From the classroom to the boardroom, and even within the world of arts, bringing our whole selves to the table with no code-switching, is not a common privilege for black people. The daily pressure and psychological Olympics required to thrive in spaces where we’re merely tolerated, can take a toll. Increasingly though, more and more entrepreneurs and artists are creating and pursuing roles that don’t require us to withhold or compromise ourselves. Denise Richburg is among this class. As artistic director of BrownBody, the professional figure skater and dancer has created a space in Minnesota, where black skaters can feel at home.

"Everybody should have the opportunity to get on the ice if they want,” she said in an interview with MPR News. “It's something that I truly hope that for anyone who truly wants to experience it, they get that opportunity." Through BrownBody, the professionally trained dancer combines figure skating with modern dance and theater to explore African-American culture and history on the ice and on the stage.

Richburg, who discovered her passion for skating at an early age, took lessons and competed through several Twin Cities skating clubs as a young girl. Still, she was always very aware of her race. “When I was younger there were many instances where I felt I had to check my blackness at the door before I went into the ice arena," she said. "I'm done doing that." While she is doing her part to lower cultural barriers within the sport, she recognizes that the high expense associated with ice skating is also a significant deterrent for many children.

Photo: MPR News/Evan Frost

This weekend the company will be performing work that deals with Reconstruction and Jim Crow as well as dance pieces by the New York-based Urban Bush Women, translated for ice skates. "This is a whole new way of skating, a whole new way of expressing yourself, a whole new way of telling stories and actually getting to tell your story," said Steven Smith, BrownBody member and twenty-year professional. "There's no mold. And that's so freeing, it's liberating and it's something I've never experienced before."

BrownBody's latest production, "CoMotion," runs Thursday, June 1 through Sunday, June 4 at the Charles M. Schulz Highland Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota.

BrownBody

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