To mark its fifth anniversary, Kesha McKey’s KM Dance Project presented a show of short works and the full-length multidisciplinary piece “Raw Fruit” at the Contemporary Arts Center, where she just completed an artist residency at Southern Crossings.

The pandemic delayed their plans to tour “Raw Fruit” for several years, but the company has taken the show to New York and Alabama, with shows in South Carolina coming up before returning to New Orleans for another tour early next year.

In the meantime, KM Dance has been working on a show to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The show, “Building Dreams,” will run from August 23 to 25 at the CAC.

Some of my work has been influenced by this 10-year milestone.

“We think about where we came from and who the artists are that laid the foundation for what we do,” says McKey.

McKey and longtime ensemble member and collaborator Catherine Caldwell conceived Raw Fruit as a comprehensive look into the history and cultural traditions that influenced Black life, identity, and matrilineal relationships in New Orleans. For Building Dreams, they worked from a new perspective and created the short piece From Within.

“We focused our processes on joy and celebration and were able to step back and get a feel for what joy looks like and what it tastes like,” says McKey.

The piece uses the full cast of 17 dancers who appear in the 10 works of Building Dreams. It is based on a song by South African a cappella group The Joy and a percussion piece by Malian artists called Kunfe Ta.

The program is diverse, with 11 contributing choreographers, many of whom also perform. The roster reflects the KM Dance Project’s network of relationships in the local dance community and beyond.

Joshua P. Bell is both a fashion designer and choreographer. He designed dresses for the three dancers in “Prime 3,” in which the women are imagined as goddesses.

Kehinde Ishangi is an experienced dancer and currently a dance instructor at Florida State University. Her piece, “The Liberation of Ms. Sophia,” is about developing confidence, self-love and acceptance, McKey says. It is a solo work performed by Caldwell.

Amari Patterson’s Rire: to joke to rib is an episodic work in three parts that reflects on the losses caused by Hurricane Katrina and the gains from dealing with it.

One of the pieces is a film. Jeremy Guyton previously contributed a film about coming to terms with his relationship with his adoptive parents. The new piece is a continuation of that after the death of his mother. He searched the family home and memorabilia such as photographs to look at the relationship in a new light.

The exhibition also includes works by Cyan Cian, Ceylon Seiber, Celine Seiber, Kristal Jones and Millenique Marie Brown.

The program also includes a preview of a documentary film McKey and Caldwell have been working on about the company’s connections with its many mentors. The film features interviews with dancers and choreographers such as Ausettua AmorAmenkum, Nicole Buckles, Lula Elzy, Kai Knight, Maritza Mercado-Narcisse, Greer E. Mendy and others.

“They talk about their teachers and what their experiences were and how they laid the foundation for us in New Orleans,” McKey says.

The finished film will premiere in late fall or early next year, McKey says.

Tickets are $16.22-$21.29 and are available at cacno.org. For more information about the KM Dance Project, visit kmdanceproject.org.

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