Daily Inspiration: Meet Christopher & Bashir Page-Sanders

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher & Bashir Page-Sanders. Them and their team share their story with us below:

NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre was founded in 2006 by Christopher Page-Sanders in St. Louis, Missouri. But in 2016, it was re-established in Denver, Colorado, under the artistic direction of Christopher and Bashir Muhammad Page-Sanders. The story of our re-emergence is a simple one. We had recently retired from the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble (as performing artists), and we knew that in the future, we would want to expand our voices as choreographers, educators, and directors. We knew that we had something to say, something to offer the world artistically, and we knew that there were universal stories to tell together. In 2016, our friend, Terrell Davis, the Artistic Director of Davis Contemporary Dance Company, was looking for another company to be the guest dance company for their upcoming concert. This company would present two ballets and share the stage with Davis Contemporary Dance Company at no cost. He called, and we answered. Thus, our journey to our re-birth began. We started by gathering some of our closest friends, with other artists that we’d admired throughout the years, and some of our dance students, bringing them all together in the studio to create works centered within a humanistic experience. As we were in the process of creating, it was not a thought that this collection of dancers would be permanent. It was thought of as an experiment. Within a matter of time, we would be leaving Denver to teach a dance residency at an elementary school in New York City. It was our hope and our plan to settle in New York and truly begin our artistic journey as choreographers and educators there. While in New York City, we were able to complete a residency with the students of East Harlem Scholars Academy, teach at the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center, assist in the dance division of Harlem School for the Arts, and again… found ourselves producing an evening of dance (on a whim). Long story short, we ended up coming back to Denver in the spring of 2017, with the fire to continue creating work in the same vein that we were doing in New York City. With this, we knew that our work was to create a multi-generational and ethnically diverse company of artists where everyone would be seen, valued, and heard. We wanted to create a place where audiences would see themselves on-stage reflected in the work. We knew that these artists would have the task of relaying very human and personal experiences and bringing them to life in their bodies, with their instruments. Using dance theatre and a variety of dance techniques, the work of NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre: uses stories of the African Diaspora, the black experience in America, alongside stories of life, of love, of grief, and ultimately universal stories of resilience and strength- challenging the artists and audiences to speak their truth, and hopefully to live their lives in their highest self. 

Over six years, we have been able to: produce six spectacular seasons of dance, receive our 501(c)(3) status during a pandemic, thrive and navigate a pandemic with grace, teach free community dance classes, offer three free virtual performances, tour to New York City, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Kansas City, collaborate with a host of other dance companies, singers, musicians, visual artists, and spoken words artists, and most importantly look to the future with open arms and gratitude for who NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre hopes to become, who we hope to reach and who we hope to inspire. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It most definitely has not been a smooth road. Is anything in life ever smooth? At the top of 2020, the company was right in the middle of solidifying our foundation, creating a strategic plan, developing our Board Of Directors, filing for, and ultimately receiving our 501(c)(3) status when the pandemic hit. We were scheduled to have our yearly concert and fundraiser the day that Colorado officially went into quarantine. If you can imagine it, we had all of these plans moving forward and were ready to press the start button, and then all of a sudden, all of that was placed on hold for an indefinite time. At the same time, because both Bashir and myself (Christopher) are full-time artists, we were trying to quickly navigate and pivot the losses in our artistic lives outside of NU-World, the swift changes to our personal lives and our marriage, as well as an ever-changing understanding of what the future would hold. There were moments where we did not know what the future would hold. At the same time, the cries for social justice echoed around the world. Protests and rallies for BLACK LIVES, social justice, and police reform, coupled with the unending parade of the loss of Black Lives sent both of us into a spiral of asking what can be done AND this is what we have been talking about since the beginning. How the world perceives people of color, specifically black men, with such bias and disdain- almost like we are not human at all. So, as we began this pivot, it felt necessary to find ways to create an artistic place for collective healing and a collective release from the trauma that we as people of color face from day to day. It also felt necessary to create a collective place for people to MOVE. Being stuck inside of our homes, how can we virtually allow folks to shift their emotional and mental space by allowing them to be connected to their bodies. Finding that connection again, to be in your body- was an important step. Our work has always been about challenging perceptions and allowing audiences to see us (black men, people of color, PEOPLE) as HUEMAN, and to celebrate our HUE-manity, the changes that came with 2020 were truly incredible, but I think another obstacle that comes with it, is what happens after 2020. What happens in 2021? There are days where it feels like we are back to how folks felt before. In 2020, there was this huge need to support black businesses. Support black businesses and black art was plastered everywhere. Folks did that at the time, but when all of the noise stopped and we found our way into a new normal, all of that financial support just seemed to be for that particular moment. All of that noise about loving black people seemed to only be for the moment. Producers, Financial Supporters, you must support black artists always! We need your support, just like our non-POC counterparts. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
NU-World Contemporary Danse Theatre creates work that speaks to the human experience. We are storyteller and we tell the stories of those that haven’t had a voice and we do it through dance theatre and in the music that we select. We are known to have a diverse group of dancers in age, race, and cultural backgrounds. These artist all have something to say through the set of dance and they say it loud and proud within the work that we create for them. We are most proud of the work that we do and what we have done thus far. It can very difficult to maintain a dance company and bring various artists together to create a unified and collaborative company and we believe that we have done that and we do that very well. We are proud that we have changed lives and are able to love people and the audiences that we come in contact with through the work that we create and through that the investment that the artist have for NU-World and the stories that need to be told. 

Contact Info:

• Email: info@nuworlddanse.org
• Website: www.nuworlddanse.org
• Instagram: @nuworldcdt
• Facebook: /NWCDT

Image Credits
Martha Wirth
Stan Obert