The passing of Matt Jones' sister Liz Cherry (1955 - 2017) left a hole we have all experienced when a loved one leaves too early.

Matt set out to create a living, enduring memorial to his sister, something to carry forward in ways obvious -- the receipt of an award -- and subtle -- the enduring experience of the performance of that work for audiences who would likely know little of the origin story of the work.

"I came upon this idea to do something with dance and music, which I've been involved in for many, many years," Matt notes. That was in late 2020, at the height of the pandemic. It would be spring of '21 before the organization he selected for the memorial commission, Company | E, could return to the studio and begin to realize his vision.

The inaugural award went to Rayven Leak.

“LCJMC allows these emerging artists that professional, real world experience that some artists don’t get till 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years after graduation. The value of this commission is priceless.”
--- Royce Zackary, Co-Coodinator of Dance Arts at Howard University

Rayven, a Dallas native, had graduated HU in the strange and unsettling 2020 "remote graduation" year. For her, the chance to come back to DC and complete her time, and do so as the inaugural recipient of the LCJMC, was exceptionally powerful. "This was an incredible, eye-opening and challenging opportunity and I just hope that the artists and choreographers who come after me can feel the energy I left here. I had so much fun."

One of her biggest cheerleaders was Dr. Ofosuwa Abiola, the Interim Chair of Dance and Theater Arts at Howard in 2021. She thought immediately of Rayven when Matt and Company | E introduced the idea of the LCJMC partnership. "This is a wonderful way to see someone with so much talent, and we really need to be able to harness this."

The partnership, and spirit, Dr. Abiola fostered between Company | E and Howard University is the foundation stone of the entire experience. "Without that level of trust, commitment and engagement from Howard University, none of what happens with LCJMC would be possible," notes Company | E Co-Artistic Director Kathryn Sydell Pilkington.

Royce Zackary, who is both a remarkable mentor to these young artists and a long standing friend of Company | E, has been at the forefront of keeping the LCJMC centered on Howard University and, critically, on artists from the District of Columbia. "This is a phenomenal, phenomenal opportunity," he notes.

"Company | E is a DC organization," notes Matt. "Our home is in DC, our core is in DC. So to have this commission center on artists in the District is both natural and essential. We're incredibly lucky to have Howard, which is just a metro stop away from where we rehearse, as our partner."

Rayven's premiere also launched an enduring musical collaboration.

One of the main unifying voices of the LCJMC has been its composer, Clifton Brockington. Cliff, as we all call him, has created the scores for all four LCJMC's to date. He's been a part of the Company | E family dating back to 2007, when he composed the score for the Company's first family show, "Jungle Books."

For him, the LCJMC has been both a challenge and a delight.

"To work with dance," he notes, "is amazing. It's amazing to see these mediums come together, at this high level."

Reflecting on the 2024 commission with Simone Thompson he said "you come to them and say, do you have any ideas, and then...boom...they hand you a manifesto!"

"Cliff's music has been, pun intended, instrumental in the success of the entire LCJMC initiative," notes Matt. "As a musician myself, I wanted to give the power, and give the challenge, of working with a composer to these young choreographers, none of whom had had that chance before."

For 2022 recipient Tori Carter, Cliff was a partner as much as a composer.

"This piece started with music," she said, "and just seeing what I could create from the music I was hearing, what it was dictating, what it was telling me to do. Clifton has been so receptive to my ideas and my thoughts about the piece, and letting that inform the direction I was going in. He has created some really beautiful work. I think it is just so amazing to be able to dance to music that was composed just for this piece.”

Of Carter herself, Cliff said “we had this conversation. And that conversation just blew me away because her mind was just so focused - focused on lots of different ways to express what is actually happening in the dance, and also its purpose, to say that it’s about the forces, the forces of our lives.”

For Tori, as with all the other LCJMC recipients, the creative freedom which came with the Commission was unique. A core to the Commission, which comes from Company | E's creative philosophy, is that it allows the choreographer full creative freedom to express themselves.

“This piece is genuinely my first opportunity to choreograph on a group of people and have complete freedom over the choreography. I wasn’t given a prompt or a parameter. So to be given this opportunity – I just feel they had a level of faith in me, a level of belief in me, that I didn’t even have in myself," Tori said.

Ultimately, she drew her inspiration for the work that would become "Forces," from her Mother.

“ I started to think about my Mother and the strength that she possesses. The resilience, the wisdom that she has, just how multi-faceted she is and how she is able to do so many different things; to pour into mine and my sisters lives and help support my father. Leading the household. Pouring into our community, into our schools and how she is pulled in so many different directions but she’s able to balance it off.

"People are able to work in community," she continued. "With one another. Each individual life can impact another life. This piece is about paths crossing, working together, being community building, working towards a unified goal."

When Matt set out his goals for LCJMC, one of them was to enfold the recipients into the full Company | E ecosystem. That meant not just the opportunity to create on professionals. It also meant having LCJMC recipients engage in domestic and international touring and Company | E's work in Cultural Diplomacy. Carter saw her work take stage in Richmond, VA in 2022, before Covid allowed us back on the international road.

2023 recipient Jade Stewart took to that road with the Company. She created, danced and premiered in Tunisia.

Jade remembers when the conversation about going to Tunisia came up. “It was such a blessing to be offered that opportunity. It was very new to me.  This was my first time not only choreographing overseas, but also performing and dancing. I was in shock at first."

Creating became a two-part process. She started with the rep company members who would be heading to Tunisia. "It was beautiful. It was amazing. They caught on fast. They picked up my ideas quickly. They were so versatile."

Then came the entirely different process and experience of engaging with a Tunisian community.

"Transferring to the Tunisian dancers was a little bit more difficult just because there was a language barrier. But one thing I noticed was that dance is a universal language. They were able to get it, maybe not through me speaking to them, but through being able to show the movement, which was a beautiful thing to watch."

"I knew I had to step it up a level because I'm dancing with professional dancers now. It brought out a great side of me, a higher side, a more professional side."
--- Jade Stewart, 2023 LCJMC recipient

"Once we got there, and I understood that dance is a universal language for everyone in the space, and that's what everyone understood, the process went smoother and smoother and smoother. I think the piece was beautiful."

As with almost all Company | E tours, being able to think on the spot was critical. There was little tech time, the company performed in three different spaces in four days, including on a stage in front of the ancient Temple of Jupiter in Thuburbo Majus, the ancient Roman city in the Tunisian interior. For Jade, that too was a part of the magic of the creative journey. "I had to think on the spot, and incorporate the ideas of the Company | E dancers and the Tunisian dancers and just flow off of them."

"This was just the beginning of a professional life, and the gaining of those skills."

"Having a chance to bring Jade to Tunisia was a dream for us," noted Company | E's Kathryn. "The way she embraced the idea, the way she stepped into that challenge just fulfilled all our hopes for the partnership with Howard, with Matt and with the spirit of the LCJMC itself -- going beyond what you imagine possible and finding yourself in remarkable places that meet, or maybe even exceed, your dreams."

Then, in 2024, the Company saw in Simone Thompson's work a spiritual depth that made clear where it needed to happen. "Oh we immediately thought of the Washington National Cathedral when we saw and felt where Simone was going," said Kathryn. "Whether we could make it happen there was a question, but we had incredible support from the Cathedral, and particularly from our dear friend Michele Fowlin. To stand there in the nave as Cliff's music played, and to dance in that space, was an unbelievable experience, and an amazing way to honor Simone, Matt, Cliff and, most of all, Liz."

While each artist chosen for the LCJMC came to the Commission with their own thoughts and toolkits, a common thread that has made itself visible in these first four years has been in the need for, and the power of, community. Jade and Tori both sought to honor their Mothers in their work, and both drew inspiration from the challenges they have had and how those seminal figures in their lives have helped them understand how to meet challenge.

Simone reflected on how her physical challenges as a young person became the source not just of movement in her work, but in healing through that work. LCJMC became a chance to reveal things she has carried with her unspoken for years. Just the title, "Processing; A transitional healing ground" conveys her journey and her goals for the Commission.

That personal center reflects not just their journey, but reminds Matt of the strength as well of Cherry. "My sister," he notes, "would make an idea happen. If she came up with a notion she would tirelessly figure out how to make it a reality." That Matt's idea itself for how to commemorate, to celebrate, and to carry forward her name bears all the hallmarks of the very thing he praises his sister for is not lost on the leadership of Company | E.

"The LCJMC has become a seminal part of who we are as a Company," notes Kathryn. "This could easily have been a one-year idea, something that had power, but then fell away. Matt was not going to let that happen, and we were not going to let that happen. To see the outcomes of these extraordinary young women, and to experience the power of their ideas and, truly, their emotions, as an artist, and as a vessel for their inspirations, is why we do what we do here. It's not just a commission -- it's a mission."

The LCJMC celebrates its fifth anniversary in 2025. The newest addition to the family of recipients is set to be announced in late 2024 or early 2025.

Written, filmed and edited by Paul Gordon Emerson with Hannah Wojszynski