Celebrate Juneteenth a little differently this year at the Houston Black Dance Festival 2011: Retracing our Roots. The festival is hosted by Second Generation Dance Company, which will perform a restaging of Women Speak. Choreographed by Lori-Amare-Bujung and set to the music of Nina Simone, the visually powerful Women Speak is presented on a stark stage which is bare but for a quartet of women seated in chairs. As Simone sings the slow, melancholy ย“Four Women,ย” the dancers embody the strong, sensual characters in the song.

Also on the program is the Sandra Organ Dance Companyย’s Mack the Knife and Black and Blue, Dallas Black Dance Theater IIย’s Motherless Child, and In Flight Dance Theaterย’s Mongoose Walk. 8 p.m. Jewish Community Center, 5601 South Braeswood. For information, call 832-896-4804 or visit www.houstonblackdancefestival.eventbrite.com. $25.

Sat., June 18, 8 p.m., 2011

This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.