Night 1 – November 13 - 7:30 p.m. (join us for post performance reception)
Night 2 – November 14 - 7:30 p.m.
Night 3 – November 15 - 7:30 p.m.

✨ Join us for Luminescence, a rare evening of five original solo works by TRIBE artists: Ashley Pierre-Louis, Marcella Lewis, Tushrik Fredericks, and Shamel Pitts, with performers Marirosa Crawford and Ny Opong. Across three nights only, these brilliant artists illuminate the stage with intimate, powerful, and transformative performances that reflect TRIBE’s core ethos: art as a space for freedom, humanity, and connection.

📍 Venue: The Flea Theater, 20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007

Programming

Think Like They

Choreographer: Shamel Pitts
Performer: Ny Opong
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Duration: 3 minutes, 51 seconds
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Touring History:
2023: Meany Hall Theater, Seattle, WA; 2024: The Ford Theater, Los Angeles, CA

SORAYA

Choreographer & Performer: Ashley Pierre-Louis
Sound Collage: Tushrik Fredericks
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Duration: 10 minutes
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About the work:
With initial inspiration stemming from Nicole Krauss’ short story Switzerland—a part of a larger book entitled To Be A Man – SORAYA aims to create a safe environment for the soloist to live and thrive inside. In this world, explorations within the in-between of “the beginning of [my] sense of self and the chaos of [my] strongest feelings” will take place, culminating in a found unassailable power, rooted in the erotic.
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Touring History:
Soraya has been presented at JACK (2022), Triskelion Arts as part of Beyond the Black Box's BLACK BLACK BLACK Week (2023), Arts on Site as part of the Made by Women Festival (2023), and eden studios***** as part of b12's free radicals program (2023).

(territory) of the heart

Choreographer, Soundscape & Performer: Tushrik Fredericks
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Duration: 12 minutes, 30 seconds
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About the work:
(territory) of the heart physicalizes the experience of the human heart through movement; grappling with inner conflicts of self-identity, being an outsider, and expressing the inner endless potential that lies within oneself despite adversities; to soar, transcend and find
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Touring History:
SoloTanz Festival Stuttgart Germany - Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Augsburg, Lindau, Regensburg, Puchheim (First rendition of the solo) (Venues: TREFFPUNKT Rotebühlplatz, Kulturzentrum Tempel, Kulturhaus abraxas, Stadttheater Lindau, Universität Theater – Uni Regensburg, Kulturzentrum Puchheim) - November 2021

Spectacle of Ritual (solo rendition)

Choreographer: Marcella Lewis
Performer: Marirosa Crawford
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Duration: 9 minutes

little black lake of RED

Choreographer & Performer: Shamel Pitts
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Duration: 40 minutes
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About the work:
little black lake of RED & its attributes simulate the fluidity of waves, within a close proximity between audience & performer, in which childlike wonder, aliveness within stillness, and polyrhythmic embodiment evolves within a multidimensional flow of eccentricity, passion, rituals of self-flagellation, pleasure, & peace overlaps solitude, vigor, nightlife, and the communal rite of dancing together.

little black lake of RED project at The Flea is made possible by The Black Genius Foundation “Strokes of Genius” Fellowship Grant.

little black lake of RED was commissioned by Danspace Project Platform “A Delicate Ritual” curated by Kyle Abraham.

Special thanks to The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, South Africa for creation & production residency support; to Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) for providing rehearsal studio space support; to Emily Waters & my arts collective TRIBE for their unwavering support.
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Artistic Team:
Shamel Pitts
little black lake of RED
Iteration Platform 2024
Concept Director, Choreographer & Performer: Shamel Pitts
Video & Projection Mapping Designer: Lucca Del Carlo
Choreographic Associate or “Troublemaker”: Niall Jones
Lighting Designer: Carol Mullins
Scenic Designer*: Devante’ Melton
Audio Engineer: Devoye Akeem Folkes
Set Fabricator: Evan Jean & Paul Valembois
Stylist: Tushrik Fredericks

*Original scenic design by Nthabiseng Malaka, The Centre for The Less Good Idea (Johannesburg, South Africa).

PLEASE NOTE: Order of Programming subject to change.

Tickets

General Admission: $ 35
Artist / Student / Senior: Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the discount code.
Supporter Ticket: $75

Seating is limited. Reserve your place now.

Luminescence Artistic Team

Concept Director, Choreographer & Performer: Shamel Pitts
Choreograper & Performer: Ashley Pierre-Louis
Choreographer: Marcella Lewis
Performer: Marirosa Crawford
Choreography, Soundscape & Performer: Tushrik Fredericks
Performer: Ny Opong
Video Content & Projection Mapping Designer: Lucca Del Carlo
Production Management: Chanel Pinnock
Lighting Design: Sarai Frazier
Creative Director: Mirelle Martins
Artistic Administrator: E Katrina Lewis
Managing Director: Brittany Wilson
Development Director: Eric Umble
Digital Creative Associate: Pam Panozzo
Worldwide Bookings: Lotus Arts Management | Sophie Myrtil-McCourty

Master Electrician: Henry Mont
A/V Lead: Tarik Phillips
Sound Board Operator: Mike Francis
Sound: Mikah Kota Carpio
Lighting: Amara Payton McNeil
Lighting: Samantha Fujikawa
Lighting: Sajari Hume

With Lead Support From
Harkness Foundation for Dance
Mellon Foundation
Howard Gilman Foundation
Arison Arts Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
little black lake of RED project at The Flea is made possible by The Black Genius Foundation “Strokes of Genius” Fellowship Grant

About TRIBE

TRIBE is a multidisciplinary arts collective led by choreographer Shamel Pitts. Rooted in Black creativity, Afrofuturism, and the power of live performance, TRIBE creates works that embody freedom, transformation, and collective imagination.

Artist Bios

Shamel Pitts (Brooklyn, NY), a 2024 MacArthur Fellow, is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, director, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Pitts began his dance training at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is a first prize winner in The National Arts Competition from YoungArts. Pitts went on to receive his BFA in dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Pitts danced with Batsheva Dance Company for seven years under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Pitts has created a triptych of award-winning performances, with his multidisciplinary arts collective TRIBE, known as his “BLACK series,” as well as their newly emerging “RED series”, which has toured extensively to many festivals & performance spaces around the world since 2016. He is an adjunct professor at The Juilliard School, a guest faculty member at Princeton University, New York University, Wesleyan University and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. He is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Choreography, Doris Duke Artist Award Recipient, Knight Choreography Prize Winner, a Jacob’s Pillow artist-in-residence, and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow. Shamel Pitts | TRIBE has been artist in residence at 92Y Harkness Dance Center and at New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Creative Residency.

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Ny Opong is an improviser; a movement and performing artist. They received a BFA in dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2019. Upon graduation they joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (2019-2024). After leaving the BTJ/AZ Company, Ny joined and was a closing cast member of Life and Trust (2024-2025) an immersive theater show in New York City. In tandem Ny has a vibrant career as an independent artist. Collaborating and performing with artists in live performance and film along the East and West coasts. Ny is interested in the interconnectedness between post-modern, contemporary dance and physical theater. Their artistic research begins with the play between the extremities and subtleties in their body. Ny continues to strengthen their mind-body connection through a variety of somatic practices and is committed to the evolving union between their spiritual and physical being through movement.

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Tushrik Fredericks (he/him), recipient of the Princess Grace Award (Chris Hellman dance honor), nominated by TRIBE (Founding artistic director, Shamel Pitts) in 2021 is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. Growing up he found himself drawn towards ‘KRUMPING‘. He graduated from the Peridance Certificate Program in NYC in June 2015 and has had the opportunity to work with Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY (Danielle Agami, Artistic Director), Sidra Bell Dance New York (Sidra Bell, Artistic Director) and UNA Productions (Chuck Wilt). Fredericks was an assistant lecturer to Sidra Bell at The University of the Arts Philadelphia for Sophomore students (2016-2018). In May 2021 Fredericks received 3rd prize for dance at the SoloTanz Festival in Stuttgart for his first rendition of his self-choreographed solo (territory) of the heart and in May 2023 he showcased the completed rendition of the solo at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Fredericks also received the Baryshnikov Arts Open Fall 2023 residency for a co-choreographed duet with Rebecca Margolick and he is also the recipient of the 2024 Princess Grace Special Projects Grant Award.

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Marcella Lewis hails from Los Angeles, California where she began her dance training at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre. She then continued her studies at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). She later received her BFA from the Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2016, where she was awarded the Adopt-A-Dancer Scholarship. Marcella joined A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in fall 2016, as a dancer, soloist, and company liaison. While with A.I.M, she performed works by Kyle Abraham, Trisha Brown, Doug Varone and Andrea Miller. Marcella was featured with A.I.M in “Dance Magazine” in August 2017 and was a recipient of the 2018 Princess Grace Award in Dance. As a freelance artist, Marcella has performed works by Marjani Forte, Chris Emile, Micaela G. Taylor, Rosana Taverez, Genna Moroni, JA Collective and Jodi Melnick. Marcella has presented her own choreographic works at Dance Theatre Lab, Odyssey Theatre, Highways Performance Space, and Stomping Ground L.A. In 2023, Ms. Lewis performed her own solo installation called Movement Transference, as a part of Institute of Contemporary Arts Los Angeles Infinite Rehearsal. In May 2024, Marcella was a featured artist in SHOUTOUTLA magazine as a part of Local Stories. Marcella is currently a performing artist with TRIBE multidisciplinary visual performances led by Shamel Pitts and is a freelance artist, choreographer and teacher in Los Angeles and New York.

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Marirosa Crawford is a Miami native and a New York based movement artist. She began her training at a local studio in Miami and went on to focus more extensively at New World School of the Arts. Crawford went on to study at SUNY Purchase where she received both her BFA in Dance and a BA in Literature. While at Purchase she worked with Doug Varone and Marcus Jarell Willis, and performed works by Martha Graham and José Limon. Shortly after graduating, she traveled to Montreal to attend Springboard Danse Montreal and had the opportunity perform works by Johannes Weiland and UNA Productions. Marirosa moved to Los Angeles after graduating, choreographing and performing her own solo work titled measuring undercurrents. During her time there she toured internationally with L.A. Dance Project, Volta Collective and worked extensively with Marcella Lewis, Bret Easterling, Chris Emile, and Genna Moroni. She has recently moved back to New York to continue researching her artistry as a performer and movement artist and hopes to begin her career as a writer.

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Ashley Pierre-Louis is a Brooklyn based dance artist, choreographer, arts administrator, producer, and educator dedicated to fostering pleasure and joy through movement and community.

Through her creative work, Ashley invites both herself and audiences to imagine their deepest, strongest, and richest expressions of the self, asking how we might share these collectively to cultivate freedom in both mind and body. She is a performer and creator with Shamel Pitts’ multidisciplinary arts collective TRIBE, and plays a vital role in arts leadership as the Dream Partner/Program Manager for Florida State University’s Arts in NYC program and the Associate Producer at Performance Space New York.

Ashley is currently developing Pleasure Practice, a movement exploration shaping her artistic voice, style, and aesthetic. Through this evolving work, she explores dance as a source of power and righteousness, offering a pleasure-centered, embodied path to joy, liberation, and self-discovery.

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itsatribe.org
itsatribe@gmail.com
@itsatribe

Luminescence

Five Solos. Three Nights Only. Infinite Light. | Presented by TRIBE