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Keyierra Collins headshot

Keyierra Collins

Dancer, Choreographer, Teacher

Keyierra Collins is an Afro-interdisciplinary dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in Chicago but recognized internationally. In 2020 she was awarded the 3Arts/ Walder Foundation Awardee grant. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2016 with a BA in Dance where she studied various dance forms, including West African, modern, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and improvisation. She studied and apprenticed under the tutelage of educators and international performers, Onye Ozuzu (choreographer) & Dr. Raquel Monroe (writer). As a dance artist Collins has worked with artists like Chicago-based dancemaker and improvisationalist Aaliyah Christina as well as France-based Rwandan performance artist and vocalist Dorothee Munyaneza. She also has had the pleasure of working with many Chicago-based artists like Anna Martine Whitehead, Erin Kilmurray, and Jovan Landry, Sonita Surratt to name a few. Collins’ work lies at the intersection of exploring dance as healing and unpacking the collective and individual trauma experienced by people of the African Diaspora. Her process is kinesthetically driven and often inspired by conversations between peers and abstract reflections related to socio-political issues. Having toured and worked with artists in Haiti, Nigeria, and France, Collins is compelled to continue travelling to work with artists around the world and building spaces for her community. Alongside Brianna Alexis Heath, she co-founded Take Some Leave Some (TSLS): a multidisciplinary performance collective that uses original sound, choreography, film, and installations to create experiences reflecting and celebrating Black women’s worldmaking artistries. TSLS creates experiences inside homes and neighborhood spaces on the Southside of Chicago to reference “home” as a kind of a communal safe space maintained by Black women’s resilient and unapologetic experiential knowledge.  

 

Keyierra Collins's Website
None The Shwang Out - TSLS 2023 photo by: Jovan Landry Apart of Links Hall's CO-Mission Curational Residency

Featured Artworks

  • black woman with blue hair and a pale green floral stiched romper wit her face looking down at her hands lifted to her face standing in between two paths of pink, purple, and white flowers How I Found My Feet Again photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Columbia College Chicago Dance Center A part of Columbia College Dance Center 2022 Spark Plug comissioned programing
  • black dark skinned woman in dark green jumpsuit knealing down on a bed of pink, whit, and purple flowers, with a black camera on a tripod covered in green vines dancing in frontof a big screen projecting her image on the bach screen with purple lighting How I Found My Feet Again photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Columbia College Chicago Dance Center A part of Columbia College Dance Center 2022 Spark Plug comissioned programing
  • a dark skinned black woman in a green envelop thigh high dress and bare feet. On her head is a floral round flat top hat. behind her is a graphic purple flower and orange image, with a green leaf plant in the lower left corner. How I Found My Feet Again, a series of writings by Keyierra Collins photo and design: Keyierra Collins, Location: Pullman Chicago The first graphic image apart of my 6 part series with Performance Response Journal in response to my solo HIFHFA
  • dark skinned black woman face painted gold with gold flakes attached mouth wide open with a white and gold paper fan in her hand in a red suit standing next to another dark skinned black woman with a lavander suit on The Shwang Out: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location Links Hall A part of Links Hall's 2023 CO-Misson Curational Residency
  • two dark skinned women standing with their backs to the camera one knee bend and their arms stretched up in a lavendar and red suit clothes hanging from the ceiling and a ligth from a video projected on the wall in dark lighting The Shwang Out: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location Links Hall A part of Links Hall's 2023 CO-Misson Curational Residency
  • dark skinned black woman in a white and black animall print jumpsuit with white and black glasses wearing a blue shall, blue high headwrap, and blue gloves standing between two mirrors trimmed in gold fabric with one arm extended and 1 holding a blue fan Tati's Buttah Joint: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Block House Gallery A part of Links Hall's CO-Misson Curational Residency
  • Keyierra Collins artwork Tati's Buttah Joint: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Block House Gallery A part of Links Hall's CO-Misson Curational Residency
  • various people sitting in gold fabric colored seats facing a white wall with a video projection next to more people sitting on a greay couch with 3 picture of black women above them Tati's Buttah Joint: Take Some Leave Some photo by: Jovan Landry, Location: Block House Gallery A part of Links Hall's CO-Misson Curational Residency

Keyierra Collins has crowd-funded a project with 3AP

  • Take Some Leave Some

    by: Keyierra Collins
    • $6,235 raised of $5,000 goal
    • 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
      • 3Arts matched
      • 125% funded

    I am creating a collaborative, durational installation set inside a house on the South Side of Chicago that uses movement and performance to reflect on lessons learned and passed down to Black women. For one week in 2021, we will …

    Read more about Take Some Leave Some