Events – Danspace Project
Nicholas Ryan Gant (photo: Angie Vasquez) and Shamel Pitts (photo: Itai Zwecker)

Nicholas Ryan Gant + Shamel Pitts

A shared evening

Thursday, May 2 | 7:30PM
Friday, May 3 | 7:30PM
Saturday, May 4 | 7:30PM

PART OF PLATFORM 2024: A Delicate Ritual
curated by Kyle Abraham

 

New York-based artist and educator Nicholas Ryan Gant, also known as the Ghetto Falsetto, is a music educator with the New York City public school system and a worship leader at his local church in Brooklyn. As a respected vocal coach, vocalist, and composer, he has collaborated with a wide range of award-winning artists, including Platform curator Kyle Abraham. Restore: A Healing Conversation Through Music is an introspective glimpse into growth – relational, experimental, and spiritual. “Within the last 4 years…we’ve had to adapt, and create new ways to learn and grow,” he writes. Using layers of vocals, and stacks of harmonies as a foundation, “this performance will gently open the mind to the idea of healing.”

Shamel Pitts, a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, is a Brooklyn-born performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. Before founding TRIBE, his Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary arts collective, Shamel trained at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and The Ailey School. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal and danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years. His solo little black lake of RED alludes to the fluidity of waves. With audience and performer in close proximity to one another, the work evolves within a multidimensional stream of consciousness flow of eccentricity, passion, ritual, in a communal rite of dancing together.


Tickets
support Danspace’s 50th anniversary!

$10 Members
$20 Regular Price
$30 A little extra
$40 A little more!
$50 Celebrating 50 years!
$100 Here’s to the next 50!


View the performance program


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Nicholas Ryan Gant, affectionately known as the Ghetto Falsetto, is a New York based artist and educator, from Phoenix, Arizona. NRG studied classical vocal performance at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and holds a master’s of art in Music Education from Hunter College, as a participant in The Lincoln Center Scholars program. NRG has been a worship leader at his local church in Brooklyn for more than 12 years. There at his church NRG discovered a gift for connecting with youth. This passion for youth development has led him to build a career as a music educator with the New York City public school system for the past 7 years. NRG is a recipient of the 2020 Paul Simon Music Fellowship. In addition to the classroom NRG is also an accomplished vocal coach for several artists and record labels, as well as a sought -after workshop and masterclass facilitator. NRG is the Vice President of the board of directors for Decolonizing the Music Room. As a vocal composer NRG has collaborated with choreographers Maleek Washington, Francine E. Ott and Kyle Abraham. He’s been a featured vocalist on several recordings internationally and has recorded 8 independent projects of his own. His House music debut, a remake of the cult classic “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” was the number one soulful house song of 2020. His upcoming “Restore” is a collaboration with 3 time Album of the Year Grammy Award winner, Mikey Freedom Hart. NRG has also had the opportunity to sing support vocals for artists such as Michael McDonald, Mariah Carey, Ariana DeBose, Jon Batiste, Miri Ben-Ari, Killer Mike & Run the Jewels, and Childish Gambino.

2020 Guggenheim Fellow Shamel Pitts is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Shamel began his dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is 2003 YoungArts Finalist and a first prize (level 1) winner of the YoungArts competition. Shamel then 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. Shamel danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years, under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. 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 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award winner in Choreography, a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow artist in residence and a 2021 New York Dance Award winner (The Bessies). Shamel is the Founding Artistic Director of TRIBE, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary arts collective.
TRIBE is a 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Artist In Residence for the 2020-2021 season. Shamel Pitts | TRIBE is also a New York Live Arts Live Feed artist in residence. For more information, visit www.shamelpitts.com or www.itsatribe.org.

Photo: Gioncarlo Valentine.

Platform 2024: A Delicate Ritual curated by Kyle Abraham

Danspace Project’s Platform 2024: A Delicate Ritual
curated by choreographer Kyle Abraham 

Performances by
Vinson Fraley, Nicholas Ryan Gant, Bebe Miller Company, taisha paggett, Shamel Pitts, and David Roussève

With artistic exchanges between
Abigail DeVille, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, and Samora Pinderhughes

Platform 2024 honors Kevin Wynn with a memorial and classes taught by Jason Rodriguez

May 2-June 8, 2024


Danspace Project’s sixteenth Platform is guest-curated by
Kyle Abraham, the Princess Grace and McArthur grant-awarded choreographer, performer, and Artistic Director of A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham. Abraham’s first evening-length work, the Bessie Award-winning The Radio Show, was commissioned and presented by Danspace Project in 2010.

Platform 2024: A Delicate Ritual reflects Abraham’s interest in performers’ rituals, desires, and artistic exchanges. Describing the Platform as “a vulnerable and generative investigation that honors our prayers, practices, and predecessors,” Abraham invited artists to be in conversation with one another in a process of artistic and intergenerational exchange with the following curatorial questions in mind: 

How does nature’s relationship with humanity communicate/jostle/live in your body?

How present is a history of love in your relationship to or ritual of prayer?

How does change affect your relationship to ritual and prayer?

 

VISIT THE CALENDAR

for more information and to purchase tickets for performances, register for classes, and RSVP for special events

Stay tuned: The print catalogue for Platform 2024 includes conversations between the featured Platform artists along with unlikely “blind date” exchanges between choreographer Beth Gill and photographer Carrie Schneider; director Charlotte Brathwaite and ecologist Marisa Prefer, arborist Ethan Woods, and acupuncturist Steve Pang. The catalogue includes photographs by photographer Gioncarlo Valentine.

Abraham will also be honored at Danspace’s 50th anniversary Gala alongside Kristy Edmunds and Carol Mullins on May 7, 2024!

 

Since their inception in 2008, Danspace Project’s Platforms have been a signature program. The Platforms are a multi-week series of performances and events organized by guest-artist-curators and Danspace’s curatorial team. The Platforms were conceived by Executive Director and Chief Curator Judy Hussie-Taylor as “exhibitions that unfold over time” and enact curation as a process of collaborative inquiries delving into artistic, choreographic, and curatorial concerns. Each Platform is accompanied by a print catalogue and, in recent years, an Online Journal issue.

Kristy Edmunds. Photo: courtesy Kristy Edmunds. Carol Mullins. Photo: SK Dunn. Kyle Abraham. Photo: Tatiana Wills.

Danspace Project Gala 2024: Celebrating 50 Years

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Honoring Rebel Angels

Kyle Abraham, renowned, award winning, and sought after visionary choreographer and founder of A.I.M., galvanizing Black culture and history with a rich tapestry of Black and Queer stories.

Kristy Edmunds, game-changing executive and curatorial leader working across the country and abroad, and currently Director of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Carol Mullins, lighting design artist and collaborator in venues, with artists, garnering three Bessies, an Obie, and, for decades, a Resident Lighting Designer for Danspace Project. 

HONORARY CO-CHAIRS
Taylor Mac, Bebe Miller, Robert Wilson

CO-CHAIRS
Linda Brumbach, Melissa Levin, Rashaun Mitchell

HOST
Helga Davis

REMARKS
Linda Brumbach, Mimi Gross, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Susan Nimoy

PERFORMERS
Laurie Anderson, Douglas Dunn, Vinson Fraley, Toshi Reagon,
Ros Warby, A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham
(as of March 31)

6PM Garden Reception

7PM Welcome & Honoree Remarks

8PM Performances and Dessert

9:15PM After-Party


TICKETS

Platinum, Gold, and Silver supporters are invited to join us for wine & savories during the Garden Reception followed by light fare during the Welcome & Honoree Remarks in the Sanctuary. All supporters are welcome to enjoy Performances, Desserts, and the After-Party.

Platinum Table of 10 guests $15,000+ (Platform 2024 catalogue & tickets; Program Page)
Gold Table of 8 guests $10,000 (Platform 2024 tickets; Program Half Page)
Silver Table of 8 guests $5,000 (Platform 2024 tickets; Program Quarter Page)

Platinum Single Ticket $1,500
Gold Single Ticket $1,000
Silver Single Ticket $500

Performances, Dessert, After-Party Tickets $250, $125, $75

PURCHASE TICKETS

For tax purposes, all but $125 per Platinum, Gold, or Silver ticket/guest or $35 per Performances/Dessert/After-Party ticket is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

DONATIONS

Donations can be made in honor of our Rebel Angels Kyle Abraham, Kristy Edmunds, and Carol Mullins and our 50 Years.


DONATE HERE


PAYMENT METHODS

Click on item to purchase by Credit Card, ticket purchases will reflect processing fees. To avoid fees, payment may be made by Zelle using the email jodi@danspaceproject.org; or checks to Danspace Project, Inc. may be mailed to 131 East 10th Street, New York, NY  10003.

To purchase a table or for further information, please contact Tricia Pierson, Director of Development, tricia@danspaceproject.org or (212) 674-3838.


BENEFIT COMMITTEE
(as of March 31)

Laurie Anderson, Alberta Arthurs, Elise Bernhardt, Philip Bither, Suzanne Bocanegra* & David Lang, Beth Boone, Linda Brumbach, Barbara Bryan, Suzanne Callahan, Anthony Calnek* & Linda Sugin, Amy Cassello, Kim Chan, Peter Cramer & Jack Waters, Abigail deVille, Katie Dixon & Richard Fleming, Douglas Dunn,** David Fanger* & Martin Wechsler, Zoe Fortin, Terry Fox, Vinson Fraley, Olga Garay-English, Holly Greenfield, Mimi Gross, Miguel Gutierrez, Ann Hamilton, Cynthia Hedstrom, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Bill T. Jones & Bjorn Amelan, Kathy Kaufmann, Jaamil Kosoko, Amy Lamphere, Ralph Lemon,** Melissa Levin,* Cynthia Mayeda, Joseph V Melillo, Fran Milberg, Rashaun Mitchell,* Sarah Needham,* Susan Bay-Nimoy, Eiko Otake,* Nicky Paraiso, David Parker,* Annie-B Parson, Wendy Perron, Carla Peterson, Craig T. Peterson, Brian Phillips, Yvonne Rainer, Toshi Reagon, Judilee Reed,* Legacy Russell, Pamela Tatge, David Thomson, Allegra Thoresen, Muna Tseng, Laurie Uprichard, Charmaine Warren, Helen* & Peter Warwick, Nina Winthrop*

* Danspace Board Member, ** Danspace Board Emeriti


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Kevin Wynn Memorial

Saturday, May 11 | 1-4:3oPM

PART OF PLATFORM 2024: A Delicate Ritual
curated by Kyle Abraham

Platform 2024 honors and celebrates the life of choreographer and teacher Kevin Wynn.

Regarded as “a choreographer of complex maelstroms that moved at lightning speed and an uncommonly dedicated teacher who influenced generations of dancers” (Brian Seibert, New York Times), Wynn danced with José Limón Dance Company and Dianne McIntyre’s Sounds in Motion, as well as his own company Kevin Wynn Collection.

The afternoon features remarks and live performances of Wynn’s choreography by former company members, Colleen Thomas and Marc Mann, Roderick George, and members of Purchase Dance Company at SUNY Purchase, where he was a beloved and influential teacher and mentor for over 30 years. 

The day will end with the first of three classes in the style of Kevin Wynn, taught by Jason Rodriguez. Register for the free class here.



Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

Original Kevin Wynn class taught by Jason Rodriguez

Saturday, May 11 | 4:30-6:30PM

PART OF PLATFORM 2024: A Delicate Ritual
curated by Kyle Abraham

The May 11 class is free of charge, following Kevin Wynn’s memorial.

“In hopes of invoking some of his brilliant teaching methodologies to new and familiar members of our dance community,” writes Platform curator, Kyle Abraham, this series of classes in the style of Kevin Wynn are taught by his former student and friend, Jason Rodriguez.

A dancer, choreographer, teacher, and regular in the Golden Globe nominated Pose, Rodriguez has taught Vogue around the world and currently teaches at various schools and institutions throughout New York City, where he was born and raised.

Please wear comfortable clothes! You may opt to wear socks or go barefoot.



Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

taisha paggett (meital yaniv) and David Roussève (Jorge Vismara).

taisha paggett + David Roussève

A shared evening

Thursday, May 23 | 7:30PM
Friday, May 24 | 7:30PM
Saturday, May 25 | 7:30PM

PART OF PLATFORM 2024: A Delicate Ritual
curated by Kyle Abraham

 

Multi award-winning choreographer, writer, director, and filmmaker David Roussève founded David Roussève/REALITY in 1988 to create socially-charged dance/theater work merging African American traditional and pop cultures with avant-garde dance and theater. Roussève’s recent group works for his company REALITY have developed a movement language that melds fluid and sequential techniques with street, modern, and jazz dance. He is Distinguished Professor of Choreography and former Department Chair at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where he has been on faculty since 1996. Roussève first performed at Danspace Project in a revival of Yoshiko Chuma’s 5-car pile-up in 1988. 

On this evening, he shares the first section of a new 3-part solo work – his first full-length solo performance in more than 20 years. DaddyAF is an intimate and autobiographical meditation on the elusive nature of love and the very meaning of existence, exploring Roussève’s family genealogy, his roller coaster journey with HIV, and the death of his former husband of 26 years.

taisha paggett upholds dance, choreography, and its methodologies as something to break open, “a lens and lung through which to engage ideas,” in particular the terrain of racial trauma, grief, and identity. paggett is a Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Merce Cunningham Awardee and Associate Professor in Dance at UC Riverside. Paggett premiered a right-angled object who lost her faith in being upright, commissioned and presented by Danspace Project, in 2013.

Taking cues from writer/critic Tavia N’yongo, the weight of our relations is an attempt to “afro-fabulate” a conversation between paggett and the photographic archive of Maudelle Bass Weston (1908-1989), a prominent but under-recognized 20th century artist-dancer-model. “The weight, volume, and velocity of today’s political and eco-catastrophic moment, as well as my personal history and Maudelle’s career, trespass into the open field of this speculative, ritualized conversation,” paggett writes, drawing on the ritual of their morning breathwork process, which serves as both conjuring tool and choreographic practice.

Click here to view the performance program


Tickets
support Danspace’s 50th anniversary year!

$10 Members
$20 Regular Price
$30 A little extra
$40 A little more!
$50 Celebrating 50 years!
$100 Here’s to the next 50!


Accessibility for this performance:

American Sign Language (ASL) will be provided on Friday, May 24.


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

taisha paggett is the continuation of Cheryl Yvone McGhee, Arveal Paggett Jr, and all  the relatives who’ve held them. She respectfully resides on the home and gathering lands of the Cahuilla, Tongva, Luiseño, and Serrano, colonially called Riverside, CA. Their research roots inside politico-somatic presencing and performative installation from a black, queer, vantage. She upholds dance, choreography, and its methodologies as something to break open–a lens and lung through which to engage ideas–specifically concerning the terrain of racial trauma, grief, and manufactured identities. She’s a Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Merce Cunningham Awardee and Associate Professor in Dance at UC Riverside.

David Roussève, is a choreographer/writer/director/performer, magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a Guggenheim Fellow. His dance/theater company REALITY has performed throughout the UK, Europe, S. America, and the U.S including four commissions for the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Among others his commissions include Houston Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, Cleo Parker Robinson, Dancing Wheels, Atlanta Ballet, and Ilkhom Theater Co. of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. David has created three short films, the most recent screening at festivals at 56 festivals in 11 countries and receiving 10 awards including 4 for “Best Film.” Other awards include a “Bessie”, Creative Capital Fellowship, 3 Horton Awards, CalArts/Alpert Award in Dance, and 7 consecutive NEA fellowships. David was published in collections by Bantam Press and Rutledge Press, was twice a Fellow in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriter Lab, and just completed “Stardust”, a feature screenplay based on his dance/theater work “Stardust”. He plans to create the film in with long-time collaborator, videographer and editor Cari Ann Shim Sham. At UCLA Roussève is Distinguished Professor of Choreography in the department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. For the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture David has served as Associate Dean (2014-15), Acting Dean (2015), and Interim Dean (2015-17).

Original Kevin Wynn class taught by Tamisha Guy

Saturday, May 25 | 11AM-1PM

PART OF PLATFORM 2024: A Delicate Ritual
curated by Kyle Abraham

This class will be taught by special guest Tamisha Guy.

“In hopes of invoking some of his brilliant teaching methodologies to new and familiar members of our dance community,” writes Platform curator, Kyle Abraham, this series of classes in the style of Kevin Wynn.

Please wear comfortable clothes! You may opt to wear socks or go barefoot.


Admission

$10/class


Before you visit:

Accessibility at Danspace Project
Covid Safety at Danspace Project

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