Works & Process Commission

Les Ballet Afrik: New York Is Burning by Omari Wiles – World Premiere

Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6, 7:30 pm

Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Peter B. Lewis Theater

Tickets $35, Choose-What-You- Pay

https://www.guggenheim.org/event/les-ballet-afrik-new-york-is-burning-by-omari-wiles

House of Oricci founding father and ballroom community legend Omari Wiles brings ballroom to the Guggenheim in the long-awaited premiere of New York Is Burning, commissioned by Works & Process, featuring Wiles's AfrikFusion, which combines traditional African dances and Afrobeat with house dance and vogue.

The 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning received critical acclaim for its depiction of the New York drag ball scene and of voguing as a powerful expression of personal pride in the face of racism, homophobia, and the stigma of the AIDS crisis. Just as Paris Is Burning did for New York in the 1980s, New York Is Burning reflects the aspirations, desires, and yearnings of a diverse group of dancers in a city beset by health, racial, and financial crises.

Commissioned by Works & Process in 2019, prior to the pandemic, as an homage to Paris Is Burning on the documentary's thirtieth anniversary, Wiles's new work centers on the artists for whom his dance company serves as a surrogate family, including Kya Azeen, Eva Bust A' Move, Algin Ford-Sterling, Alora Martinez, Shireen Rahimi, Milerka Rodriguez, Karma Stylz, Yuki Sukezane, and Yuhee Yang.