OZ Arts Nashville to Host Southeastern Premiere of MAJOR by Ogemdi Ude

Contemporary arts center OZ Arts Nashville continues its diverse 2025/26 Season with the Southeastern premiere of rising choreographer Ogemdi Ude's breakout work MAJOR. Inspired by the training, rigor, and culture of Majorette dance at Historically Black Colleges & Universities, the Atlanta native mixes the contemporary dance stage with the energy of Friday night lights, creating a work that honors the power and legacy of Black femmes.

With a special local guest appearance by members of TSU's beloved Sophisticated Ladies majorette squad and a drumline from the Grammy-winning Aristocrat of Bands, MAJOR lights up the OZ Arts stage for three performances, February 12-14. The new work is already gaining buzz after a world premiere at Hamburg's Kampnagel International Summer Festival last summer and a U.S. premiere at New York Live Arts this January, plus tour stops in Seattle and Los Angeles before arriving in Nashville.

In Ogemdi Ude's smart and stylish new work, a team of six Black femmes embodies the movement of their girlhood to pursue the intimate journey of returning to the bodies they thought lost. MAJOR transforms and preserves the majorette dance tradition through electrifying movement, provocative sound design, and an online archive honoring the legacy of the form. Black femme majorette teams accompanied by marching bands created a movement style that requires master showmanship with allegiance to count, undulation, groove, and sensual yet strong performativity. Ude brings to life signatures of that distinctive style, such as explosive movements and large formations, and fuses them with contemporary dance forms and theatrical presence, resulting in a tenderly fierce homage to Black femininity. Experiments in improvised vocalizations intertwine with a music score that integrates Southern rap, horns, drumlines, and melodic R&B and soul by music artist / sound designer Lambkin. Exploring themes of physical memory, sexuality, sensuality, and community, this compelling performance becomes a nuanced love letter to the folks who taught the team how to be proudly Black and proudly femme.

Ogemdi Ude is a Nigerian-American dance artist, educator, and doula based in Harlem, New York and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. As an artist and educator, she supports others in investigating their cultural, familial, and personal histories - how they are embedded in their bodies and influence their everyday and performative movement. Her performance works have been presented by esteemed New York institutions like The Kitchen, Abrons Arts Center, Harlem Stage, BRIC, Danspace Project, Gibney, and more. She recently received a Princess Grace Honoraria in Choreography, NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant funding, and a Live Feed Residency at New York Live Arts. OZ Arts' presentation of MAJOR will be the first mainstage presentation of Ude's evening-length choreography in the Southeast.

"Ogemdi Ude is one of the most exciting talents to burst onto the American dance scene in years," said Mark Murphy, OZ Arts Executive and Artistic Director. "With MAJOR, Ogemdi smartly reframes a Southern tradition and uplifts Black femininity with honor, power, and authenticity. We are thrilled to host the Southeastern premiere of this new work in Nashville, and we know local audiences will have many ways to connect with this brilliant, engaging performance."

Tickets to Ogemdi Ude's MAJOR at OZ Arts Nashville start at just $30 and are on sale now via this link. Artists and Creative Community members can also access discounted tickets starting at just $20. Additional 2025/26 Season package options, including a Pick Three trio, can be found via this link.

This presentation of MAJOR is made possible by funding from the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project and the National Endowment for the Arts, with media sponsorship from Urbaanite Nashville and the Nashville Scene. Support for OZ's season is provided by generous donors and grants, including funds from the Tennessee Arts Commission. To learn more about upcoming performances, please visit www.ozartsnashville.org.

TICKETS & MORE INFORMATION

Performances:

Thursday, February 12 at 8:00 p.m.

Friday, February 13 at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 14 at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets: $30-$37

About Choreographer Ogemdi Ude

Ogemdi Ude is a Brooklyn-based dance, theater, and interdisciplinary artist who creates performances, texts, installation, and media that focus on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. She utilizes movement and voice as a tool for digging up personal and sociocultural narratives, and processing grief. Ude's work has been presented at New York Live Arts, Kampnagel's International Summer Festival, The Kitchen, Harlem Stage, BRIC, Abrons Arts Center, Danspace Project, Gibney, and Movement Research at the Judson Church, among many others. She has worked with artists like Raja Feather Kelly, Jessica Grindstaff, Paola Prestini, Jad Abumrad, iele paloumpis, Shariffa Ali, and Lear deBessonet. In addition to her work as a choreographer, Ude also works as a doula, offering critical intervention in the high death rates of birthing people and babies by providing hands-on support before, during, and after labor and delivery.

Among her many accolades, Ude is a 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography, 2025 Princess Grace Honoraria in Choreography, 2025-2028 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, 2024 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant recipient, and a Live Feed Residency Artist at New York Live Arts. In January 2022, she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine for their annual "25 to Watch" issue. Most recently, she published a book Watch Me in a collection edited by Thomas DeFrantz and Annie-B Parson: Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study published by Dancing Foxes Press and Wesleyan University Press. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English, Dance, and Theater from Princeton University.

About OZ Arts Nashville

Founded in 2013 by the Ozgener family, OZ Arts Nashville has quickly established itself as one of the Southeast's most influential and respected producers and presenters focused on the creation and presentation of significant performing and visual artworks by diverse cultural visionaries who are making vital contributions to the evolution of contemporary culture. Through performances, exhibitions, and community events, OZ Arts focuses on producing and presenting the work of local and visiting artists who reflect our diverse society, utilize new artistic forms and technology in creative ways, and provide opportunities for meaningful engagement with audiences, students and cultural and civic leaders. OZ Arts' unique creative warehouse has developed a reputation as a major national and regional laboratory for experimentation and a home for contemporary dance and performance. More than 70,000 audience members have been introduced to adventurous artists from around the world since the organization opened, and hundreds of local and regional artists have used OZ's 10,000 square-foot warehouse theater to develop new works. For more information, please visit ozartsnashville.org.