10/11/2024
✨💃🏾 A Tribute to Judith Jamison: The Dance that Moved My Soul 🕊️✨
Judith Jamison. 💫 A name synonymous with grace, power, and artistry.
She was more than an icon to me; she embodied dance itself. 🩰 From the moment I started dancing at 3, I felt an inexplicable connection to her—a kinship that defied time. I truly believed I was her in a past life, her spirit flowing through my movements.
🎶 Dance was my lifeblood. It was the force that brought me together with four other incredible girls – Kara Holloway, Lisa Nicole , Kitty Hooper , and ET Williams – forming an unbreakable bond we called "The Buddy Club." 💖 We lived and breathed dance, and it's a testament to its power that our friendship remains strong today.
🌍 And it was Kara who messaged me from Chicago at 2 AM this morning (after her trip to Egypt!) with news of Judith's transition to the ancestors. 😥 The news shook me, but it also underscored our profound connection in the Buddy Club. Even across states and years, that bond remains. We know each other's hearts. We find ways to support each other through life's ups and downs. Kara, knowing my lifelong dream of visiting Egypt 🇪🇬 and my deep admiration for Judith, even sent me a picture of the Nile. She encouraged me to make that journey sooner rather than later. It was a touching reminder of our enduring friendship and a testament to how Judith's spirit continues to connect us.
🌟 Judith's influence on me was immense. Her ability to express raw emotion through movement, her strength, and her iconic presence captivated me. I remember being mesmerized by her signature pose – the split against the wall, which I would do religiously, a testament to her incredible flexibility and artistry, as well as my gift to mimic her. (She didn't need a wall! I'm still trying to remember the name for that position! 🤔)
🩰 Like Judith, I explored various dance forms – tap 👞, ballet, jazz 💃🏾. I even had a chance to be the first Black child dancer in the Nutcracker with the Chicago ballet! My ballet teacher at the time, a premier Russian ballerina in Hyde Park, asked me to join. But the pressure and a less-than-supportive relationship with this particular teach