Rooted in New Orleans’ unique spiritual and cultural traditions, The New Orleans Original Buckshop workshop provides not just a window, but a doorway into practices that have sustained communities through joy, rhythm, and resilience.

An exploration of the unifying power of the Black Church and Black syncretic practices, the workshop aims to share the essence of Black New Orleans culture in a format that benefits every participant. These spiritual and communal elements have historically knitted together a potentially fragmented Black community, nourishing a collective identity and fostering resilience through shared rituals and beliefs.

Through her Second Line Aesthetic, Michelle N. Gibson’s workshop focuses on improvised movement, interpretation, defined footwork, full body articulation, authentic self, and the embrace of communal ritual. With hips leading the torso and feet, legs bent at the knees, and steps that strut, Gibson invites participants to share lived experiences, embodied spiritual unification, harmony, rolling on the same rhythms together, and moving forward as a way to heal the world.

Movers of all levels are welcome. The workshop will be accompanied by a live brass band. Parking is available behind the building in a lot reserved for patrons of the Madam Walker Legacy Center. Please wear clothing AND SHOES you can comfortably move in.

Michelle N. Gibson is a Mother, Choreographer, Cultural Ambassador, Curator, Professor, Performing Artist, and Spiritualist. She received her BFA in Dance from Tulane University and her MFA from Hollins University in collaboration with the American Dance Festival at Duke University. Currently, Gibson is as a Professor of Practice in Dance at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and recently completed her 14th year on faculty with the American Dance Festival’s Pre-Professional Intensive at Duke University.

Michelle N. Gibson is a consummate storyteller, employing body and mind to build a bridge between the culture and academia, but most importantly, humanity. On stage and in the classroom, Gibson intricately intertwines Black African American dance traditions, choreography, and associated scholarship linking the vibrant heritage of New Orleans through the Caribbean to the vast expanses of Africa, evoking the social, political, economic, and spiritual understandings central to building bonds within and across cultures. This journey, steeped in both tradition and innovation, encapsulates Gibson’s unwavering commitment to heal the world through the culture.