During her residency from December 4-15, 2024, tap dancer and choreographer Brinae Ali will develop The Baby Laurence Legacy Project, an innovative archival and performance project which investigates and celebrates the artistic genius of Donald “Baby Laurence” Jackson, a Baltimore-bred innovator whose impact on tap dance and jazz music is being redefined. This evening-length production aims to build a platform for sharing Laurence’s largely forgotten story with audiences by exploring the relationship between technology, tap dancing, and jazz music. Ali, who performed as part of the 2023 Festival, is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and grassroots organizer born and raised in Flint, Michigan. Read on to take a look inside of Ali’s artistic journey and inspirations for her Pillow Lab residency.
What’s inspiring you right now?
Right now, I am deeply inspired by the current times we are living in. The adversities of this country and the world are driving me to use my voice, apply ancestral knowledge, and practice peace through art. As a woman who identifies as a human being of African and Native American descent, mother, wife, artist, educator, and activist, a huge part of my practice is to connect and stand up for myself and others. I am currently working on two projects that celebrate both Dizzy Gillespie and Baby Laurence, who were innovative pioneers and cultural ambassadors through the music and movement of Jazz. I lean on their life’s work and experiences as a blueprint to survive and create. They both lived through the Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Black Power movements, using their own sense of self determination to thrive as performing artists while overcoming the conditions of oppression, inequity, and generational trauma.
I am encouraged through this research to examine my own life and align myself with purpose and pride while going through my own experiences of healing generational and societal traumas. We really are living in unprecedented times. When my right to choose what I want to do with my body is under governmental rule, it does not feel like the freedom that my ancestors or I imagine. Therefore, I am inspired to create, organize, strategize, and cultivate a pathway forward through the magic making of music, dance, and storytelling.
What can audiences expect from your time in the Pillow Lab?
I will be investigating innovative ways to use technology as a part of the music and movement making experience. I will be exploring live looping and creating music that will trigger sounds to create a sonic landscape of rhythms, melodic and harmonic modes that can also interact with lights and images through Ableton.
I want to really help the audience to make a connection to a phrase that Baby Laurence would say, “Tap dancing is percussion.” I will be choreographing, composing, and collaborating with the musicians and dancers in the cast, who will also offer their voices and bring to life text from a transcript that was shared by the Apollo Theater educational department from an oral histories project which included experiences shared from people who remembered seeing Laurence during his time working at the Apollo.
The audience can expect to participate through an interactive experience. They will be challenged to expand their level of empathy and understand the complexities of addiction and mental illness. They will also learn that Baltimore is one of America’s epicenters of creativity and culture.
My father would always say, “Take care of the art, and the art will take care of you.”
Is there a piece of advice or wisdom that has stuck with you as an artist?
My father would always say, “Take care of the art, and the art will take care of you.” Those words always ground me and keep my intentions pure in the pursuit of developing my work with integrity. It is also a reminder to not get too caught up in the capitalistic approach to art making. This phrase remind me to be my authentic self.
How has your cultural background or heritage influenced your work?
I am a third generation Tap Dancer and performing artist from Flint, MI, a place where my grandparents migrated from the deep south to create a better life for their families. I was raised with the awareness of being socially responsible to use art as a means of healing, education, and advocacy. I like to tell people that I grew up in an artistic spaceship because there were designs on the ceilings, walls, and the floor. Jazz music playing in the basement while my father sang, drummed rhythms on his congas, reciting lines from plays or painting 3 dimensional images. I was also a part of a community where we did not have a lot of resources and yet we learned how to be resourceful with each other. This foundation gave me perspective and purpose as well as the tools that I needed to be successful in life. I am connected to the call and response tradition where I have learned how to respond to a deeper calling to create with intention.
What do you hope to take away from your time at Jacob’s Pillow?
I am excited to have 10 days to create and take the Baby Laurence Legacy Project to the next level of development uninterrupted. I am really looking forward to the peace of mind, clarity, and support that I will be receiving from the Jacob’s Pillow staff and my creative team.
Can you describe your artistic journey in three words?
Transformative, authentic, and consistent.
What’s next for you after your residency at the Pillow Lab?
After this residency, I will present my research, co-lead a clinic with the amazing percussionist and composer Allison Miller, as well as perform excerpts from this project at the Jazz Education Network Conference in Atlanta, GA. Following this is a technical residency at Dance Place in Washington, D.C. that will lead us to the world premiere of this work in February at Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD. Then, this show will tour during the season of 2025-2026.
Inside the Pillow Lab is an intimate film series that captures works in process and behind-the-scenes moments of what it’s like for artists to live, work, and rehearse together in residencies on the Pillow’s retreat-like campus.
A year-round incubator of new work, the Pillow Lab hosts ten artist residencies this fall, winter, and spring. Learn more about the dance artists who will be joining the Pillow during crucial development, research, and technical stages of choreography-driven projects.