(gentle music) - Talking about the role that dance and performance has in my life makes me emotional.

Growing up, I was a highly sensitive child, and for many years I did not know how to use that in a positive way.

(gentle music) When I discovered dance I found a space where I wasn't too hyper, I wasn't too emotional, I wasn't too much.

(gentle music) Dance was a container that was big enough to hold all of me.

Hi, I'm Aquila Kikora Franklin and I'm your neighbor.

(gentle music) Growing up in Atlanta, I studied with my mother who's a dancer and choreographer.

Performing was my first love.

I began performing at four years old and then when I was in high school, got a chance to perform with my mom in a national college tour called Fusion from Africa to hip hop.

So that took me different places nationally.

And then I've had the opportunity to travel abroad and to perform and to teach and learn dances in South Africa and China and across Europe.

I also danced with the Atlanta Hawks dance team.

And so I've had a wealth of diverse performing opportunities.

I also have a diverse educational background.

I went to undergrad at Howard University and then went to law school at Georgia State where I got a JD and a Master's in public Administration.

And then I came here to Penn State where I used all of that background to teach dance.

I come from a very education based family, so law school was the expected thing to do.

I enjoyed being a good student and law school did feed that academic and intellectual side of me.

But then there's that heart passion side which was the dance.

(upbeat drum beat) So I needed to find a way to fuse that.

And up, drop, go just the torso, no arms.

Having this opportunity to teach and use dance as research and all of the things that I'm able to do with this position has been the perfect melding of who I am.

Turn to the right, right now.

(upbeat drum beat) Through my teaching, I talk about how the relationship between professor and student is reciprocal and it's a beautiful experience to exchange energy with them.

(upbeat drum beat) It's not about me coming with this almighty knowledge and just pouring into you and you receiving it.

It's about us having a relationship and learning from each other so that we can go out and make the world a better place through our artistic expression.

(upbeat drum beat) And breathe, arms come down, shake it out.

Okay, let's spread out.

I have been in State College for the past 20 years.

When I first came here I was looking for opportunities to really replicate the experience that I had going to my mother's dance studio, but I didn't find them.

And after doing that for a while it's like what am I doing to contribute to something that I felt was needed?

(gentle music) A few years after I was here, I connected with a learning enrichment teacher, Deborah Daggs, and she invited me to Mount Nittany Middle School to do an African dance workshop.

And those workshops over the course of years continued to grow and build, and that turned into us inviting students to be a part of Roots of Life.

(upbeat music) Roots of Life is an arts education program that is housed in the State College Area School district.

We use the arts and literature and history to build original productions together.

It's open to students who are in grades four through 12.

We have students of all abilities, all backgrounds, and all identities, and we invite them to bring whoever they are and connect through the art.

- Please enjoy us as we use these elements to reflect on yesterday, experience today, and transform tomorrow.

Harambe!

(upbeat music) - I observed dance being the base of it but then it becoming so much more.

It became about community building.

It became about normalizing diversity.

If you were to come to one of our Saturday rehearsals it would not look like we are in a predominantly white school district.

You would see students from different ages and backgrounds and cultures and abilities coming together.

(applause) If you want to challenge yourself and do a little more.

These young minds are the future of our world.

And one of the first lessons I teach is you have power to make a difference.

There might be things in your life that you might not like, but you are worthy and there's something that you can give back.

(gentle music) One of the accomplishments that I'm really most proud of is this past spring I was able to make full professor here at the School of Theater at Penn State, and that's a historic moment for the School of Theater.

The school is over a hundred years old and I am the first black woman to ever make full professor in the history of the school of theater.

You're also listening so we can learn how to listen from the drums.

And so that's a wonderful thing but also there's more work to do so that we can continue to diversify our faculty, our staff, and our students so it reflects the broader world that we're a part of.

I believe that dance has the power to connect people and I hope that the work that I do here, the impact that I make at Penn State, and in the community does a little bit at making the world a better place.

(gentle music)