Lela Aisha Jones Wins Grants for New Dance and Skating Performances

Assistant Professor and Director of Dance Lela Aisha Jones has received a 2026 William Penn Foundation Arts & Culture  grant  and a  2025 National Performance Network Creation Fund grant  to support  Infinite Slow Drive / Obsidians in the Wild, a multi-sensory, interdisciplinary performance that draws on Black cultural traditions of visibility and invisibility through parades, coming of age, strolling, and adornment of people, places, and vehicles. 

The project will take shape in two formats  —  one for the stage and one performed on ice  —  bringing together movement artists, figure skaters, musicians, and immersive design elements to create a dynamic, site-responsive experience.  

The skating version grows out of Jones’ collaboration with Deneane Richburg, a choreographer and former competitive figure skater and founder of  Brownbody, a Twin Cities-based nonprofit that blends modern dance, theater, social justice, and figure skating.  

The two first connected while Deneane Richburg was living in Philadelphia after completing graduate school in dance at Temple University and Jones was a burgeoning choreographer, fresh from a performance-focused period in NYC with choreographers and companies, Nia Love, Urban Bush Women, Barack Ade Sole, and Christal Brown. Richburg and Jones shared interests in movement, place, and Black cultural expression evolved into an ongoing creative partnership.  

But the roots of  Infinite Slow Drive  reach further back to Jones’ upbringing in Tallahassee, Florida, where she was immersed in a vibrant, Afro-centric arts community shaped by both family and place.  

“Much of my childhood revolved around attending dance school, going to my grandparents’ house for backyard barbecues, going to church, and being surrounded by Black folks living out loud,” Jones says. “They made sure I felt I could do anything.”  

Among the key influences on the work are the traditions of strolling and informal car processions  —  forms of movement that merge style, rhythm, and community presence.  

"Strolling was everywhere — at homecoming, in parks, even entering and exiting church,” she says. “It was about how you carry yourself, how you show up with intention and pride."

That same spirit carries into the car processions Jones remembers from her youth, where elaborately customized vehicles and powerful sound systems transformed public spaces into sites of celebration.  

“As teens, we would go out to the park, and there would be these candy-painted cars with glistening rims, all lined up,” she recalls. “The sound systems would vibrate through you.”  

For Jones, these traditions share a common thread: movement as a form of visibility, creativity, and collective expression.  Infinite Slow Drive  builds on  those experiences, translating them into a performance that connects communities across generations and geographies.  

The project will be developed through performances and collaborations in Philadelphia, presented by the Painted Bride Art Center, and in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, by Brownbody, with a broader tour planned for 2027–28.  

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