Sharon Bridgforth | delta dandi

Written and conducted by Sharon Bridgforth, delta dandi is a living cacophony of monologues, chants, choral tellings, blood memories, dance and song. Through glimpses of the transmigration of one spirit’s many lives, delta dandi asks: How does collective grief and trauma inform the Black-American experience, and what must a soul do to heal? A re-imagining of the tradition of sacred concerts and tone poems that jazz icons Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams innovated, delta dandi is ritual theatre conjuring transformation and love.

Sharon Bridgforth, two time Alpert Award Nominee, is a recipient of the 2008 Alpert/Hedgebrook Residency Prize. Her piece delta dandi is an NPN Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Women & Their Work and The Center on Halsted with a grant from the National Performance Network. The cast of ten includes: Baraka de Soleil winner of the prestigious Katherine Dunham Choreography/AUDELCO for excellence in Black Theatre; Sonja Perryman who played Ollita in the Off-Broadway smash hit ‘Celia’ about the life and music of the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz; Florinda Bryant who directed and performed in Stamp Lab’s award winning Artspark Festival 2008 play, “HUSH”; and Helga Davis, co-star of “The Temptation of St. Anthony”, directed by Robert Wilson with libretto and score by Bernice Johnson Reagon. Helga is currently starring in “The Blue Planet”, a multi-media theater piece written by Peter Greenaway and directed by Saskia Boddeke.