New Films By Jack Ferver and Omari Wiles Will Be Part of ALL ARTS' 'Past, Present, Future' Dance Film Festival

ALL ARTS, The WNET Group's multiplatform arts and culture hub, announces it will premiere films by celebrated dance artists Jack Ferver and Omari Wiles on its nationwide streaming app, website and local broadcast channel as part of its second Past, Present, Future dance film festival.

Ferver's Nowhere Apparent and Wiles' Our Name Our Legacy will premiere, respectively, on Tuesday, February 28, and March 7, at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS TV, the free ALL ARTS app, and AllArts.org/PastPresentFuture.

ALL ARTS' Past, Present, Future initiative, which launched with its inaugural festival in May 2021, commissions films in which dance artists explore the past, present and future of their work. Past participants have included choreographers Kyle Abraham and Pam Tanowitz and the disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light.

Past, Present, Future 2023 Premieres

Jack Ferver: Nowhere Apparent

Tuesday February 28 at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS

Access: AD, CC available

New York-based writer, choreographer, and director Jack Ferver (they/them) creates genre-defying performances that The New Yorker has described as "so extreme that they sometimes look and feel like exorcisms." Their works interrogate and indict an array of psychological and socio-political issues, particularly in the realms of sexual orientation, gender and power struggles. Ferver blurs boundaries between fantastic theatrics and stark naturalism, character and self, humor and horror.

In Nowhere Apparent, Ferver poetically explores their grief over the generation of choreographers and dancers lost to the AIDS epidemic. Through a series of theatrical vignettes interspersed with newly shot performance footage, Ferver and filmmaker Jeremy Jacob interrogate themes of queer isolation and feelings of loss and abandonment in the wake of a failed response to the AIDS crisis.

Nowhere Apparent is written and choreographed by Jack Ferver and directed by Jeremy Jacob.

Omari Wiles: Our Name Our Legacy

Tuesday March 7 at 8 p.m. ET on ALL ARTS
Access: AD, CC available

Omari Wiles (he/him) was born in Senegal, West Africa. He is best known as Legendary Omari Nina Oricci, founder of The Royal House of Nina Oricci, and as Creative Director of the Les Ballet Afrik dance company. Wiles began his training in West African dance at the age of six and, while developing the skills needed to teach those forms, found himself falling in love with learning and training in other styles, such as hip-hop, house, modern dance and voguing. Since then, Wiles has worked with artists ranging from Rashaad Newsome to Janet Jackson, John Legend, Jidenna, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Wiles was featured on the second season of HBO Max's ballroom competition show "Legendary." With Les Ballet Afrik, he continues to develop his own style, blending African dance with vogue and house.

In Our Name Our Legacy, Wiles takes center stage tracing his singular artistic journey, from his beginnings in West African dance to his becoming one of the leading lights of today's ballroom and contemporary dance scenes. Featuring interviews with leading members of The Royal House of Nina Oricci and behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, the documentary created by Wiles and filmmaker Jabari Taylor explores the influence of family traditions and legacy in ballroom culture and dance.

Our Name Our Legacy is directed and filmed by Jabari Taylor.

"For years, Jack Ferver and Omari Wiles have been challenging expectations of what dance can be," said James King, Senior Artistic Director of ALL ARTS. "We are delighted to shine a spotlight on their journeys and the myriad influences that continue to shape their practice. We hope to have given them a platform to expand their artistry even further."

In the lead-up to this year's festival, ALL ARTS will broadcast encores of the acclaimed films from the inaugural festival in 2021 on three consecutive Tuesday nights: One + One Make Three, Katherine Helen Fisher's film about disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light, on February 7 at 8 p.m. ET; If We Were a Love Song, a collaboration between choreographer Kyle Abraham, Abraham's company A.I.M and filmmaker Dehanza Rogers, on February 14 at 8 p.m. ET; and DANCERS (Slightly of Shape), a collaboration between choreographer Pam Tanowitz and director Liz Sargent, on February 21 at 8 p.m. ET. These films are streaming nationwide on the ALL ARTS app and AllArts.org/PastPresentFuture.

All Past, Present, Future films will have audio description (AD) and closed captioning (CC) available.

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