Okwui Okpokwasili in "Bronx Gothic"
Company:
Okwui Okpokwasili
A solo creation at the intersection of theater, dance and visual art installation, Bronx Gothic gives palpable force to the charged relationship between two girls on the verge of adolescence in 1980s outer-borough New York City--where Newports are bought in singles at the corner deli, sex saturated notes are passed in class, and Orchard Beach erupts in flame.
Returning for a command run, Okwui Okpokwasili’s acclaimed, New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award winning piece has been hailed as a breakthrough work, and is envisioned for Live Arts’ stage as part of a multi-year collaboration with the artist. Hers is a performance of psychic and physical collisions that threaten to break the body—an unflinching look into the exquisite turbulence of one woman’s memory. Created in collaboration with Peter Born, Bronx Gothic draws inspiration from Victorian-era novels and West African griot storytelling to reveal a dark and powerful tale of sexual awakening, the body in transformation and the humor, love, strangeness and even terror that accompany it. “In language that is by turns blunt and poetic, crudely funny and incantatory, Ms. Okpokwasili conjures and probes this adolescent friendship, a jumble of insults, anger and love…A magnetic performer” (The New York Times).
Bronx Gothic was co-commissioned by Performance Space 122, Danspace Project, LMCC and a 50th Anniversary Grant from the Jerome Foundation with residency support from Under Construction at the Armory, New York Live Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center and as part of LMCC’s Extended Life Dance Development program. Additional commissioning support was provided by Le Mallion in Strasbourg, Théâtre de Gennevilliers in Paris, Theatre Garonne in Toulouse and Zagrebačko Kazalište Mladih (ZMK), the Zagreb Youth Theatre in Zagreb, Croatia.
Bronx Gothic is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project Touring Award, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The 2015-16 tour of Bronx Gothic is produced by MAPP International Productions.
Bronx Gothic was co-commissioned by Performance Space 122, Danspace Project, LMCC and a 50th Anniversary Grant from the Jerome Foundation with residency support from Under Construction at the Armory, New York Live Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center and as part of LMCC’s Extended Life Dance Development program. Additional commissioning support was provided by Le Mallion in Strasbourg, Théâtre de Gennevilliers in Paris, Theatre Garonne in Toulouse and Zagrebačko Kazalište Mladih (ZMK), the Zagreb Youth Theatre in Zagreb, Croatia.
Bronx Gothic is a recipient of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project Touring Award, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The 2015-16 tour of Bronx Gothic is produced by MAPP International Productions.
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