Nimbus Dance Works Marks 10 Years with BAM Performances This Week

Nimbus Dance Works will take the stage with three performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fishman Space at the Fisher Building tonight, May 8 at 8 PM and tomorrow, May 9 at 2 and 8 PM. Marking 10 years of producing its own brand of impactful dance, Nimbus will present the world premieres of two works at BAM.

The company premieres Patch of Turf by Nimbus Artistic Director Samuel Pott, a work with original music composed by Qasim Naqvi of Dawn of Midi performed live by Brooklyn's NOW Ensemble. Patch of Turf considers humankind's fragile relationship to the natural environment in the context of diminishing resources and disconnect from nature. Italian choreographer Luca Veggetti creates Scene/Nimbus, a new work utilizing interactive sculptural art pieces designed by artist Moe Yoshida. Nimbus will present the company premiere of seminal modern dance work Strange Fruit, by Pearl Primus; and additional repertory works by Francesca Harper and Samuel Pott, including Pott's 2012 collaboration, Scarabs, with Brooklyn visual artist Nicola Lopez and Hong Kong composer Samson Young.

The Saturday matinee performance event, Public Forum: Dance, Race and Social Justice features a program of dance works with social justice themes including Pearl Primus' 1942 Strange Fruit, Charles Weidman's 1936 Lynchtown, Pott's We Acquiesce, and Thistown performed by dance students from Drew University and New Jersey City University. Producer and Curator Baraka Sele, joined by a panel notable figures in the dance field, will lead a town hall style, post-performance discussion about dance in relation to political and social issues. Charles Weidman's Lynchtown, is recognized as an emblematic work of the early American modern dance pioneers which depicts a frenzied mob intent on murder, and is based on Weidman's childhood experience of witnessing a lynching. Pioneering African-American choreographer Pearl Primus's Strange Fruit is a solo piece set to a reading of the iconic poem of the same name. Thistown is a work Nimbus creates with student dancers examining social or societal issues important to them, drawing on a new generation of social and political voices in dance.

Known for creating structured dances with emotional impact, Mr. Pott's choreography has been seen recently at the Joyce Theater, the Downtown Dance Festival and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Luca Veggetti, a former artistic director of Morphoses, has created works for esteemed dance companies worldwide including the Kirov Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and most recently returns from Hiroshima where he directed an opera Vision of Lear. Charles Weidman, dancer with Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis' Denishawn, co-founder of the Humphrey-Weidman Dance Company, choreographed, taught and directed for six decades in the 20th Century. Pearl Primus, a member of the New Dance Group in New York in the 40s, pioneered African- American dance throughout much of the 20th Century - drawing on African and Carribean and modern dance traditions to innovate new approaches to movement.

Nimbus Dance Works focuses its efforts on the intersection between top-caliber concert dance and innovative ways of bringing dance into the communities it serves, all the while pioneering new artistic territory. Founded in 2005, performers with Nimbus Dance Works are top-tier international dance artists drawn from widely recognized companies including Ballet Hispanico, Scapino Ballet, Ailey II and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Nimbus Dance Works: 10 Years
at BAM, with NOW Ensemble
Dates: Friday, May 8th 8pm, Saturday, May 9th 2pm & 8pm
Sat Eve Post-show Reception Celebrating Nimbus' 10TH Anniversary
Tickets: $25 General; $15 Students/Seniors; Ticket & Sat. Reception: $75 and $150 Box Office: WWW.BAM.ORG / (718) 636-4100
Venue: BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Information: www.nimbusdanceworks.org

Program:

Friday/Saturday 8PM w/ NOW Ensemble
Patch of Turf - Samuel Pott (World Premiere) Scene/Nimbus - Luca Veggetti (World Premiere) Strange Fruit - Pearl Primus (Company Premiere) Lynchtown - Charles Weidman
We Acquiesce - Samuel Pott
Scarabs - Samuel Pott

Saturday 2pm: Public Forum: Dance, Race and Social Justice Strange Fruit - Pearl Primus (Company Premiere)
Lynchtown - CHARLES WEIDMAN
We Acquiesce - Samuel Pott

Patch of Turf - Samuel Pott
Thistown - Performed by Drew University and New Jersey City University Town Hall Post Performance Discussion Led by Baraka Sele