WORKS & PROCESS UNDERGROUND UPTOWN DANCE FESTIVAL AT THE GUGGENHEIM
1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128
It’s Showtime NYC! Pyramid by Cal Hunt and Johnathan Moore
Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington’s MasterZ at Work Dance Family
Rotunda Dance: Ladies of Hip-Hop All Styles Battle
Friday, January 10, 7 pm
More info and Tix LINK
Gather round the Guggenheim for one-night-only events that start in the theater and culminate in rotunda dance parties with wine reception.
Street dance takes center stage. It’s Showtime NYC!, a company of dancers with a history of performing on New York’s streets and subways, premieres Pyramid. MasterZ at Work Dance Family, led by Black trans femme choreographer Courtney Washington, the Founder of the Kiki House of Juicy Couture and Mother of the House of Balenciaga, fuses street dance, street jazz, ballroom, vogue, and hip hop. Then step up and step into the Ladies of Hip-Hop All Styles Battle in the rotunda.
New Yorkers are, by nature, archaeologists. Be it graffiti, hieroglyphics, or freestyle dance on the street, lived stories are shared to those willing to pause and take in the messages. See the world premiere of Pyramid, commissioned by Works & Process,featuring It’s Showtime NYC!, a company of dancers with a history of performing on New York’s streets and subways. Created in collaboration with composer and cellist Johnathan “Akuma” Moore, with dance dramaturgy by BRAT, Pyramid is an original music composition and dance work through which the composer and the company dancers each investigate the notion, “This is how you sound to me.” Moore’s composition animates each dancer’s struggles and triumphs as live building blocks of the pyramid, choreographed by It’s Showtime NYC! Artistic Director Cal Hunt. In his cello composition, Moore incorporates techniques typically employed by funk bassists, such as layered electronic loops, freeing himself to join the performance as a bonebreaker or flexN artist.
Bringing together street dance cyphers, social dance spaces, club and dance battle culture, and the circular architecture of the museum, the festival transcends the proscenium to connect audiences and artists, blend spectating and participating, embodying joy, and build community.
Pyramid is commissioned by Works & Process, Artists Community Alliance, Howard Gilman Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Bethany Arts Community, Bridge Street Theatre, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council/The Arts Center at Governors Island, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature with special thanks to NOoSPHERE Arts, SummerStage, Herbert Von King Cultural Arts Center and City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation. Music composition commissioned by Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. It’s Showtime NYC! is a program of Dancing in the Streets.
Part of JanArtsNYC, which is one of the city’s largest and most influential arts gatherings and draws more than 45,000 performing arts leaders, artists, and enthusiasts from across the
