Artistic Director Tecsia Ross brings her powerful Ross Dance Company a Modern/Jazz ensemble of five dynamic female dancers from Oakland, California for their NYC debut in Testimony. Deeply influenced by the African American experience living & dancing in Oakland and her background in Psychology (currently working on her PHD in psychology), Tecsia Ross' take on the modern/jazz idiom of concert dance goes beyond just pure entertainment. Rooted in strong spiritual beliefs and interest in her community as a whole, Ross brings her company's choreography to higher ground. Five powerful women each with distinguished backgrounds in dance and education will fire up the Merce with passion, cultural awareness, spiritual strength and visceral movement through choreography by Tecsia Ross, Paris Adkins and Barry Webster set to poetry, Afro-Brazilian rhythms and vocal styling by Bobby McFerrin, India Arie, and Stevie Wonder.