarity, care, and power. More at TheTransformationWizard.com
My Work is for the Leader, Woman, Student, and Creative who is Ready to Rise. Through Movement, Mindfulness, and Soul-centered Experiences, I Help You Step Fully Into Your Power, Embody Your Truth, and Live a Life of Pleasure, Purpose, and Positive, Lasting Impact.
