Saturday, March 15, 2025 8:00 PM
Power Center
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
BLACK HOLE: Trilogy and Triathlon
$15-20 student tickets available
Founded in 2019 by American choreographer and performer Shamel Pitts, an alumnus of Batsheva Dance Company, TRIBE is an arts collective composed of international and local artists working across mediums to create a platform for artists of color.
The collective’s work is inspired by the Afrofuturism movement, which strives to tell new stories and create a brighter future that is different, and shines more luminously, from its past. In BLACK HOLE, three Black dancers share the stage in a narrative of unity, vigor, and unrelenting advancement. Their journey originates in the darkness of the titular Black Hole, understood not as a cosmic void but a metaphorical place of transformation and potential. Engulfed in an evocative soundscape of original music, sound samples, and spoken word, the dancers embark on an hour-long, uninterrupted journey in movement, in which their tenacity and grace are emphasized by cinematic video projections and stark, monochromatic lights, all performed to a score composed by U-M alumnus Sivan Jacobovitz. “Another person challenging the traditional views on Black masculinity is Shamel Pitts, one of the most acclaimed dancers/choreographers of his generation and a shining example of Black excellence.” (Afropunk)
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Buy Tickets
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
BLACK HOLE: Trilogy and Triathlon
Power Center
Starting at $26 (+ fees)
$15-20 student tickets available
CHOOSE A PERFORMANCE:
Buy Student TicketsOr call the ticket office at 734-764-2538
* Student, Senior and Group Discounts may be available
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. Shamel has created a triptych of award winning multidisciplinary performance art works known as his “BLACK series” which has been performed and toured extensively to many festivals around the world since 2016. He is an adjunct at The Juilliard School and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. Shamel is the choreographer of the play “Help” by acclaimed poet and playwright Claudia Rankine, directed by Taibi Magar, and commissioned at The Shed in New York. He is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award winner in Choreography, and a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow artist in residence. Shamel is the artistic director/founder of TRIBE, a New York based multidisciplinary arts collective. TRIBE is a 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Artist In Residence for the 2020-2021 season.