Alethea Pace

​between wave and water

 

Written and directed by Alethea Pace 

 

Performed by Maria Bauman, S T A R R busby, Imani Gaudin, Darvejon Jones, Alex Lasalle, Alethea Pace, Maleek Rae, Katrina Reid, Indigo Sparks

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Choreographed by Alethea Pace in collaboration with the performers

 

Music composed and arranged by S T A R R busby

 

Lyrics by Alethea Pace 

 

Additional music by Stevie Wonder

 

Front of house/ Post Mixing Engineering by Adrian Martinez 

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Costume design by Mauricio Barrera

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Mask Construction by Katherine Miranda 

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Rehearsal Direction by Richard Rivera

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Project Management by Kenia Rosete

 

Creative Production by Dria Brown

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Production Support by Tyson Dai, Olivia Jones and Mateo Garcia 

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Community Partners: BronxArtSpace, Hunts Point Slave Burial Ground Project, Inspiration Point, The Point CDC, Fratilli's Pizza,  P.S. 48, Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School

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This work is supported by

BAAD!, Bronx Council on the Arts Cultural Visions Fund and Bronx Dance Fund, Loghaven Artist Residency, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Civic Practice Partnership Residency and MAD Arts Residency at Modern Accord Depot.

 

Much appreciation to previous collaborators Aleta Brown, Anthony Holiday and Gabi Silva

 

 

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collaborator bios ​

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Alethea Pace is a Bronx-based multidisciplinary movement artist committed to creating work in and with her community that is rooted in social justice. She is a 2023-2025 Civic Practice Partnership Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a 2024 MAP Fund grantee. A recipient of the 2021 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award, her work has been presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, BAAD!, Works and Process at the Guggenheim, Pregones Theater, Dancing While Black, Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, and the 92Y, to name a few. She has received residency support from Loghaven Residency, TN, Keshet Arts, NM, and Modern Accord Depot, NY.

 

As a dancer, Alethea has performed with a variety of choreographers and was a member of Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre from 2001-2008. She has been a collaborator in numerous multimedia community-centered projects including with Angela’s Pulse, Dancing in the Streets, and the Laundromat Project. In 2019 she worked as an associate producer on the award-winning documentary “Down A Dark Stairwell” directed by Ursula Liang.

 

Alethea trained at Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center in the Bronx, and has a BA in Urban Design from NYU and an MFA in Digital and Interdisciplinary Arts from the City College of New York. She is an adjunct professor at Lehman College.

 

Maria Bauman (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist and community organizer from Jacksonville, FL now based in Brooklyn, NY. Bauman makes bold and honest artworks for her company MBDance, based on physical and emotional power, insistence on equity, and experiments with intimacy. She is also co-founder of ACRE (Artists Co-creating Real Equity) and a core trainer with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. The primary question guiding Bauman's artmaking and her life is "How can we BE Together, Better?” 

 

Bauman has recently been recognized for choreography and for dancing with two Bessie Awards, an Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Fellowship and two Maggie Allessee National Choreographic Center residencies. She is currently the 2024-25 Alvin Ailey Artist-in-Residence, a Mertz-Gilmore/NYFA dance award recipient and the Queer Art Exchange Network ambassador artist on behalf of BAAD!.

 

Previously, she danced with Urban Bush Women (UBW), and was UBW's Director of Education and Community Engagement before becoming the Associate Artistic Director. She has also danced with Liz Lerman, Makini Poe and Donte Beacham, Tatyana Tenenbaum, and Alethea Pace.

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S T A R R busby (they/she/he/we - all pronouns said with respect) is a Black experimental artist who sings, acts, composes, educates, and is committed to the liberation of all people. A recent recipient of a NYSCA grant, S T A R R leads a music project under their name which will release a debut project in 2024 - Working Up A Surrender. She is also the lead singer of dance&b band People's Champs (www.peopleschampsnyc.com) which released their latest project, Process, in the Fall of 2023. S T A R R  has also supported and collaborated with artists such as The Gorillaz, Esperanza Spalding, Son Lux, X Ambassadors, Kimbra, Alice Smith, and Quelle Chris. Selected credits: Rest Within the Wake (James Allister Sprang, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Featured Soloist); (pray) (Ars Nova and National Black Theatre, A Singer, Composer, and Music Director); The Beautiful Lady (La Mama, Boris); On Sugarland (NYTW, co-composer) *2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Finalist; Octet (Signature Theatre, Paula) *Drama Desk Award Winner; Mikrokosmos, Sterischer Herbst (Graz), Nottingham Contemporary; The Girl with the Incredible Feeling, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi. All music available via Bandcamp and all streaming services. Love, gratitude and ashé to my blessed honorable ancestors, especially MME. www.https://linktr.ee/S_T_A_R_R 

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Imani Gaudin studied dance at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts where she was awarded a Certificate of Artistry in dance. She then graduated with honors from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY where she studied abroad at the Amsterdam University of the Arts, Academie Voor Theater en Dans. Imani has had the pleasure of performing works by Ohad Naharin, Netta Yerushalmy, Nicole Butler, David Harvey, Carmen Rozestraten, Marcella Lewis, Amos Ben-Tal, Rena Butler, Roderick George, Loni Landon, and Akira Yoshida. She has also worked with, performed, and collaborated with Kayla Farrish and Micheal Rice. Currently, Imani is a movement artist with TRIBE under the direction of Shamel Pitts. In March of 2024 she was a resident at Kaastsbaan Cultural Park, and is also a Baryshnikov Arts Center and Pepatián Dancing Futures 2024 AIR. As the Artistic Director/Founder of Gaudanse, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, she created a collaborative space for all artists to provide access and education to dance and the arts.

 

Darvejon Jones is a father, a bicoastal interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary dance artist, a performer, a CultureBot performing arts contributor, a Movement Research and Performance Journal contributor, and a dance studies scholar. He holds an MFA in Dance from Hunter College, a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography, and a minor in Japanese from San Francisco State University.

 

Alex LaSalle is a high priest (Tata Nkisi) to one of the oldest houses of Kongo-Cuban Palo in Cuba and now New York City-- Batalla Sacampeño Mayombe. His teacher and mentor is Florencio Miguel Garzon (“Loanganga”) from Cuba. In addition to serving as a diviner and priest, Alex is also a specialist in hundreds of Afro-Cuban Kongo Mambo songs and rituals. Alex is fluent in the Afro-Cuban Bantu/Kongo language, is an avid researcher and oral historian. He has presented lectures for educators and students at Yale, Columbia, New York University, Long Island University and others. A teaching artist in the public schools of New York City, Alex is the founder and director of Alma Moyo Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba group, and member of Grammy Nominated Los Pleneros de la 21 and Grupo Folklorico Experimental Nueva Yorquino. Alex has performed with such groups as Roberto Cepeda’s Bomba Aché, William Cepeda’s Afro-Boricua, Felix Alduén y su Tambores, Pa’lo Monte, Nchila Ngoma Mayombe, and 21 Division.

 

Maleek Rae (they/them) great-grandchild of Jospeh Gilbert, hails from the Eastside of Detroit, MI. They are gender queer multidisciplinary Rapper/Writer/Actor/Producer. Maleek is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase BFA acting conservatory. Their credits include The Best Man: The Final Chapters(Peacock), Random Acts of Flyness(HBO), East New York(CBS), and their recurring role on Law & Order: Organized Crime(NBC). Maleek's work can also be seen on stages throughout NYC, national commercials, video games, and their own original multi media creations. Theatre credits include; Ghetto Alchemy: A Lunchroom Survival Guide(The Tank), 'Tia Pray A Sound(BTBF), The Bacchae(Classical Theatre if Harlem), and Messiah(La Mama).Maleek is a 2024 Gatekeeper Collective Learning To Love Fellow, 2023-24' Institute fellow with Target Margin Theatre, a 2024 EMERGE cohort member at Brooklyn Art Exchange, and a current member of LIT Council.

“Work Hard and Pray Harder.” www.maleekrae.com

 

Katrina Reid (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer who crafts art projects rooted in improvisation, experimentation, and storytelling. Select presentations of her work include the Queens Museum, ISSUE Project Room, the Knockdown Center, Current Sessions, DoublePlus/Gibney Dance, AUNTS, and the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. As a collaborator, Katrina explores performance across dance, theater, music, ritual, and film. Learn more at katrina-reid.com.

 

Indigo Sparks (she/her) is a performance artist, choreographer, producer, and director based in Brooklyn, NY. Her deep curiosity around the facilitation of community and transcendent possibilities of performance continue to be reflected in her creative work and processes. Sparks attended The University of The Arts where she trained in contemporary dance styles with choreographers like Gerard and Kelly, Bobbi Jene Smith, Faustin Linyekula, Netta Yerualshalmy, Helen Simoneau, and Tommie Waheed-Evans as well as vocal performance. In 2021 she became a Sundance Interdisciplinary Arts Grantee with her short documentary dance film “it’s a matter of the soul” followed by an Assistant Choreographer and Understudy role for the touring off-broadway musical "Yemandja” starring Angélique Kidjo. Her most recent performances include interdisciplinary projects like “Little Amal ” choreographed by Kayla Farrish and "PD(s)A" created by nicHi douglas for Lincoln Center. In 2023 she received a scholarship to GALLIM’s two-week Process Immersion residency with Pina Bausch company member Eddie Martinez and began developing a new solo work titled “Passarhino.” Sparks continues to perform and produce her own work in addition to working as an associate producer for THE OFFICE performing arts + film for artists like William Kentridge, Francesca Harper, and more.

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Mauricio Barrera is a passionate and innovative designer with over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry. With a background in tailoring and design, he specializes in creating visually stunning and character-driven designs for artists such as Lizzo, Solange, and Gloria Estefan.
 

His work is characterized by a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of storytelling through fabric and form. Having collaborated with choreographer Richard Rivera on various projects for PHYSUAL dance company, Mauricio has earned recognition for his ability to bring characters to life and enhance the narrative through costume. He believes that costumes are not just clothing but a vital part of the storytelling process, reflecting the emotional journeys of characters.
 

DRIA Brown is an artDoula (creative producer, facilitator, artist) from South Carolina, living and working in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). Dria’s multi-hyphenate practices center the lush and freedom-filled possibilities that exist in a world where all Black people, and specifically Black women and femmes are centered and cared for. Dria is currently the Co-Director of Programming at the Tony award winning arts advocacy non profit, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, a Theater of Change Facilitator at Columbia Law School and the Senior Creative Producer of Britton & The Sting - a funk liberation band based in NYC.

Founder of CarrieR WavE Productions, Adrian M. Martinez has been involved in music, audio and the arts his entire life. As a NYC native from the Bronx, in his childhood, he attended choir, piano, fine arts, sculpture and dance at the Harlem School of the Arts, SVA and NYU. In 2006, he began telling stories through the art of DJ'ing, eventually diving deeper into music production and theory almost 10 years later in order to learn how to tell his own stories. During that time, Adrian invested in equipment to mix sound on set, expanding and learning independently while on hundreds of jobs, some which took him around the world with associates and friends. Becoming an engineering professional allowed the pursuit of other life-long interests, like learning how to play musical instruments such as drums & percussion, winds, horns and keys.

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Richard Rivera is a Bronx based movement artist from NYC. He is a dancer/teacher of contemporary modern dance and documentor of live performance. His experiences range from developing/producing performance work for his project company, PHYSUAL and for different dance / theater institutions in the US and abroad. Assisting a creative process in any capacity promotes spiritual gratitude. Thank you Alethea, cast and crew for being open to an outside eye and discussing artistic choices.

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 Kenia Rosete  (she/her) is a Mexican-American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and performance producer from the borderlands of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California, currently based in the borderlands of Jersey City/New York City. Her work, rooted in social and contemporary dance forms, highlights a meticulous investigation of proximity and touch in highly collaborative performance works. She has presented her work throughout Southern California, New York and New Jersey venues; worked as a dancer in various performance projects; as a Project Manager for Alethea Pace; and as a Producer for the new dance series program at Art House Productions. Kenia holds a BA in Foreign Languages from the University of California, Riverside and an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. www.keniadance.com

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Portia Wells (they/them) is a trans multidisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (NYC). They were born and raised on occupied lands and waters known as the Finger Lakes region of New York. Dance has been the central axis of their life, mobilizing their personal voice to communicate, explore, and research group dynamics, ephemerality (and otherwise), and socio-political realities. Their work/practice centers identity and intimacy as informed by their lived queer and trans experience, collaborative processes, and queer theory. Their work spans choreography, production and stage management, sound and lighting design, creative direction, writing. They are a cofounder of FourAcres, a creative production company creating platforms and pathways to bring together skilled artists with global perspectives.​