[Ekwe playing] Ward: OK, so we're gonna move a little bit into Igbo.

Everybody all right?

You warming up?

Yeah.

Ward: I call it Afro contemporary.

What that means to me is that it is rooted in diasporic movement.

That's what guides my work and, really, other choreographers that come to work with the company.

So it's this and the spiral.

Here we go.

♪ Feel your whole foot on the floor, Alex.

Yes.

[Clapping rhythm] ♪ Huh!

♪ Ward: You should know what the Igbo rhythm sounds like.

The music and the dance go together.

♪ In opening up this new space a couple of years ago, I was very intentional about where.

I wanted to be in a place where there was not a lot of access.

It was also very important for me to be in a Black community where those community members could see Black dancers pursuing their passion at a professional level.

Woman: I was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and a lot of times, I was the only Black person in the room, and then I found Red Clay, and I was like, "Oh, my gosh, a Black woman is running it," and I'm just surrounded by a lot of people who look like me for the first time.

I want to be on stage and performing.

That's the goal.

I'm running towards it.

Hill: I noticed here in Chicago, a lot of artists, they're engaged here.

It's about coming home and improving.

Ward: Yes, what's here, which is why I love the windows.

Like, I can walk down 63rd and see these dancers in the studio rehearsing.

"I see it, I see it, I see it.

I can be that," you know?

That's what's powerful.

That's actually genius.

I never even comprehended the subtlety of that, just having the windows open.

That is really powerful.

Yeah, and people are always--you know, or we have class going on, and kids are outside dancing.

You know, it's just like, "Oh, and this is in my neighborhood."

Mm-hmm.

The more that we allow people to see that, it's even more impactful because you've seen the work that goes into...

Creating the beauty.

this.

Exactly.

♪