Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents the Underground Uptown Dance Festival, a festival of commissioned street and social dances taking place in the subterranean Frank Lloyd Wright-designed theater at the Guggenheim from January 12-17, 2023. Rare in the field of dance, let alone in the creators' traditions, beyond presenting fee, all projects will have received longitudinal support. With some spanning four years, across multiple residencies Works & Process will have provided living wage fees, 24/7 devoted studio access, adjacent housing, access to health care insurance enrollment, performance fees, and iterative performance opportunities. Inspired by the circular architecture of the Guggenheim, the cyphers prevalent in street dance, and social environments where these performing art traditions were germinated, the works being presented weave audiences and artists together. These commissions endeavor to amplify the innate qualities of dance to physically connect and facilitate the embodiment of joy and community. General ticketing starts December 13 at worksandprocess.org.

IN-PROCESS CHOREOPOEM

Ladies of Hip-Hop

The Black Dancing Bodies - SpeakMyMind

Saturday, January 14, 7:30 pm

"Each woman's voice stands powerfully on its own." —Dance Enthusiast

Part of an ongoing performance and documentary effort to represent Black women in street and club dance culture, this session highlights the form of the choreopoem, first coined in 1975 by writer Ntozake Shange (for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf). New writing, and music and dance of street, club and African culture come together in this in-process showing, led by Michele Byrd-McPhee, in which each member of the company responds to the question, "If I could speak my mind, what would I say?"