LELA AISHA JONES | FLYGROUND
  • Home
    • Revivals of Blackness | 2021 | FILM & VIRTUAL CEREMONY
    • Modupúe | Ibaye: The Philadelphia Yoruba Performance Project | 2017-2019 | Curation
    • ...the bottom up...Catching Souls as a part of Grounds that Shout curated by Reggie Wilson | 2019 | STAGE & EXHIBITION
    • Plight Release and the Diasporic Body : Jesus & Egun | 2016
    • Plight Release and the Diasporic Body: Everyday Saturday | 2017
    • Native Portals: Lynching & Love | 2012
    • Native Portals: Release, Mourning Clearing | 2016
    • Native Portals: Continuum of Action (The Witness) | 2015
    • Original Spaces | 2017
    • Dancing for Justice Philadelphia | 2014-2015
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Gibney Dance | Cynthia Oliver
Lela I do not know personally, but have seen her work via panels on which I have been a part and have found her work to be deeply intriguing—the way she investigates and plays with notions of installation, performance art, and choreography.
The Philadelphia Sun | Norma Porter
The late, great Nina Simone once said that an artist’s duty is to reflect the times, and Lela Aisha Jones and her company FlyGround reflected the brutal history of African Americans and the residual manifestation of years of racism. [...]
The  piece lacked  a sense of the  subtle, watered-down  intent that oftentimes accompanies  racial discourse, whether artistic or  conversational.


Gibney Dance | Infinite Body | Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Everything  in Plight Release  is made or selected  by Jones and her team  with utmost care...set and  props (which we encounter and  interact with first), lighting and  shadows, costuming, music and, finally,  dancing of ritualistic rigor and beauty. There's  nothing done by rote or imitation. Jones finds her  own ways to employ symbols, gestures, dance steps. The  effect is to be welcomed into a gracious home and sacred space,  treated with respect and, at every moment, feel yourself to be in  the presence of someone with clarity about what she's doing and why she's  doing it. You simply relax.
The Dance Journal | Chrysta Brown
While  Philadelphia  has been good for Jones,  it cannot be denied that  our local community has benefited from  her work and presence here.
Her dance  contributions  include several  youth performing arts  residencies and workshops, as  well FlyGround, her own choreographic  project, and The Requisite Movers, which she  co-founded with Deneane Richburg.
Thinking Dance | Lisa Kraus
There’s no guess work here; all is explicit. Jones’ style is to play image after image, some short, for an amalgam of impressions of continuing injustice.
It’s like a newsreel. The one thing we can infer, that we are not told directly, is that this is art as a call to action.
Such literalness, like photo-realist painting, tells you exactly what it’s addressing, not wading into the more nebulous realms of art. It’s on the opposite end of the spectrum of work that doesn’t offer handholds.
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  • Home
    • Revivals of Blackness | 2021 | FILM & VIRTUAL CEREMONY
    • Modupúe | Ibaye: The Philadelphia Yoruba Performance Project | 2017-2019 | Curation
    • ...the bottom up...Catching Souls as a part of Grounds that Shout curated by Reggie Wilson | 2019 | STAGE & EXHIBITION
    • Plight Release and the Diasporic Body : Jesus & Egun | 2016
    • Plight Release and the Diasporic Body: Everyday Saturday | 2017
    • Native Portals: Lynching & Love | 2012
    • Native Portals: Release, Mourning Clearing | 2016
    • Native Portals: Continuum of Action (The Witness) | 2015
    • Original Spaces | 2017
    • Dancing for Justice Philadelphia | 2014-2015
  • About
    • Founder
    • FlyGround Folks
  • Events
  • Press
    • Presenter
  • Contact