Dancing Back into the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Area, 1973–1976

Abstract

Chapter 4 chronicles the author’s return to her home area after five years, now as a professional dancer-choreographer. She establishes her professional reputation in the Bay Area, one that will serve as the foundation of her future work as a regional dance catalyst and cultural activist. As an artist, she develops the artistic theme central to her developing career in The Evolution of Black Dance. She creates and produces several evening-length productions during this three-year period, begins to learn arts administration, and forms Halifu Productions, a company that helped catalyse the mid-70s black dance scene in the Bay Area. She also meets the poet Ntozake Shange and artistically collaborates with her and her poems on a project that will become the famous production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enough. Ntozake Shange gives her an African name, and the author becomes Halifu Osumare.