Keena Walters first heard of The CRay Project like any college student hears of most things—through an Instagram post. A fellow student in one of her Cal State Long Beach dance courses sent her a post about the Long Beach organization’s free dance classes just before the pandemic began.
Almost three years later, Walters is eagerly awaiting the third annual Black Dance Festival hosted by The CRay Project, a weeklong event filled with free dance lessons, workshops and performances. These events will take place from Aug. 7 to Aug. 14 in various locations throughout the city including the Long Beach Playhouse and Rose Park.
After years of volunteering and dancing with the organization, Walters credits The CRay Project for giving her a sense of community after moving to Long Beach from the Bay Area for college.
“It made me feel like a part of Long Beach,” Walters said.
It’s this familial sentiment that The CRay Project will highlight in this year’s festival. The theme, “For those among us…,” serves as a way to celebrate Black creators of today and to make sure “that they get their flowers that are needed,” said co-founder Chatiera Ray.
The CRay Project is a “Black empowerment movement” dedicated to providing platforms for artists of color and those facing injustice through educational and affordable opportunities, according to their website. The grassroots organization was founded in 2015 and is run by two Black women from Cleveland, Ohio—Ray and LaRonica Southerland.
This year’s festival will showcase many teachers and artists that have long been a part of The CRay Project family. While the full lineup has not been released, Ray said that a few longtime instructors will return to perform and teach. The dancers and choreographers chosen for the festival are those who are not only “our dance family, but our real families,” Ray said.
These artists will also be highlighted virtually through a series of live-streamed performances accompanied by interviews of the artist. These five to 10-minute videos will be released throughout the week and posted online.
While previous years have included business pop-ups, this year’s festival will kick off with a Black artist mixer and networking event. There will be a handful of performances, business topics presented to discuss and an opportunity to mingle with other Long Beach creators.
The festival also offers workshops discussing a wide range of topics within the entertainment industry such as lighting for people of color, performance makeup hacks, a discussion on how young people can stay motivated in a competitive industry and a panel on how creators can stay true to their mission and resist outside influences.
The pinnacle of the festival remains the free dance classes that will be held throughout various public spaces in the city, which Ray said is in hopes “that [people] find a newfound confidence and just being okay with being in the body that they’re in.”
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