“I Am Who I Am” is a twenty-minute work reflecting what it means to live a true authentic life in a world that still struggles with racism and being gay, a dancer/choreographer, and an activist. Through movement, Tony will explore and reflect on his own life and the many roles he played struggling to be something or someone he wasn’t. Through movement and discussion, he will share with you what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now.

There will be a short discussion following the performance.

Tony C. Johnson is a dancer and choreographer who has performed in and created over 300 dances, many focusing on spirituality and movement. He has danced the works of world-renowned choreographers Clay Taliaferro, Chuck Davis, Anna Halprin, and others. He has studied, danced, and performed at the American Dance Festival for over 40 years and is a longtime friend of the Duke Dance Program. He has led workshops focusing on embodying history through movement, spirituality, sexuality, gender, and body language and has been a featured guest for the Triangle Dance Festival for AIDS. In 2014 he was selected to present at the Dancing the African Diaspora Conference at Duke and in 2016, he led a movement workshop as a part of his Embodying History Through Movement project. Along with his work, he has been the subject of many newspapers and interviews that focus on his activism. Tony is an activist and choreographer serving the poor, homeless, and people living marginal lives, bridging communities through movement like his work Hidden Faces of The Street. During Covid, he was asked by a film producer if he could make a documentary on his life as a choreographer/activist. His latest work, Silence, a reflection that highlights events that changed America over the last 4 years, was performed in the spring of 2022.

Photo by Jennifer Scully-Thurston.

ADF studio subsidy program funded by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.

Registration is required! You can register here.

For any questions, please contact Jennifer Scully-Thurston, jscullythurston@americandancefestival.org

Masking is strongly encouraged.