{"id":532778,"date":"2026-01-21T18:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/532778\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:48:16","slug":"impressions-ogemdi-udes-major-at-new-york-live-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/532778\/","title":{"rendered":"IMPRESSIONS: Ogemdi Ude\u2019s “MAJOR” at New York Live Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Features<\/a> > Impressions <\/a>The Dance Enthusiast’s Brand of Review\/Thoughts on What We See \n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"IMPRESSIONS:\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Published on January 21, 2026
Ogemdi Ude’s “MAJOR”. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tNew York Live Arts,\u00a0Live Artery,\u00a0presents<\/p>\n

MAJOR<\/p>\n

Choreography\/Direction: Ogemdi Ude in collaboration with the performers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music: Lambkin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lighting and Set Design: Simean \u201cSim\u201d Carpenter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Costume Design: Celeste Jennings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dance Captain: Selah Hampton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brooklyn United Choreographer: Whitney Wiggins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brooklyn United Drum Director: Rodney Smith Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Performers: Kayla Farrish, Selah Hampton, Jailyn Phillips-Wiley, Junyla Silmon, Chanel Stone, song aziza tucker, and the Dancers and Musicians of Brooklyn United<\/strong>
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jan. 7-10, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because of how exciting I find Stepping — that other team dance form spawned on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, about 100 years ago \u2013 I jumped at the opportunity to see the first North American showings of MAJOR, a dance-theatre exploration of majorette dance.\u00a0 Not as regimented as the spoken-word-and-body-percussion-driven Stepping, created by Greek-letter fraternities, majorette dance is an ensemble form birthed at HBCU\u2019s in the 1960s when marching-band majorettes put down their batons to perform full-out precision dance routines combining Black-rooted vernacular and theatrical dance styles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dancers<\/p>\n

Ogemdi Ude’s MAJOR. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p>\n

Premiered in Germany last August, MAJOR was presented in early January at New York Live Arts, as part of the venue\u2019s annual Live Artery festival.\u00a0 Choreographed and directed by Brooklyn-based dance artist Ogemdi Ude<\/a> (in collaboration with the performers), the provoking 55-minute piece unpacks Ude\u2019s corporeal, self-identity journey from a young majorette dancer to a grown-up choreographic artist committed to uplifting her \u201ccommunity\u201d of Black femmes, which includes all LGBTQ+ folks who present in a feminine fashion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The keenly-structured work opens with a telling solo in which a young woman flounders about, starting and stopping as she \u201ctries out\u201d different steps and styles in a struggle to find the \u201cright\u201d way to move her body.\u00a0 \u00a0From the physical vocabulary she samples, we realize this is going to be a work about the relationship between the choreographer\u2019s early experiences as a majorette dancer and her current interest in revisiting those movement sensations, and their social implications, as an adult, contemporary dance-trained mover.\u00a0 The soloist is soon joined by the five other members of her \u201cteam.\u201d \u00a0Enticingly costumed by Celeste Jennings in bright-blue pantsuits with glittering fringe across their bosoms, they begin to practice a majorette dance routine, describing each movement as they do it \u2013 \u201cone-eighty turn with slide, swirl waist in a circle and pop hip.\u201d\u00a0 The dancing is highly sensual, a combination of undulations and percussive accents.\u00a0 There\u2019s vogue-like strutting and posing, with hands placed decoratively around the face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Ogemdi Ude’s MAJOR. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p>\n

Ultimately, they strip off their blue outfits and, now clad in tight-fitting black leather, launch into energetic execution of high kicks, straddle jumps, twerking, and sharp crotch-framing gestures.\u00a0 Majorette dancing, it seems, is not as \u201cclean-cut\u201d as Stepping, and certainly not for the prudish.\u00a0 By the end of the scene, these dancers emerge as a fierce tribe of Black femmes, an identity that grows bolder as the piece progresses.\u00a0 In an interview with Bill T. Jones, recorded in December, Ude stated that she employs only Black femme dancers, and the six forming the cast of MAJOR are all extremely engaging performers.\u00a0 The stand-out dancer is Kayla Farrish, who breaks from the group in the next scene to perform a stunning solo, gliding cat-like through lower levels of the space with the speed of a cheetah and the strong, surprising attack of a stalking lioness.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kayla Farrish in Ogemdi Ude’s MAJOR. Photo: Maria Barnanova<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, what follows is a raunchy ensemble passage kicked-off by every imaginable variation ofderriere shimmies \u2013 accelerating the vibrations to supersonic speed, performed bent over in back-to-the-audience crotch-displaying stances, done standing buttocks to buttocks with a partner, or with one hand grabbing each cheek, shaking them hard and finishing off with a slap.\u00a0 As the sequence evolves, it becomes virtually unwatchable.\u00a0 Not only does the lighting (designed by Simean \u201cSim\u201d Carpenter) blanket much of the stage in darkness, while spotlights aim blinding streams of harsh white light directly out at the audience, but we hear dancer song aziza tucker proclaim \u201cThis is it.\u00a0 This is grown-girl shit.\u201d\u00a0 She goes on to scream ferociously into a microphone, telling us \u201cI\u2019m not being watched, I\u2019m making you watch.\u201d\u00a0 The accompanying electronic music (composed by Lambkin) grows louder and louder, but tucker yells above it, assaulting us with her words, and becoming increasingly more enraged, as she and the others emit unrestrained fury in their lewd miming of sexual movements, desperate to convince us (or themselves?) of the truths they are proclaiming.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of the, albeit much tamer, decades-old argument among feminists who disagree on whether strippers are sex objects or liberated women empowered by their capacity to \u201cmanipulate\u201d men.\u00a0 Ude, I think, is wrestling with how a former majorette dancer can revisit the sexy moves she once performed in order to own the feelings they evoke within the context of her own evolved sexuality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Ogemdi Ude’s MAJOR. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p>\n

As the dust settles, the tone of the piece shifts dramatically.\u00a0 Suddenly, we\u2019re witnessing a tender duet that, at first, feels confusing, as it\u2019s not clear how we got here from the preceding provocations.\u00a0 But when the duo\u2019s movements become playful, and we see two girls returning to their youth \u2013 practicing majorette steps and sensing, perhaps, the blossoming of a sexual attraction — the piece feels back on track.\u00a0 Though the duet goes on too long and is not always interesting, I advise viewers to hang in there!\u00a0<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT! Just as we start to grow disappointed that Ude\u2019s piece is not as much about majorette dancing as one may have hoped, a seven-member drumline of teen-age boys charges in and saves the day!\u00a0 Banging away on snares, bass drums, and cymbals, they prance and bop about with terrific flair, moving through their patterned formations not with militaristic marching but with wonderfully bouncy steps and spins.\u00a0 I found myself grinning from ear to ear and, judging from how happy the drummers looked, one suspects they were enjoying performing for us as much as we relished watching them.<\/p>\n

\"Boys<\/p>\n

Ogemdi Ude’s MAJOR. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p>\n

And then, when I thought it couldn\u2019t get any better, the talented percussionists were joined by — yes, you guessed it \u2013 a team of young majorette dancers!\u00a0 They wore leotards sporting the letters \u201cBU,\u201d as the youngsters all hail from the Brooklyn United Music and Arts Program<\/a>, a New York City youth organization that provides instruction in marching band as an art form combining musicianship and pageantry. \u00a0As Ude\u2019s piece built to its spectacularly entertaining finale, the adult performers joined in the fun, dancing alongside their younger \u201cselves\u201d while the crowd roared in appreciation.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

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