About the work:
Vincent E. Thomas contemplates acts of humanity in a deeply moving, multi-layered solo work. "iWitness" explores simple truths in human behaviors and implied truths in human documents from the Pledge of Allegiance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . "iWitness" studies and challenges the ideals we seek and attempt to follow. The solo includes "Render and Proceed" which investigates the convolution of media and its effect on the human condition and society; and "Come Change" shuffles stories of the past and present for a hopeful tomorrow.

Personal view:
I am deeply interested in creating art that reflects and poses questions about humanity, our values- personally and communally, and our desire to live in a better place/world, while realizing our role/what it may take to exist in that place. Many of these questions surfaced over the many years of making art and heavily informed, shaped, and focused my artistic and life view.
This work, which grew out of a much larger work, is the result of a persistent investigation of these questions. The initial seed of an idea was about questioning my reaction to an interaction with a homeless person. This interaction troubled me to my core. I began peeling back the onion layers and the excavation led me to questions about documents that govern us and how these are instilled from such an early age. If only I had these questions as a child instead of just learning to recite statements that had no deep or clear meaning and real application to my life. Through this journey of creating and performing this solo work (and the group work 'Witness'), I understand the world I live in and the role I have in creating a more human conscious space.

"iWitness" is based from the larger group work "Witness" which was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of 2008 Performing Arts for Everyone and the Millennium Stage.

Press review from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland 2014- BroadwayBaby): A thrilling double: your chance to see dancers from Scottish Ballet on the Fringe and an exclusive cut of a brilliant dance piece by Vincent E. Thomas/VTDance. Vincent E Thomas/VTDance contemplates acts of humanity in the deeply moving, multi-layered work, iWitness. This solo explores simple and implied truths in human behaviour, investigates the convolution of media on the human spirit and considers a hopeful tomorrow. Photo credit: Maria Falconer

Inspired by the James Baldwin essay "The Artist's Struggle", this new evening length work brings to physical life the words of selected poets. The central question focuses on 'what is the role of art in your life/your community?" This is a highly engaging evening of dance, poetry, music, song, audience dialogue, and haiku. I am really interested in involving the audience on multiple levels and for them not to be a passive viewer. The audience is warmly embraced throughout the evening and they willingly engage on deeper levels. At the end, they are asked to consider one concrete action they can take to ensure art in their lives and community. About the residency: The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center partnering with Joe's Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, Maryland to offer a new incubator series called NextLOOK for both locally-based and touring artists who want to develop new work with input from the community. Vincent E.Thomas/VTDance was one of the NextLOOK artists in the season’s inaugural series and we are thrilled to have been able to support the development of
Rhapsody: A Poetic Movement (January 2015 residency).

Program information
Rhapsody: A Poetic Movement Choreography & Direction: Vincent E. Thomas  Lighting Design: Leigh A. Mumford Collaboration: Maria Bauman and Michelle Antoinette Nelson Music: George Gershwin, Alec Trumble, Margret Bonds Vocals: Adia Evans Scenic Prop: Joe's Movement Emporium Text: Maya Angelou, Joyce Kilmer, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Michelle Antoinette Nelson  The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center partnered with Joe's Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, Maryland to offer a new incubator series called NextLOOK for both locally-based and touring artists who want to develop new work with input from the community. Vincent E.Thomas/VTDance was one of the NextLOOK artists in the season’s inaugural series and we were thrilled to have been able to support the development of Rhapsody: A Poetic Movement.

“Bow” (a working process solo) is part of Same Stories- Different Countries, a multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary project, providing an artistic venue for researchers, artists, and participants to illuminate South Africa and United States historical and contemporary racial issues. The project will premier at the University of Delaware in March 2016.
The solo consist of set choreography and part unknown. I gather personal stories and gestures from the audience and the gestural movement fills in the blank of the unknown physical section. The audience is able to see in real time the inclusion of their voice/stories/movement in the performance.

Personal view:
This solo "Bow" is part of a larger evening length work called "Same Stories-Different Countries". The premise of the work looks at hunting and gathering as a seed and jumping off place. During my research I ran across an article about the Botswana Bushmen seeking help to overturn new laws threatening their tribal culture in and near the Kalahari Desert. These laws would move them from their ancestral land because of their survival practices (hunting and gathering). The Bushmen said: "If you deny us the right to hunt, you are killing us." I was so moved by this impact on a community- a culture. I began to reflect on my past experiences and within the performance process pose questions to the audiences about when in their personal culture and community do they hunt and gather.  The solo begins, as research continues- considering definitions, asking questions, 'hunting and gathering' personal stories from the audience, and then folding these findings into the performance. Though seventy-five percent of the solo is defined and choreographed, the other twenty-five percent is gathered from the audience and incorporated on the spot. Each performance is different based on what is gathered. I have found this to be a rich experience for the audience and it gives them insight on the choreographic and research process by including their stories and taking them on the journey.
Project background:
“Same Story” – Different Countries
A multidisciplinary, global engagement production with original music, artwork, poetry and choreography, will reveal similarities and differences between South African Culture and United States Culture. The long-range plan for this and previous projects involves the development of interconnected multidisciplinary performances that includes literature and the arts. We engage audiences who attend and view the production and promote the development of knowledge and skills in students who are involved in the creation of the production and in the follow-up educational activities. As a truly multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary research project, it engages archival historical and literary research, creative writing by scholars and poets, original music created in collaboration with other team members and the creation of performance pieces that incorporate visual artists and the production of media work that circulates in digital and academic spaces. An important goal of this project is to enable researchers, artists, and participants to transform and synthesize knowledge in ways that illuminate the consequences of historical, social and cultural practices of racial discrimination through an artistic lens.

Vincent E. Thomas presents a most stunning work - "Shadows", exploring essences of masculinity/manhood through shadows of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The work includes a cast of 19 men of various ages in a fusion of dance, theater, music, video/animation, comedy, and dialogue, exposing multiple expressions of truths, myths, and mysteries of masculinity. 

Process view:
The development of this evening-length work was the springboard to my masculinity workshops for 'Fathers, Sons, and Other Guys'. Research for the work was through a process I developed called Table Talks, where participants discuss a "hot topic" through verbal dialogue, then is led through a process of physical dialogue. Participants discuss, listen, and speak their personal truths. The rich content is then filtered and shaped into the performance work.

"Fathers, Sons, and Other Guys" workshop:
 This workshop excavates the term masculinity, in an effort to define, re-define, shatter, and rebuild what this word means to ourselves and in our community. This work is crucial as men constantly find themselves under the radar and challenged in society. Through this effort we understand ourselves more deeply. 

Personal view:
With this concert (and most of my work as a teacher), I am interested in showcasing and embracing the range of male-ness in our society, through movement, spoken word, music, and visual art. It was a powerful evening- men of all ages, backgrounds/cultures, physical levels, and expressions, coming together in a common effort. The development process was over two years, holding workshops/Table Talks, listening to stories of men from various cultures, finding similarities and differences of experience and perspective on masculinity and manhood.
"Shadows" has led to my new performance series "In the Company of Men...", and has expanded my teaching research lens, focusing more on men dancing.

*Note: The full performance of 'Shadows" can be seen in the online video archives for the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (Washington, DC). To view, please search on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage site for Vincent E. Thomas/VTDance, June 12th, 2013. I am unable to include the performance link here.

"Occupy" is a socio-political, daring and provocative work . This evening length work considers notions of how we inhabit or occupy space, what occupies our minds, what occupies our souls, and how these notions move us (a community/society) to make change…to move towards a revolution. This work was an extension of my initial questions for "Witness" and "iWitness".
*This work was supported by the American Dance Institute (ADI) in 2013. I was an Incubator Artist for the first season of the award program.

Personal view:
Daily I ask questions about being in the world, what informs this existence, and how to exist with others in a shared space. Internally I know that the work really starts within. This is a theme of my work, what is it that informs our humanity and what are our actions to live in a more human society.

Collaborator process:
During the research of these questions I had extensive conversations with Cathy L. Draine, a dear friend, poet, and scholar. After many late night discussions with her, she birthed this amazing spoken word piece which was the centerpiece for the work- Occupy:

Take off your shoes You occupy holy ground. Sanctified by infinite heart beats of  Sojourners, Pioneers, Natives, Immigrants Who learned to make a  Way out of no way, who ground out life Liberty and happiness in cotton fields,  Sweat shops and steel mills. Fresh off boats by free will or forced exile They consecrated space  Made ghettos and shanty towns,  The place where Dreams are born and culture is made. Take off your mask You occupy humbled ground. Worn down by man-made desecration Stumps where justice stood tall, Scarred earth flesh still yielding fruit  With no distinction of the beggar and the baron. Equality bound and partially gagged  Yet still cries out to be recognized and received  By the mentally manipulated masses worshipping  Technologically enhanced high definition westernized impotent idols.
Take off your illusion You occupy sacred ground. We are the ones  We have been hiding from. Buried deep inside each soul A piece of the collective solution An elemental antidote to disillusionment Unbuckle the attachment to apathy Freedom still waits by the riverside Peace flows in the desert Truth still rides in the morning The dawn draws near The dawn draws near Take off your shoes The place you occupy The being that you are The world that is The universe that will be Is still holy ground.

Photographs, ring games, hymns, blankets, recipes, lessons, heirlooms, and fading memories... (Vincent E. Thomas)

This project captures reflections and memories of loved ones through spoken text, movement, music, video and projected images. The creation process for this work is informed through community engagement activities, table talks, interviews, and creative explorations with young and old. I am very interested in people and their stories and how to bring those to life in art. For Vincent E. Thomas/VTDance I want the work to be universal, tangible, and essential. This project is a bedrock for this mission.

Personal view:
Grandmothers are the matriarchs of families. This is proven true by the many interviews and conversations I have had with people all over the world. My grandma (Big Ma) had a profound impact on me and the lessons she instilled surface daily. I questioned why there was not much discussion in my family about Big Ma after her death. Was there something I didn't know about her death? Was I being sheltered or intentionally kept out of knowing things about her? In fact, after persistently asking various aunts and uncles, I realized that it was immense pain that kept them from talking a great deal about her. Over Thanksgiving dinner preparations, as my aunts and uncles were chopping veggies, frying, baking the meal, I began to open the box of questions again. As we were around the table (with many actions to prepare), the magic was unleashed. There was so much vibrant conversation about Big Ma. they were relaxed, open, and talked more freely about her. I thought, there is something about how families talk around the dinner table. So I thought of this idea Table Talk. I grabbed my notebook/journal and began jotting down wonderful stories about my grandmother. My great aunt Helen told my Aunt Pat: "If you don't talk about her, it's like she never lived." The Grandmother Project began...
Over the course of 3 years (and more), I gathered stories from people all over the world about grandmothers. From the US to South Africa, Scotland to France, all stories (good and bad) held grandmothers with the highest esteem and praise.

Project journey:
After the first performance of the project, the stories continued to come. When I moved to Baltimore, I added to the base of the work to create a "Grandmother Project Baltimore". Featured performers were: Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell (former principle dancer for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Steven Satta-Fleming (actor and colleague), dancers from the Morton Street Dance Center, Adia Evans (BSA vocalist), and Sharon Chaiklin (Dance Therapist and elder dancer).

Press quote:
"Thomas mined the deeply felt connections of grandmothers and their grandchildren." (Washington Post)

For the work "Witness", the award-winning choreographer contemplates acts of humanity in this deeply moving, multi-layered work, exploring simple truths in human behaviors and implied truths in human documents from the Pledge of Allegiance, Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Ten Commandments. "Witness" considers the ideals we seek and the philosophers and humanitarians we attempt to follow.

Witness was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of 2008 Performing Arts for Everyone and the Millennium Stage.

"One in Five"

In 2006, I celebrated five years of Vincent E. Thomas/VTDance. ​One in Five" celebrates the art of collaboration. Featured collaborators include: ...Christal Brown (NY), clyde forth (NY), and Diana Tokaji (DC/MD). 

Persosnal view:
I love collaboration. I find it to be liberating and a great teacher. When collaborating, both artists (or more) come to the table with known items but look for and explore the unknown. Over the past 14 years of creating art, this is a deep mission for me. When I look at the many works I have created or collaborated on, each one is different but themematically similar. This keeps me from getting bored. I constantly try to find the new way to work and process. I am grateful for the artists I explored and played in the studio.

Awards during the 5 year celebration:
Two 2006 MetroDC Dance Awards, (Emerging Choreographer and Outstanding New Work- Grandmother Project)

Press quote:
"...a bold mover, with movement that recalled modern master Doris Humphrey, and an ability to create old fashioned modern dance technique in a clear and updated version" (Washington Post). "

Magic happens when music, dance and spoken word wraps and engulfs a space. An Evening of Artistic excellence is an annual concert series of Baker Artist Award winners. The first performance venue was the Enoch Pratt Free Library and for the past three years it has been held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Featuring Carl Grubbs (saxophone), Vincent E. Thomas (dance/choreographer), Adam Hopkins (bass), and Rob Levit (guitar), and Eric Allen (drums) from 2009 to the current artists awarded the Baker Award and B Grant winners. The evenings are filled with toe-tapping, thigh slapping, head bopping, engaging and intriguing improvisation of music, spoken word, and dance.

Performance samples:
In 2009 we premiered "Carl's Blues" performed by Carl Grubbs and Vincent E. Thomas, a magical crowd favorite. An updated "Carl's Blues" was performed again in March 2010 at Theatre Project Baltimore. Also is a collaboration between Adam Hopkins and Vincent E. Thomas on "Prelude/Frustration" and "By and By" with Carl Grubbs (sax), Adam Hopkins (bass), Rob Levit (guitar), and Eric Allen (drums). 
In subsequent years, I have collaborated with Love the Poet, Shodekeh, and other artists.