222: DIVINE TIMING.

222: divine timing is a multidisciplinary performance work that explores divination as an embodied and collaborative practice that integrates dance and live drawing. Our work focuses on how the body and mark function as parallel channels for accessing and translating the unseen—bridging intuition,ancestry, and spiritual inquiry into physical and visual form.

Originally structured into 4 parts, this piece moves through 4 pivotal arcs of: listening, witnessing, trance, and alignment. Each section is guided by a sonic landscape, including works by Nina Simone, Yma Sumac, Adelf Uti and Eden Ahbez. These compositions craft the emotional and energetic terrain of the performance

Dancer and Visual artist– movement and grief alchemist: both exchange prayers and tarot cards as the intention of divination is cast upon them. The movement alchemist embodies sensation, memory, and energetic transmutation, whilst the artist transcribes these experiences in visual art form. The results are not illustrative– instead they are tangible and constantly evolving with every interaction of gathering.

By the end of the piece, both artist and audiences are left in a state of wonderment. Being a witness to the process eliminates queries of our creation process and recenters the reflection on what the experience was like to be a witness to the process of collaborative divination. 222: divine timing invites audiences into a shared ritual space where meaning is not suggested, but felt—offering an experience rooted in trust, alignment, and the unfolding of what cannot be rushed or fully explained.

This project sits at the intersection of performance, ritual practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing from somatic movement, improvisational composition, and traditions of divination across diasporic and ancestral lineages. Our work contributes to a growing field of artists who are reimagining performance as a site of ceremony, healing, and collective gathering.

“222: divine timing, in which two art forms work in tandem, is the most experimental piece of the evening, bound to have both fans and detractors. I find myself in both camps at different times. Pairing dance by dominique lesleyann on one side of the stage and the ceremonial painting practice of Adelf Uti on the other, creates a unique dynamic. Uti stands, back to us, drawing a figure in vibrant color upon a large black board. Inspired by a photo clipped to the board, she is unhurried. Her constancy suggests she is channeling pre-ordained shapes. Meanwhile, balancing on her sacrum, with trembling limbs extended lesleyann births herself into earthly existence. Much of 222: divine timing is performed against the poignant close-up video of Nina Simone singing “Stars,” about the fleeting nature of fame and the personal struggles that accompany it. Heightening the lyrics, lesleyann moves with urgency and also some humor, as she throws a coy look over her jutting hip as Simone sings “some women have a body men want to see.” Lesleyann’s whips through space, while Uti, her eyes hidden under a veil of her braids, is meditative. This contrast in energies causes me to explore my own expectations and areas of comfort/discomfort.

Review: Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now 2026 – Week 2, Feb. 28-March 1, 2026, Dance Mission, San Francisco

by Jen Norris

Full Review Found Here

Adelf Uti aka Elfleda Utiaruk is a queer Nigerian, grief alchemist, visual artist, and Postpartum doula who creates at the threshold between what is seen and what is felt. My practice is a form of living altar work—a ceremonial weaving of the spiritual, ancestral, and creative dimensions of healing. Through visual art, sound, and ritual, I explore birth, death, and transformation as sacred portals of remembrance.

My work is a call to courage—an invitation to meet grief not as an enemy, but as a portal to deeper living. I offer sacred holding from the womb to the beyond, walking with those ready to remember the beauty in their own becoming. My debut collection, The Soul Journey, exists as both altar and mirror—a reflection of how grief, when witnessed with presence and love, reveals our deepest belonging.

If you are interested in collaborating with Adelf on future projects, please contact her via her website.