Shamel Pitt's BLACK VELVET Comes to BAM Fisher

Brooklyn-born dancer and choreographer Shamel Pitts returns home with his recent work BLACK VELVET: Architectures and Archetypes. The piece, which played to sold-out houses in NYC and around the world in 2017, is the second installment of the Black Series and a follow-up to his autobiographical solo Black Box ("gem-like" - DanceEnthusiast). The multimedia-infused BLACK VELVET, choreographed by Pitts, is a product a of two-year collaboration with his performing partner Mirelle Martins and lighting designer Lucca del Carlo.

The work will be performed May 9-12 at Brooklyn Academy Of Music's BAM Fisher/ Fishman Space (321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY, 11217). Tickets (May 9: $65, $40; May 10-12: $50, $20) can be purchased at www.bam.org/blackvelvet or by calling 718.636.4100 x1.

Comprising vignette-like solos and duets immersed in intense music, evocative lighting and complemented by the spoken word, BLACK VELVET is a theatrical meditation on transcending the boundaries of gender, race, love, friendship, and identity. In this 60-minute multidisciplinary work, the textures of shimmering golden bodies, cloth, and bright light appear and disappear in a dance featuring two androgynous performers, covered only by loincloths reminiscent of ancient figures. The titular BLACK VELVET is a metaphor for many aspects and facets of Blackness. However, while Black identity is an important theme for both creators of this work, they see it as much more than just an expression of identity politics or a statement against sexualizing and fetishizing brown bodies, so pervasive in modern culture. Architectures and Archetypes refer to any societal structure and constraint that needs redefining on the journey towards a full understanding of one's sense of self.

Pitts and Martins premiered the project in Brazil in 2016 and have been touring it internationally. In 2017, BLACK VELVET received the Audience Choice Award at Stockholm Fringe Festival and gained praise for Martins as a "phenomenal performer" at the ImpulsTanz in Vienna. The duo will be working together again in the upcoming work BLACK HOLE, the third part of Pitt's Black Series trilogy.

While rooted in movement - the starting point of the collaboration between the choreographer Shamel Pitts and Brazilian-born performer Mirelle Martins who met in 2013 at the Gaga workshop led by Pitts - the work is a result of deep personal connection. "BLACK VELVET is about the efficiency of strangers to become partners," explains Pitts. "From the first moment that Mirelle and I saw each other, we really SAW each other. Not only because we were the only black people in the room; there was a strong sense of bond, as if we were two different aspects of the same person. This ability to see each others' similarities lead to learning and celebrating each other's differences, which I hope the audiences will recognize as universal. What was also of great importance, Mirelle's participation in this project allowed me to explore a deeply personal and formative theme of Black womanhood. Women of my family were the superheroes of my youth; their strength and resilience were an inspiration for me not only as a gay Black man growing up in Brooklyn but also as an artist interested in exploring diverse aspects of the masculine and feminine, the vulnerable and the powerful."

Martins, for whom, at 32, the work was the first array into dance, adds: "When we started working on this project, I was not a part of the dance world. I didn't have any idea about the importance of Batsheva or that Shamel was already a big star. The connection emerged because of who he is, not what he represented. I was able to become a performer only thanks to the intensity of our shared ideas and beliefs, hard work, and the sense of deep, mutual trust. Shamel took a big chance entrusting his second-ever work to someone who never danced professionally before; I threw myself into this work with a sense of abandon that allowed me to do things I never thought possible: shave my head; perform topless; climb a 20-foot ladder on stage. Learning to use my body was a difficult process but it introduced me to an area of expression that immediately felt natural - and not only expanded my artistic vocabulary but empowered me as a Black woman by instilling a new sense of confidence. BLACK VELVET transformed me, figuratively, from a 'nobody' into a golden performer."
BLACK VELVET, choreographed by Shamel Pitts, features lighting and video mapping by the Brazilian multimedia designer Lucca del Carlo, costumes by David Gap, and sound design by Tentáculo Áudio (Ed Côrtes). The performance is accompanied by an exhibition of photographs by Mauricio Pisani, Alex Apt, Wilian Aguiar, and Rebecca Stella. Graphic design by Idan Epshtein.

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