Bates Dance Festival - Tribe

About the Event

In BLACK HOLE a trio of Black performers shares the stage in a narrative of unity, vigor, and unrelenting advancement. Their journey originates in the darkness of the titular Black Hole, understood not as a cosmic void but a metaphorical place of transformation and potential. Deeply inspired and infused by the spirit of Afrofuturism, this contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk combines dance, original sound, video projection, and light design in a tale of vitality and tenderness, darkness and light, personal growth and collective empowerment. BLACK HOLE is the final installment of choreographer Shamel Pitts’ “BLACK Series” triptych.

TRIBE is a Brooklyn, New York based multidisciplinary arts collective founded by Shamel Pitts in December 2019. The arts collective is composed of international and local artists working across mediums such as movement, choreography, lighting design, video mapping projection, poetry, spoken word, painting, cinematography, scenography, dramaturgy, costume styling, and music composition.

Shamel Pitts (Brooklyn, NY), a 2024 Doris Duke Artist recipient, is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, director, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Pitts began his dance training at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is a first prize winner in The National Arts Competition from YoungArts. Pitts went on to receive his BFA in dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Pitts danced with Batsheva Dance Company for seven years under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Pitts has created a triptych of award-winning multidisciplinary performances, with his arts collective TRIBE, known as his “BLACK series,” which has toured extensively to many festivals & performance spaces around the world since 2016. He is an adjunct professor at The Juilliard School, a guest faculty member at Princeton University, New York University, Wesleyan University and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. He is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow, a Jacob’s Pillow artist-in-residence, and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow. shamelpitts.com & itsatribe.org

BLACK HOLE – Trilogy and Triathlon

Concept Direction & Choreographer: Shamel Pitts
Performers: Shamel Pitts, Tushrik Fredericks & Marcella Lewis
Video Mapping & Lighting Designer: Lucca Del Carlo
Musician & Composer: Sivan Jacobovitz
Artistic Production Manager: Rus Snelling
Black Tarp Designer: Naomi Rapaport
Costume Designer: Mirelle Martins
Photographer & Cinematographer: Itai Zwecker
Photographers & Cinematographers: The Adeboye Brothers
Spoken Word Text: Shamel Pitts
Stage Manager: Chanel Pinnock
Creative Director: Mirelle Martins
Artistic Administrator: E Katrina Lewis
Managing Director: Brittany Wilson
Social Media Manager: Pam Panozzo
Press Agent: Kamila Slawinski
Worldwide Bookings: Lotus Arts Management,
Sophie Myrtil-McCourty, sophie@lotusartsmgmt.com
BLACK HOLE was developed with the kind support of Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU), American Dance Abroad, gloATL, PearlArts Studios, CrossAward (Italy), Dock 11 / Eden (Germany), Derida Dance Center (Bulgaria), Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Artis, New York Live Arts, and 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. The presentation of BLACK HOLE at the Belgrade Dance Festival was supported in part by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International, a program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
Additional TRIBE commissioning, development and core operating support is provided by the Mellon Foundation; Arison Arts Foundation; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Ford Foundation; 92Y Harkness Dance Center; National Performance Network (NPN) Creation, Development & Artist Engagement Fund Project. The Creation, Development & Artist Engagement Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency); New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Tickets:

Adult: $35
Student/Senior/Educator: $15
A limited number of $5 tickets will be available to anyone while supplies last!

Location: Schaeffer Theatre

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