16 JUNE 17 THE NATE HOLDEN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 4718 W. WASHINGTON BLVD, LOS ANGELES, CA 90016
JUNE
BERNARD BROWN/BBMOVES
Executive Artistic Director Bernard Brown
Choreography by Bernard Brown
Lighting Design by Carol McDowell
“COME.UNITY” (2018)
PERFORMERS
Michael Battle Jesseca Cipkas Quron Clarks Jessie Hernandez AdamaIdeozu Glen Rodriguez
MUSIC
“Man on the Moon (Reprise)” Moses Sumney;“Auntie’s Lock/Infinitum” Flying Lotus;“Wind” Bernard Brown; “Dance of the Pseudo Nymph” Flying Lotus; “Dope” Amiri Baraka
Video Design by Kalena Fields Costume Consultation by Evan Wilson
“PROCESSING SUGAR NOTES, EXCERPTS” (2023)
EPISODE 1: “CRAVINGS”
PERFORMERS
Michael Battle Quron Clarks Mawiyah Dowd
POEM
“Sugar Cravings” Indira Renganathan, read by Bernard Brown
MUSIC
“Yermande (Kick and Drum Instrumental)” Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force; “While You Dooo” Teebs; “Absolutions” Max Roach
EPISODE 2: “THE SWEETNESS OF SWEAT”
PERFORMERS
Michael Battle Quron Clarks Glen Rodriguez
MUSIC
“A Good ACT to Follow” excerpt from Code Switch podcast NPR; “LUV” Defacto X
“MASON” (2022)
Directed by Jingqiu Guan
PERFORMERS
Tashara Gavin-Moorehead AdamaIdeozu Latrice Postell
Tamica Washington-Miller with Sydney Johnson
Music by DeFacto X Spoken Word by Bryonn Bain
Costume Design by Kristina Garnett
*Commissioned by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.
– JUNE 16, 2023 –
“MASON PROJECT” (2023)
PERFORMERS
Mawiyah Dowd Jessie Hernandez AdamaIdeozu
MUSIC
“Run Mourner Run” Fannie Lou Hamer; “Circlesong Two” Bobby McFerrin; “The Women Gather” Nikki Giovanni; “Inspiration” Defacto X;
Costumes Bernard Brown
LAURIE SEFTON CREATES
Artistic Director Laurie Sefton
“THE MYTHOLOGY OF SELF“ (2022)
Choreographer Laurie Sefton
ORIGINAL MUSIC
“The Things We’re Most Afraid to See” Victoria Vasta; “The Mythology of Self” Emer Kinsella; “Bassadance” Bryan Curt Kostors; “To Be One’s Own Ruin” Victoria Vasta
Lighting Design: Dan Weingarten Costume Design: Leon Wiebers
Photography: Skye Schmidt Visual Artist: Paige Twyman Mezzo Soprano: Carmen Voskuhl
DANCE ARTISTS
Gretchen Ackerman Amanda de Oliveira Sidney Scully
Lauren Shaul Nicholas Sipes
“The Mythology of Self” was created in part while in residence at Loyola Marymount University.
~ PAUSE ~
“WOMEN, FIRE, AND DANGEROUS THINGS” (2022)
Choreographer by Laurie Sefton
ORIGINAL MUSIC
“Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things” Bryan Curt Kostors
Lighting Design by Dan Weingarten
Costume Design by Merissa Mann with Laurie Sefton
DANCE ARTISTS
Leah Hamel Karina O’Gara Sidney Scully (understudy Gretchen Ackerman)
“Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things” was created in part during a residency at the Claire Trevor Contemporary Arts Center in the Experiment Media Theater laboratory (xMPL) on the campus of the University of California, Irvine, and with the support in part of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland.
JAZZANTIQUA DANCE ENSEMBLE
Artistic Director Pat Taylor
EXCERPTS FROM “CONGO SQUARE – LOVE. LIBATION. LIBERATION.” (2023)
Choreography by Pat Taylor and Company Members
Rehearsal Assistant Latrice Postell
MUSIC
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Wynton Marsalis Yacub Addy and Odadaa!
Lighting Design by Leigh Allen
“RING SHOUT – ‘PEACE OF MIND’”
“LIBATION”
“HOME”
“AWO”
“SUNDAY MARKET”
“HEDZOLE BABA”
SPECIAL GUESTS
Jahanna Blunt V. Kali
THE COMPANY
Keisha Clark-Booth Justin Edmonson Daniel Moore Alex Rasmussen
Chris Smith Laura Ann Smyth Maurice Watson
APPRENTICES
Sam Ballungay Jazmin Gibson (JazzAntiqua LEGACY Jazz Project)
Madeline Sharp Dinah Burnside
– JUNE
2023 –
17,
JOSETTE WIGGAN PRESENTS…
Artistic Director Josette Wiggan
WORLD PREMIERE
“ON SOLID GROUND: A CELEBRATION OF BLACK JOY AND FREEDOM IN OUR AMERICA”
Choreography by Josette Wiggan, in collaboration with and featuring improvisation by the dancers
Original Scores Composed by Tabari Lake Lighting Design by Leigh Allen
Slide Design by Josette Wiggan
TAP DANCERS
Jason Rodgers Karissa Royster Joseph Wiggan Josette Wiggan
MUSICIANS
Electric Bass Guitar: Tabari Lake Tenor Saxophone: Daniel Rotem
Drums: Malachi Whitson Piano: Michael Wooten
“UNDER SIEGE”
Full Cast
“TO WAR, FOWR WHAT?”
Jason Rodgers
“REDEMPTION’S GRACE”
Joseph Wiggan Josette Wiggan
“ON SOLID GROUND” Band Feature
“GINGER THOMAS”
Karissa Royster
“GINGER THOMAS REPRISE”
Jason Rodgers Karissa Royster Joseph Wiggan
“BLUE GOLD”
Joseph Wiggan
“OUR SUNSET, OUR MOMENT, MY TREASURE”
Josette Wiggan
“AFRO CARIBBEAN WOMAN”
Full Cast
BERNARD BROWN/BBMOVES | BBMOVES.ORG
Bernard Brown is an award-winning artist, choreographer, and educator who situates their work at the intersection of Blackness, belonging, and memory. Bernard serves as Executive Artistic Director of Bernard Brown/ bbmoves, choreographing for stage, specific sites, film, and opera. In addition to presenting his scholarship on Blackness, queerness, and inclusive pedagogy nationally, Bernard’s choreography and films are presented globally, including Korea, India, Spain, Burkina Faso, across the US, with upcoming engagements in Italy and Benin. Performance credits include the Kennedy Center, Nike, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Lester Horton Award recipient, Brown has been featured in Dance Magazine, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Times for his dance activism. A first-generation college graduate, Bernard earned his MFA in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA. He is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Loyola Marymount University and a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor Candidate. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”
LAURIE SEFTON CREATES | LAURIESEFTON.COM
Laurie Sefton is an award-winning choreographer, director and creative thinker. A Los Angeles native and granddaughter of a Cuban immigrant, she sees issues through an emotional lens. Laurie Sefton Creates encapsulates the breadth of her issued based work, including concert dance, site-specific performances, short films and tech projects. Her work addresses such varied topics as loss, women’s rights, surveillance, bullying, social media and identity. The winner of the Rocky Mountain Choreography Festival, Ms. Sefton is a rising star in the Los Angeles dance scene, which was cemented by the performance of her site-specific work Concert Walls created for the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Innovation and collaboration are a hallmark of her work including Breathe with audiences participating in the lighting the site-specific work from their cars, The Mythology of Self with photographers and visual artists live on and Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things with costumes that shed. Ms. Sefton’s choreography has been performed in Germany, Poland and throughout the USA
JAZZANTIQUA DANCE ENSEMBLE | JAZZANTIQUA.ORG
JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble was founded in 1993 to celebrate the jazz tradition as a vital thread in the cultural fabric of African American history and heritage. The company has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hollywood Bowl (Playboy Jazz Festivals), LACMA, California African American Museum, and CIAEI Theater in Brazil, among other distinguished venues. Recognitions include support from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, California Humanities, Black Art Futures Fund and the Doolittle Foundation.
Artistic director-choreographer Pat Taylor is the recipient of a Brody Arts Fund Choreography Fellowship, and grants from Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and The Center for Cultural Innovation. She has created work for Loyola Marymount University, Meadows School of the Arts/Southern Methodist University, Peabody Conservatory/Johns Hopkins University, and other colleges. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and is dance faculty at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and CSULB.
JOSETTE WIGGAN
An internationally acclaimed and much sought after educator/ choreographer/ performer, Josette Wiggan has dedicated her life to the perpetuation of African American Vernacular Jazz Dance. A graduate of UCLA, her career highlights include, the 2001 Spotlight Award winner in non-classical dance, the first National Broadway Tour of 42nd Street, movies Idlewild and Princess and the Frog, as well as touring in two original casts of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. In 2021, Josette created her latest work Praise: The Inevitable Fruit of Gratitude in collaboration with jazz trumpeter extraordinaire, Keyon Harrold. And now for the Nate Holden Dance Series, she is thrilled to be debuting On Solid Ground: A Celebration of Black Joy and Freedom In Our America in collaboration with the dancers and musicians of Josette Wiggan Presents…Josette is currently on faculty at USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, teaching Vernacular Jazz and Tap Dance.
ABOUT EBONY REPERTORY THEATRE
Founded by Wren T. Brown and Israel Hicks in June 2007, Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT) is the Resident Company and Operator of the beautiful 400 hundred seat Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. ERT holds the distinction of being the only African American professional theatre company, (Actors Equity) in Los Angeles. With award winning theatre as its cornerstone, ERT also presents a music series, a dance series, lecture series and other perennial programming. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director, Wren T. Brown and Managing Director, Gayle Hooks, ERT’s commitment is to bring diverse, high standard, professional performing arts to the Mid-City community, as well as the greater Los Angeles area, making the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center a Cultural Destination!
OUR MISSION
To create, develop, nurture and sustain a world-class professional theatre rooted in the experience of the African Diaspora.
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Support Ebony Repertory Theatre with a tax-deductible donation today! Scan the QR code or visit www.ebonyrep.org/support.htm for more information.
OUR GRANTORS
