About the Performers
Idris Goodwin is an award winning scriptwriter, breakbeat poet, educator and executive director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. He was recently named a 2021 United States Artist Fellow. In addition to Can I Kick It?, he’s had several publications from Haymarket Books including Inauguration co written with nico wilkinson, Human Highlight: Ode To Dominique Wilkins, and the play This Is Modern Art. He’s appeared on Nickelodeon, HBO Def Poetry, Sesame Street, NPR, BBC Radio, and the Discovery Channel. His plays include And In This Corner Cassius Clay, How We Got On, Hype Man and Jacked!
Passionate about cultivating new audiences in the arts, Idris is The Executive Director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, the first Black man to hold the position in its 100 year history. Prior to this, Goodwin served two seasons as Producing Artistic Director at StageOne Family Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. He actively serves on both the advisory boards of Theatre for Young Audiences USA and Children's Theatre Foundation Association.
Idris is a 2021 United States Artist Fellow, recognized as a culture bearer who celebrates community values and cultivates histories with care. Supported by prestigious institutions like The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O'Neill Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, and The Playwrights’ Center, Goodwin uses his full creative powers to galvanize people into the community square to sculpt better tomorrows.
Justice Miles received her BA in Dance at Colorado College and her MFA in Dance at the University of New Mexico. Miles’ choreography includes: Floral Tea, a dance film created for the Art Gym Denver Create Award Residency (2021), Ink on Cotton, excerpts performed as an emerging choreographer at Meira Goldberg’s The Body Questions: Celebrating Flamenco’s Tangled Roots at the Fashion Institute in New York City (2018), and Aceite en Agua: Oil in Water, excerpt selected for the American College Dance Festival regional gala in Laramie, Wyoming (2016). Miles has also had the opportunity for additional summer study at Ballet Hispánico’s summer Choreolab program in New York City (2019) and the Festival Flamenco Albuquerque in New Mexico (2017, 2018).
After presenting her dissertation research on Carmen Amaya and Josephine Baker at the international bilingual conference Indígenas, Africanos, Roma y Europeos: Rítmos Transatlánticos en Música, Canto y Baile in Veracruz, Mexico, Miles' article "The Modern Synthesis of Josephine Baker and Carmen Amaya" edited by Raquel Paraíso, Meira Goldberg, Jessica Gottfried, and Antoni Piza, is being published by Música Oral de Sur. Miles recently presented this article virtually at the International Association of Blacks in Dance Virtual Front Row (moderated by Dr. Meira Goldberg) and the 8th Biennial New Perspectives in Flamenco History and Research Symposium.
