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Homegoings
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Homegoings

A dancer’s journey toward loving her body

By Myra Flynn
Published April 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM EDT

Marjani Forté-Saunders is a mother, choreographer, performer, community organizer and three-time Bessie Award winner. In this episode, Marjani speaks about the score a dancer’s body keeps, both on and off the stage. It’s a journey of acceptance, fearless expression and hard personal truths.

This is the latest episode of Homegoings, a podcast that features fearless conversations about race, and YOU are welcome here. Follow the show here.

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Marjani Forté-Saunders is a dancer — some days. Other days she’s a choreographer, sweeping multiple Bessie Awards and touring the world, blessing stages with movement meant to move the needle for other artists – Black artists, like herself. Marjani is a wife to Everett Saunders: who we’ve featured on Homegoings before. Everett is a sound designer, working closely with Marjani, so the two of them hit the road together with their son, because Marjani is also a mother every day.

“I’m living my life in this ‘now' and my ‘before’ and ‘forever’ as an artist.” - Marjani Forté-Saunders
Mike Dunn
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Vermont Public
“I’m living my life in this ‘now' and my ‘before’ and ‘forever’ as an artist.” - Marjani Forté-Saunders

No matter what hat Marjani is wearing — mother, wife, dancer — each practice demands so much of something we all can too often take for granted… her body. Her strong, Black, award-winning body. So, what’s a dancer to do when your body betrays you?

Where is the opportunity to love ourselves? Because I wanted to dance all the time and I wanted to make a living from it. And up until this moment, when I joined Urban Bush Women, I was dying. I was not taking care of my body. I was not holding on to my food, to try to be an aesthetic. - Marjani Forté-Saunders

Marjani’s original work “Memoirs of a Unicorn” was inspired by the horrific death of Eric Garner and won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production and Visual Design.
Baranova
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Courtesy
Marjani’s original work “Memoirs of a Unicorn” was inspired by the horrific death of Eric Garner and won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production and Visual Design. 
Marjani Forté-Saunders joined Myra Flynn for a conversation in front of a live audience at Vermont Public’s Colchester studios in October of 2024.
Mike Dunn
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Vermont Public
Marjani Forté-Saunders joined Myra Flynn for a conversation in front of a live audience at Vermont Public’s Colchester studios in October of 2024.
Along with conversation in the studio, Marjani also joined Myra Flynn in a Vermont apple orchard.
Mike Dunn
/
Vermont Public
Along with conversation in the studio, Marjani also joined Myra Flynn in a Vermont apple orchard.
Marjani breaks into a spontaneous dance inspired by the sights, smells and sounds of a Vermont orchard.
Mike Dunn
/
Vermont Public
Marjani breaks into a spontaneous dance inspired by the sights, smells and sounds of a Vermont orchard.

Credits

If you or someone you know is struggling with MS, the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America may be able to help. Call (800)532-7667, extension 154 or email MSquestions@mymsaa.org.

To access resources at the National Alliance for Eating Disorders call (866) 662-1235 or visit www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com.

This episode was hosted and reported by Myra Flynn and edited by Aaron Edwards, with production support from Peter Engisch, Mike Dunn and our associate producer James Stewart. Myra composed the theme music with other music "Memoirs of a Unicorn" and "Offering" by Everett Asis and Blue Dot Sessions. Kaylee Mumford is the graphic artist behind this episode’s Homegoings artist portrait.

Thank you for listening. You can see a video version of this episode on our YouTube Channel.

To continue to be part of the Homegoings family:

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Homegoings New England News Collaborative
Myra Flynn
Myra Flynn joined Vermont Public in March 2021 and is the Host and Executive Producer of Homegoings. Raised in Vermont, Myra Flynn is an accomplished musician who has come to know the lay of dirt-road land that much more intimately through touring both well-known and obscure stages all around the state and beyond. She also has experience as a teaching artist and wore many hats at the Burlington Free Press, including features reporter and correspondent, before her pursuits took her deep into the arts world. Prior to joining Vermont Public, Myra spent eight years in the Los Angeles music industry.
See stories by Myra Flynn