A.J. Collabs: Color Me (Curly) – Detangled Stories

Color Me (Curly): Detangled Stories is a multidisciplinary performance that explores the complex cultural, emotional, and political landscape of Black hair. Rooted in storytelling, this original work amplifies various narratives through a fusion of movement, voice, and sound—creating an intimate and powerful reflection on Black identity.

Detangled Stories centers the lived experiences that surround hair care, styling, and self-expression. From joyful childhood memories of beads and braids to the resilience behind protective styles, this work honors the richness of Black hair culture while challenging the systems that have historically tried to suppress it.

Throughout the performance, audiences will journey through themes of self-love, communal acceptance, and personal transformation. The work also confronts deeper issues such as texturism, elitism, and discrimination within and outside of the Black community—raising questions about beauty standards, professionalism, and belonging.
This new work invites audiences to witness Black hair not just as style or trend, but as a profound and ongoing act of survival, joy, and self-definition.

Tales of Black hair, history, and healing.

This project is a continuation of Johnson’s trilogy of works called, “Color Me (__)”.

Runtime: 1 hour

Ages: All Ages

Anastasia Johnson (she/her) is a dance artist, performer, educator, curator, and choreographer born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. After receiving her B.A in Dance along with a PreK-12 Virginia Teaching Licensure in Dance Arts from James Madison University in 2017, Johnson relocated to Maryland to further her artistry in the DMV area. Currently, she holds the title as Education Director at Dance Place in Washington, DC. Since relocating, Johnson has performed with companies and artists such as, dani tirrell and The Congregation, VT Dance Company, Rae Luebbert, Juanita Maria Dance Company, Contra-Tiempo, Coyaba Dance Company, Liz Miller, Jamison Curcio& Shanice Mason, ReVision Dance Company, Soka Tribe, and New Growth Collective. Johnson has been developing her own movement based company called A.J. Collabs (AJC). AJC uses the vehicle of education, community engagement, collaboration, performance, and choreography to shed light on the black experience, including but not limited to: black love, black girl magic, black church, black artistry, black joy, and black oppression. A.J. Collabs has had the opportunity to perform at the 2019 Small Plates Festival, Works In Progress Showing, Ascending Choreographer’s Festival, National Choreography Month DC, Black Choreographer Festival, Layers V.3, Dance in the DMV Festival, Richmond Dance Festival, Dance Place’s Co-Presentation Series, and Coalescence: A Visual and Performing Arts Showing. Along with Molly-Kate Bachalter, and Kaitlin Pennigton, Johnson is also the co-founder of Coalescence, an artist development company that facilitates a space professional and creative growth across all disciplines of art by encouraging limitless exploration of personal artistic expression and an ever expanding connection of collaborative artists. Coalescence highlights artists through our presentation series, Coalescence: A Visual and Performing Arts Showing, and enrichment program, PREP Arts. Johnson has had the pleasure of being an alumni of the 202Creates Residency Program, a former Emerging Artist for the BlackLight Summit Emerging Artist Laboratory, has been featured in a DanceTeacher Magazine and Washington City Paper article, and holds a certificate in Women’s Entrepreneurship from Cornell University.