There are art events, and then there are art events that are very special and something you will remember long after the performance ends.
That's what it felt like outside the Walker Art Center on Thursday evening at the procession before the start of Leslie Parker Dance Project's "Divination Tools: Imagine Home."
For the procession, Parker, wearing a black screen over her face, was covered head to toe with a billowing grass cloak, designed by Maggie Dayton, Jordan Hamilton and Masanari Kawarhara. She was accompanied by Khusaba Seka, who is listed in the program as "Priestess." Seka asked the audience standing outside the Walker's front doors, across the street from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, to name loved ones who need healing.
Three percussionists aided a sense of invocation while Parker danced with ferocity, the strands of grass making sound with each movement. Soon the performers ushered the audience indoors, moving through the lobby spaces throughout the museum, which had been adorned with grass and other scenic elements.
Parker performed a similar sequence two years ago outside of Pillsbury House + Theatre, one of the commissioning partners for the project alongside Pangea World Theater and the Walker. That performance emitted rage, sorrow, grief, power and joy all at once, and its proximity to George Floyd Square only accentuated those qualities.
Bringing the work to the Walker Art Center ushered in perhaps the beginnings of larger change for the Minneapolis arts community and the broader culture here.
At the performance at the McGuire Theater, three dancers entered the stage, joining a small musical ensemble of percussion, synthesizer, piano and cello players as five diaphanous banners floated down from the ceiling.
A film written by Sharon Bridgforth, "Love Conjure/Blues Altar Film," projected onto the material, depicting a Black woman setting up an altar on two chairs. Along with the voice of Bridgforth, the voiceover of the film included the voice of Laurie Carlos, a seminal figure of the Twin Cities performing arts community who has been a mentor to many artists, particularly queer and performers of color. Carlos' presence is significant in that it evokes an ancestral energy to a work about Black lineage and Black artistic practice.
An improvisational energy marked both the music and dance in Parker's project. The movement employed elements of ritual, West African dance vocabulary and an attention to spiritual presence. It took place in front of an altar and beneath a dark moon framed by two neon lights.
The performance inside the McGuire was quite short but was stunning and visually vibrant. And the ending left the audience wanting a bit more. There was so much fruitful material in the work and it opened the prospect to the beginning of something much deeper.
'Divination Tools: Imagine Home'
When: 7:15 p.m. procession, 8 p.m. performance, Sat.
Where: Walker Art Center, 725 Vineland Place, Mpls.
Tickets: $31.50, 612-375-7600.
