Bebe Miller's Vespers premiered at Danspace Project in 1982 as part of the Parallels series which was curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones and composed of a group of Black choreographers who were all working “in the parallel worlds of Black America and new dance.”

"I invited my friend Linda Gibbs to sing while I danced, which seemed to be the thing to do when asked to perform. I have no notes on the process; I assume we rehearsed together a few times and then we each did what we knew to do, at the time." — Bebe Miller

On the occasion of Danspace Project's 50th anniversary, Bebe Miller reimagined Vespers with an intergenerational cast of dance artists—Bria Bacon, Jasmine Hearn, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Chloe London, Stacy Matthew Spence—along with K.J. Holmes, vocalist and Hearn Gadbois, musician. Vespers, Reimagined (2025) began as a conversation between Program Director and Associate Curator Seta Morton and artist Niall Jones, who also later became a creative consultant for the project. 

"In thinking about the 50th anniversary, this happenstance-into-project-mode [of Vespers, Reimagined (2025)] blossomed, alongside other [50th Anniversary] projects, as a possible re-visit of seminal works," writes Bebe. “Returning to Vespers now, reimagined with these artists, has been a kind of archeological dig into how we’ve all arrived at our various understandings of the art, the currencies, as well as the physics of dancing.”

Please watch the original 1982 documented Vespers  below. 

Vespers (1982) 

Danspace Project (NYC)

Choreographer and dancer, Bebe Miller
Music arrangement and vocalist, Linda Gibbs
Curator, Ishmael Houston-Jones 
Danspace Director (1982), Cynthia Hedstrom