Tariq's profile
Tariq Darrell O'Meally is an artist, producer, curator and community organizer searching for the power within introspection and vulnerability in the African American body.He has pursued the re-imagining of kinesthetic narratives as a means to resist and disrupt canonized stories that have perpetuated the dehumanization of marginalized groups, specifically black people. He seeks to synthesize those stories that will resonate in a way that is socially relevant, empathetic, and impactful.
In his position as a Guest Curator at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Tariq Darrell O'Meally serves as a steward of the Visiting Artist Series artistic vision and helps shape the strategic program in collaboration with curatorial colleagues, staff, faculty, and students.
As a Guest Curator, he is the creator and producer of the BlackLight Summit. Blacklight is a convening that re-envisions dance performance as a conduit to galvanize the social imaginations, resilience, and inventiveness of citizens, thinkers, activists and artists. The summit asks, through the practice of being socially responsible within the arts: How do we create traditions? How do we transform them into enduring legacies?
In addition to his duties as a curator for The Clarice, Tariq is a working artist in the DMV. Currently, his work focuses on being a contemporary dance artist striving to transition into a post-contemporary context. That is to say that if contemporary work interacts with the fierce urgency of now; then post-contemporary exploration integrates what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen, intersecting these concepts with the vulnerability and necessity of being human.
As a choreographer, O'Meally has presented his work at the John F. Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, By The People Festival, The Clarice Smith 34th & 35th Annual Choreographer's Showcase, Mid-Atlantic North Gala at the American College Dance Association and Richmond Dance Festival. He is the Artistic Director of Tariq Darrell+the UNUM Dance Collective, a DMV based collection of dance artists seeking to create doorways and windows leading to the seen and unseen; lived and living experiences of African Americans.
As an educator, O'Meally teaches at Hollins University, the CityDance School & Conservatory Dance Institute of Washington in addition to presenting as a guest lecturer at Coppin State University, Morgan State University, the National Gallery of Art, The Hirshhorn Museum, and the French Embassy. O'Meally is the Founder/Director of the Dimensions Contemporary Dance Festival, which is a platform to promote, amplify, and spread the various eclectic voices of DMV contemporary dance artists of color.
O’Meally has been chosen as 2020-2022 Artist-In-Residence at Dance Place and 2020 Site See Artists-in-Residence. In 2019, O’Meally was an Art Omi Resident Artist, as well as a 2018-2019 Halcyon Arts Lab Fellow. He also was a 2018-19 Joe’s Movement Emporium NextLOOK Artist and Dance Place’s 2017-18 New Releases Commissioned Artist. He currently holds a BFA in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University.
In his position as a Guest Curator at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Tariq Darrell O'Meally serves as a steward of the Visiting Artist Series artistic vision and helps shape the strategic program in collaboration with curatorial colleagues, staff, faculty, and students.
As a Guest Curator, he is the creator and producer of the BlackLight Summit. Blacklight is a convening that re-envisions dance performance as a conduit to galvanize the social imaginations, resilience, and inventiveness of citizens, thinkers, activists and artists. The summit asks, through the practice of being socially responsible within the arts: How do we create traditions? How do we transform them into enduring legacies?
In addition to his duties as a curator for The Clarice, Tariq is a working artist in the DMV. Currently, his work focuses on being a contemporary dance artist striving to transition into a post-contemporary context. That is to say that if contemporary work interacts with the fierce urgency of now; then post-contemporary exploration integrates what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen, intersecting these concepts with the vulnerability and necessity of being human.
As a choreographer, O'Meally has presented his work at the John F. Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, By The People Festival, The Clarice Smith 34th & 35th Annual Choreographer's Showcase, Mid-Atlantic North Gala at the American College Dance Association and Richmond Dance Festival. He is the Artistic Director of Tariq Darrell+the UNUM Dance Collective, a DMV based collection of dance artists seeking to create doorways and windows leading to the seen and unseen; lived and living experiences of African Americans.
As an educator, O'Meally teaches at Hollins University, the CityDance School & Conservatory Dance Institute of Washington in addition to presenting as a guest lecturer at Coppin State University, Morgan State University, the National Gallery of Art, The Hirshhorn Museum, and the French Embassy. O'Meally is the Founder/Director of the Dimensions Contemporary Dance Festival, which is a platform to promote, amplify, and spread the various eclectic voices of DMV contemporary dance artists of color.
O’Meally has been chosen as 2020-2022 Artist-In-Residence at Dance Place and 2020 Site See Artists-in-Residence. In 2019, O’Meally was an Art Omi Resident Artist, as well as a 2018-2019 Halcyon Arts Lab Fellow. He also was a 2018-19 Joe’s Movement Emporium NextLOOK Artist and Dance Place’s 2017-18 New Releases Commissioned Artist. He currently holds a BFA in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University.
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