“Sacred Becoming“ explores Black femme visibility in Black dance forms and the radical power of vulnerability.
Watch the debut peformance at the 2026 LLD’s 1st NEW WORKS Festival below.
“Sacred Becoming”, 2026, LLD’s 1st New Works Festival
Video by: Joel Wanek
Our story
Onyx is an all-Black, femme dance collective rooted in traditions such as Hip Hop, Afrofusion, and House, led by choreographer Amber Julian. Onyx honors healing, ancestry, and Black visibility, blending tender and powerful expressions to embody the radical act of being fully seen.
Image by: David Gaylord
Image by: David Gaylord
“Healing was an assertion of strength and courage in Onyx Dance Company’s Sacred Becoming, an excerpted trio for the company’s all-Black, femme dancers, whose practice is rooted in ritual and somatic inquiry, and expressed in Hip Hop, Afrofusion, and House dance forms. The choreography began on chairs. There were expressions of pain and exasperation but never shuddering, shying, or cowering. The movement, with strength in body and expressive facials towards the audience, exuded dignity and clarity of purpose and place. ”
“It proceeded through a lush solo, progressed into engrossing salsa rhythms, and grounded in sweeping arm gestures and stamping of feet that felt connected to Afro-Haitian dance traditions. The piece ended with reverence and expressions of Black pride and empowerment before a carefully laid altar, gestures that effectively connected the trio of dancers to lineages that extended far beyond the confines of the theater. The final line intoned, “Black girl, know that you are everything…”