A tale of vitality and tenderness, darkness and light, personal growth and collective empowerment.
BLACK HOLE – Trilogy And Triathlon is a multidisciplinary performance choreographed by the award-winning movement artist Shamel Pitts, co-created and performed by his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE. BLACK HOLE constitutes the final installment of Pitts’ “BLACK Series” triptych, a series of deeply personal live performance pieces conceived and choreographed by Pitts since 2015.
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.
In BLACK HOLE, a trio of Black performers (all of African heritage) 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. Engulfed in an evocative soundscape of original music, sound samples, and spoken word, the dancers embark on an hour-long, uninterrupted journey in movement in which their tenacity and grace are emphasized by cinematic video projections and stark, monochromatic lights.
In the Press
Shamel Pitts receives the MacArthur Genius Award | October 1, 2024
Artists
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Concept Direction & Choreographer: Shamel Pitts
Rotating Performers: Shamel Pitts, Tushrik Fredericks, Marcella Lewis.
Video Light & Mapping 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 Managers: Chanel Pinnock
Creative Director: Mirelle Martins
Artistic Administrator: E Katrina Lewis
Managing Director: Brittany Wilson
Digital Creative Associate: Pam Panozzo
Press Agent: Kamila Slawinski
Worldwide Bookings: Lotus Arts Management, Sophie Myrtil-McCourty, sophie@lotusartsmgmt.com
Additional Music: Sound Collage / Remixes Track ID:
Door Of The Cosmos / Sun Ra
AirFlow! Velocity / Keru Not Ever
Fever Dream / Daniel Avery
Funeral Canticle / John Tavener
Radiance / Tim Hecker
Heavy Snow / ChiHei Hatakeyama
Feeling Good / Nina Simone
Fever Dream / Daniel Avery
Funeral Canticle / John Tavener
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.
Photos by Itai Zwecker, Delaney Greenberg courtesy of Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and The Adeboye Brothers