A MacArthur Genius and Guggenheim Award winner, choreographer, dancer and the founder and artistic director of TRIBE, Brooklyn-based Shamel Pitts enlivens the Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater on the UCLA campus on Saturday, Feb. 15, at 8 p.m. “BLACK HOLE – Trilogy And Triathlon” is the final part of his BLACK Series triptych.
Layering movement, sound, video, light and visual art, this 2019 creation features three performers who, promotional materials say, “celebrate vitality, tenderness, unity and progress as they reveal themes of transformation and potential, transcending the darkness into a metaphorical space of empowerment.” The evening-length work “proposes to draw the audience into a colorfully hypnotic journey, without exit, through a trinity of vigor, afro-futurism and embrace.”
Pitts recently shared one part of his RED Series at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse that brought two men into a boxing ring to demonstrate their range of strength and gentleness that is often unidentified in the African-American male. It is a compelling duet performed in the round.
Pitts comes from a background that includes training at the Juilliard School, dancing for Ohad Naharin at the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company, a New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship and international touring of the BLACK pieces.
—Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA
LOCATION:
120 Westwood Plaza, LA 90077
TICKETS:
$38.08
INFO:
https://cap.ucla.edu/event/shamel-pitts
Photo courtesy of the artist and CAP UCLA