Adesola Osakalumi to Present AKINOLA First Look at Works & Process

Culminating a Works & Process residency at Bethany Arts Community, award-winning actor, choreographer, creative director, singer, and dancer Adesola Osakalumi will present a first look of Akinola. Osakalumi excavates the linkages between old world traditions and new world innovations, while expanding the conversation around the depth and cultural significance of street and urban arts.

Drawing on a movement vocabulary inspired by the rich cultural retentions of both American and West African traditions—rhythms, stories, and practices that live through the body—this work explores what it means to move with intention, honoring the past while pushing toward new possibilities for expressing identity, legacy, and community through dance.

Also on the program, ballroom community legend and House of Oricci Founding Father Omari Wiles brings ball culture to the Guggenheim with New York Is Burning, featuring Wiles's AfrikFusion, fusing traditional African dances and Afrobeat with house dance and vogue.

The 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning received critical acclaim for its depiction of the New York drag ball scene and of voguing as a powerful expression of personal pride in the face of racism, homophobia, and the stigma of the AIDS crisis. Just as Paris Is Burning did for New York in the 1980s, New York Is Burning reflects the aspirations, desires, and yearnings of a diverse group of dancers in a city beset by health, racial, and financial crises.

Commissioned by Works & Process prior to the pandemic as an homage to Paris Is Burning on the documentary's thirtieth anniversary, Wiles's work centers on the artists for whom his dance company serves as a surrogate family.