til infiniti (excerpt)
Choreography by Tushrik Fredericks
Performers Tushrik Fredericks, Minylan Echols and Babou Sanneh
Lighting Design Rus Snelling
SORE (excerpt)
Concept Direction by Ashley Pierre-Louis
Choreography by Ashley Pierre-Louis in collaboration with Dominica Greene
Sound Collage by Tushrik Fredericks
Performers Dominica Greene and Ashley Pierre-Louis
Lighting Design Rus Snelling
Post-Show Q&A with Shamel Pitts
A reception will follow the performance. Presented in partnership with the RBF Culpeper Arts & Culture program.
Artistic Production Manager & Stage Manager Rus Snelling
Shamel Pitts is an award-winning performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. He is a 2024 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award 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 multidisciplinary arts collective.
Shamel Pitts (Brooklyn, NY), a 2024 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, director, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Pitts began his dance training at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is a first prize winner in The National Arts Competition from YoungArts. Pitts 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. Pitts danced with Batsheva Dance Company for seven years under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Pitts has created a triptych of award-winning multidisciplinary performances, with his arts collective TRIBE, known as his “BLACK series,” which has toured extensively to many festivals & performance spaces around the world since 2016. 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 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow, a Jacob’s Pillow artist-in-residence, and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow. shamelpitts.com & itsatribe.org
Tushrik Fredericks is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award (Chris Hellman dance honor), nominated by TRIBE (Founding artistic director, Shamel Pitts) in 2021 is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. Growing up he found himself drawn toward the style ‘KRUMP‘. He graduated from the Peridance Certificate Program in NYC in June 2015 and has had the opportunity to work with Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY (Danielle Agami, Artistic Director), Sidra Bell Dance New York (Sidra Bell, Artistic Director) and UNA Productions (Chuck Wilt). Fredericks was an assistant lecturer to Sidra Bell at The University of the Arts Philadelphia for Sophomore students (2016-2018). In May 2021 Fredericks received 3rd prize for dance at the SoloTanz Festival in Stuttgart for his first rendition of his self-choreographed solo ‘(territory) of the heart’ and in May 2023 he showcased the completed rendition of the solo at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Fredericks also received the Baryshnikov Arts Open Fall 2023 residency for a co-choreographed duet with Rebecca Margolick. tushrikfredericks.com
Minylan Echols was born in Chicago, Illinois where he began his dance training. Minylan currently studies at SUNY Purchase Dance Conservatory under Darrah Carr. Minylan has done works by Martha Graham, Norbert De La Cruz, and New Dance Group. instagram.com/minylan
Babou Sanneh is a first-generation Gambian-American dance artist and model from the Bronx, New York. Currently a dancer at the Metropolitan Opera and a model/commercial dancer with MSA, Sanneh has graced stages and screens with his talent and presence. He has performed works by acclaimed choreographers such as Martha Graham, Bill T. Jones, Johannes Weiland, Camile A. Brown, Victor Quijada, Linda Celeste Sims, Glenn Allen Sims, and more. Sanneh’s performance credits include appearances with the Lyric Opera Chicago and Afrofuturistic arts collective, TRIBE.
His versatility extends beyond the stage, with notable screen appearances in HBO’s “Random Acts of Flyness” and the world premiere of “Doppelgänger” at the Park Avenue Armory. Sanneh has also been featured in campaigns for esteemed brands like Telfar and Burberry.
A graduate of the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, Sanneh’s journey is marked by a commitment to artistic excellence and a passion for storytelling through movement and expression. As an early creator, Babou is a 2024 Pepetain Bronx Arts Collaborative Residency recipient, beginning his artistic vision under his company RareBreed Productions. Additionally, he is currently serving as an assistant choreographer to Maleek Washington on his creation for Broadway Bares. instagram.com/babousanneh_
Ashley Pierre-Louis is originally from Miami, FL. For highschool, she attended New World School of the Arts and later, attended Florida State University, where she graduated with a BFA in dance. She is currently a dance artist and creator freelancing and exploring choreography in New York City. When making, she asks herself and audiences to imagine what our physical, emotional, and psychic expressions of what is deepest and strongest and richest within each of us is, and how we can share them collectively in order to create a sense of freedom in the mind and body. She currently performs with Shamel Pitts’ multidisciplinary performance collective TRIBE, Emily Johnson/Catalyst Dance, and Edisa Weeks’ DELIRIOUS Dances. She is also the Dream Partner/ Program Manager for Florida State University’s Arts in NYC program, as well as the Artist Services Associate for Performance Space New York (PS 122).’ Her past artistic feats includes working as the dramaturg for Shamel Pitts’ work Touch of RED, as well as being the Associate Choreographer for the play Help (2022) by acclaimed poet and playwright Claudia Rankine, directed by Taibi Magar, and commissioned at The Shed in New York. She has premiered the play Thoughts of A Colored Man by playwright Keenan Scott II and director Steve Broadnax III at Syracuse Stage and Baltimore Center Stage as well as performed for the premiere of Donna Uchizono’s work March Under an Empty reign at The Joyce: NY Quadrille Festival. She has been one of GALLIM’s Moving Women spring artist – in – residence and has also been a part of Alvin Ailey’s inaugural Choreography Unlocked Festival under the direction of Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women, and Robert Battle. instagram.com/ashleypierrelouis
Dominica Greene is a bi-racial Caribbean-American artist harnessing the elements, spirit, and womanness into an existence rooted in love, community, and regeneration. Residing on the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape people, Greene values dance as one of the purest forms of expression, utilizing it as an energetic entity capable of affecting real and palpable change. dominicagreene.com & instagram.com/draminica
Rus Snelling is an Australian artist who has worked as a production, stage, site and tour manager, lighting and set designer, consultant, technical director and a fire sculptor with arts organizations, institutions and freelancing on events and installations around the world ranging from intimate theatrical works, shows on and off Broadway in NYC and on London’s West End. His work includes large scale indoor and outdoor festivals, the Sydney Olympic Ceremonies, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games Ceremonies & Cultural Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festivals, Montreal Just for Laughs, Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festivals, Vancouver Winter Olympics Cultural Festival, MASS MoCA’s Solid Sound, Centennial celebrations, river & street parades, tours & various music festivals. Rus has worked with many artists over 30+ years of which some include Shamel Pitts|TRIBE, Merce Cunningham, Laurie Anderson, John Leguizamo, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno, Tim Robbins & The Actors Gang, Taylor Mac, Patti Smith, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Bandaloop, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, DeLanna Studi & Octopus Theatricals, Abraham.In.Motion, Streb & Phantom Limb Company and on projects and tours through Australia, USA, Canada, Tunisia, Europe, Asia & South America. Rus worked at PS122 many moons ago and was the founding Production Manager & Resident Lighting Designer at Oz Arts in Nashville TN, before continuing to freelance around the world. He hopes you enjoy the show!
