Bronx Gothic
Okwui Okpokwasili
Running time 75’
The Italian premiere of Bronx Gothic, a fictive autobiographical invocation of the minds and bodies of two 6th-grade girls on the verge of adolescence in the mid-1980s by performer, choreographer, and writer Okwui Okpokwasili. Originally performed by Okpokwasili, choreographer, dancer, and performer Wanjiru Kamuyu now embodies the piece with a new energy, combining dance, song and text. The artist presents a darkly powerful tale of sexual discovery and intimate interweavings taking place in New York’s peripheral boroughs. Characterized by Okpokwasili's signature style – highly physical and ruthless – the work engages with the experience of a body in transformation asking: how do we contend with the multiple conditions that are always present in one body?
Okwui Okpokwasili is a Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer and writer creating multidisciplinary performance pieces. The child of immigrants from Nigeria, Okpokwasili was born and raised in the Bronx, and the histories of these places and the girls and women who inhabit them feature prominently in her work. In 2022, she was the inaugural artist for the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio Residency Program at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellowship, a 2018 Herb Alpert Award in Dance, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship.
Wanjiru Kamuyu, native Kenyan based in Paris, France, is associate artist with Theater L’Onde (Vélizy, France) and a Live Feed artist with New York Live Arts (USA). Her career began with its genesis in New York City. As a performer, she has worked with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bill T. Jones, Molissa Fenley, Anita Gonzales, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nathan Trice, Dean Moss, Tania Isaac, and in Europe with choreographers Robyn Orlin, Emmanuel Eggermont, Nathalie Pubellier, Irène Tassembedo, Bartabas, Stefanie Batten Bland, director/writer Françoise Dô, visual artist Jean-Paul Goude and TV director Christian Faure. Alongside Kamuyu has performed in industrials, television and Broadway musicals, The Lion King (Paris) and FELA ! (UK and Equity European and US tours). Kamuyu founded dance company, WKcollective, which is associate company with creative production agency camin aktion (Montpellier, France). Her choreographic projects include tours in the US, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Peter Born works as a director, composer and designer of performance and installation, often in collaboration with Okwui Okpokwasili, with whom he has created the installation repose without rest without end in Trondheim (2021), Swallow the Moon at Jacob’s Pillow (2021), on the way, undone at the High Line (2021), Poor People’s TV Room (SOLO) installation at the New Museum and the Hammer Museum (2021), Sitting on a Man’s Head (2019) at Danspace Project, Adaku’s Revolt (2019) at Abrons Arts Center, At the Anterior Edge (2018) with the Barnard Dance Department, Poor People’s TV Room (2017), when I return, who will receive me (2016), Bronx Gothic (The Oval) (2014), Bronx Gothic (2013) and pent-up: a revenge dance (2009), and the album day pulls down the sky (2019). Their work has also appeared in the Berlin Biennale and at the Tate Museum, London. Four of Peter’s collaborations have garnered New York Dance Performance “Bessie” Awards.