Artist in Residence
Coming Winter 2025!
RAFAEL PALACIOS and Sankofa Danzafro
In residence Winter Quarter 2025 (January - March 2025)
Artistic Director Rafael Palacios and Sankofa Danzafro's residency is co-presented by the Dance Program in the Department of Theatre and the Kaplan Humanities Institute.
Please check back in late fall 2024 for more details about this exciting residency! In the meantime, please visit the website of Sankofa Danzafro at https://sankofadanzafro.org/.
Sankofa Danzafro Artistic Director Rafael Palacios
Still from Sankofa Danzafro Behind the South: Dances for Manuel. Photo by Marcela Gómez. The company performed this work at La Biennale Di Venezia 2024.
Still from Sankofa Danzafro, The City of Others. Photo by Robert Torres.
About Sankofa Danzafro
"We dance to be heard, not to be seen!"
In Akan, a Ghanaian language, Sankofa means “to return to the root.” More than a word, it is an African philosophy that proposes to know the past as a condition to understand the present; as a way to see the future. This thought has guided the path of the Afro-Colombian dance and music company Sankofa Danzafro. Founded by Rafael Palacios in 1997 with its home in Medellín, Colombia, Sankofa Danzafro is dedicated to training and creation in dance as well as interacting with the community. Through the practice of dance, Sankofa’s mission is to bridge the gaps between the many African diaspora communities in Colombia—along with other populations whose human rights have been violated. Sankofa’s choreographic language searches for the poetics that are at the root of Afro dance, experienced through the frame of today. In this way, Sankofa honors both the traditional and the contemporary. Through its programs, the company nurtures community mentorship, social awareness, and personal growth, and supports the sustainability of local cultures inside of the national dynamics of Colombia.
Sankofa Danzafro made its “electrifying New York debut” (New York Times) in the U.S. invited by the Battery Dance Festival in 2015. The company was first presented at The Joyce Theater in October 2018. In North America, it has been presented by USC’s Voices & Visions; the Kravis Center; Boston’s Celebrity Series; and the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth, among others. The company just returned from performing at La Biennale Di Venezia 2024.
The Kaplan Institute Artist in Residence Program
The Kaplan Humanities Institute is proud to recognize and financially support working artists across the visual, performing, and literary arts.
Since 2008, Kaplan has co-hosted innovative and award-winning artists working in diverse media, facilitating opportunities to share insight into the conceptualization, process, and production of new work. We have partnered with Northwestern departments and programs to situate artists within a scholarly interdisciplinary community where they share their practice through classes, open studios, screenings, exhibitions, lectures, concerts, readings, and performances.
Building on this longstanding support of arts programming at Northwestern, Kaplan launched a new Artist Engagement Initiative in Spring 2023 with a program for co-curricular grants. In December 2023, details were announced for the revamped artist residency program.
Questions?
Please contact Jill Mannor at jill.mannor@northwestern.edu.
