The Raven Project
The Raven Project (working title) is an evening-length work of dance-driven theater conceived of and written by Joi Danielle Price, choreographed by Tiffany Rea-Fisher, with original music composed by Jordyn Davis.
The Raven Project (working title) is a sponsored project of Fractured Altas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of The Raven Project must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Photography above by Gabrielle Mariella of Little Otter Productions
The Story
At the start we meet Dancer, struggling to maintain her career in the classical dance world. She is encouraged by her discovery of a magazine article about Raven Wilkinson, who danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo in the late 50’s. An older Raven appears to guide her and share her stories of struggle and victory as a dancer. She introduces us to a child, herself at age four, who dances a solo that captures the natural affinity for movement that led her to a life in dance. We accompany her to ballet company performance. Raven is drawn in, and a Russian émigré takes Raven as her student.
The civil rights movement and Raven’s career are ignited in the same span of time. The murder of Emmett Till and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts serve as the backdrop for Raven’s entry into professional ballet, until the two collide and Raven must wrestle with the prejudice and racial violence that finally disrupts her career and threatens her safety in ballet and touring the American South.
Raven leaves dance to discover herself in some of the most unexpected places, until she is finally called home and rises to the role of mentor to African-American ballerinas and artists, whose trajectories reinforce her belief that the struggle is worth the progress.
Creative Team
Joi Danielle Price
Creator/Librettist
Joi Danielle Price is a multifaceted theater artist, most recently scene as the lead actor in Mile Square Theatre’s production of Tiny Beautiful Things. . A native of Flint, Michigan, Price studied journalism alongside musical theater at the University of Michigan, blending her passion for storytelling with performance. Her theatrical credits include roles in Broadway productions and national tours of Mamma Mia! and Ragtime: The Musical, and the New York Innovative Theatre Award winning production of Raisin . Beyond acting, she is a dedicated playwright and librettist, active with the Untitled Writers Group, a development space for marginalized voices in musical theater. In addition to her writing and performance work, Price appeared on the Disney+ series, Encore!, which reunited her with the cast of her high school musical. She participated as a playwright for Mile Square Theatre’s 7th Inning Stretch, by writing a short play celebrating Black women in professional baseball. Price’s career demonstrates her dedication to amplifying underrepresented voices and fostering artistic collaboration in the theater community. Joi supports the next generation of theatre artists by teaching acting for musical theatre at Molloy University’s CAP21 B.F.A. program In New York City.
Tiffany Rea-Fisher
Tiffany Rea-Fisher – EMERGE125’s Artistic Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher is a NDP Award winner, a 2022 Creatives Rebuild New York Grantee, a 7-time consecutive AUDELCO Award nominee, a 2021 Toulmin Creator, a 2022 Toulmin Fellow, a National Dance Project Awardee, a John Brown Spirit Award recipient, a Mellon Grant awardee through her company, and was personally awarded a citation from the City of New York for her cultural contributions. As resident choreographer with the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH), she has collaborated on their productions of Macbeth, The Three Musketeers, A Christmas Carol in Harlem, Antigone, The Bacchae, Seize the King and the company’s 2024 work MEMNON, recently staged at The Getty Villa in Los Angeles. Following her 2022 contributions to CTH’s Twelfth Night, for which The New York Times suggested she should have been nominated for a Tony Award, Rea-Fisher’s choreography was prominent in The Public Theater’s 2023 Delacorte production of The Tempest as part of their Public Works program. Her choreography has been produced in NYC at the Joyce, the Apollo, Joe’s Pub, Aaron Davis Hall, New York Live Arts and was recently featured with The New York Times Critics Pick theater production Gun & Powder. Rea-Fisher has been commissioned by Dance Theater of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theater, NYC Department of Transportation, Utah Repertory Theater, The National Gallery of Art in D.C., and has seen her work performed before the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg. She curates the Bryant Park Picnic Performances Summer Dance Series, providing free access to art for thousands of audience members while exposing upcoming and established artists to a wider audience, and also acts as the Executive Director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative. Rea-Fisher was the first dance curator for the New York interdisciplinary arts organization The Tank, where she now sits on their Board of Trustees. She subscribes to the servant leadership model and uses disruption through inclusion as a way to influence her company’s culture.
Jordyn Davis
Jordyn Davis is a ground-breaking, multi-talented, and award-winning bassist, composer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She is the first African-American woman to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition from Michigan State University and the first Michigan State student to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition and Jazz Studies concurrently. Davis has also completed a Masters’s Degree in Jazz Studies at Michigan State University and worked as a graduate teaching assistant. She recently relocated to Brooklyn, NY and was named one of two inaugural Jazz Leader Fellowship recipients by the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Davis has worked on the Tony-Winning Broadway Musical New York, New York: A new musical and collaborated with Craig Harris & the contemporary dance company Urban Bush Women. Her work spans various musical styles and has been featured on the PBS Limited Series Music for Social Justice. Davis’s music, spanning Jazz, Folk, Indie Rock, and Contemporary Classical, has been commissioned by institutions like the Kennedy Center and the New York Philharmonic. Leading the genre-bending ensemble “Composetheway,” Davis is also a dedicated educator, inspiring young musicians through organizations like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Her work continues to shape the future of contemporary music.