For the next two months, we’ll be getting a glimpse into the creative homes and processes of this season’s cohort of LabWorks Artists, starting with sonic dramatist ChelseaDee Harrison. Along the way, we’ll check in with some LabWorks alumni and play alongside New Victory Ushers and Teaching Artists. Ready?
All communities share one thing: they bring people together! By sharing and exchanging ideas, communities grow from having something in common—where people live, what they like, or how they see the world. For the next two months, New Victory Arts Break will introduce you to a community of theatermakers creating adventurous new work for families: New Victory LabWorks.
We’ve spent the last three weeks exploring the arts in North America, learning about the rich traditions of stepping and ring shout as well as some homegrown music and dance from Washington, D.C. To wrap up our time in North America, we’ll return to the ring shout tradition and explore how the arts can propel us toward the kind of futures we want to have.
It’s time to play! Last week, we got a peek into Step Afrika!’s rehearsal process. As we continue exploring the arts in North America this week, we’ll return to Washington, D.C. and start moving to some familiar rhythms. Get ready to step, clap and beat your feet—let’s go go-go!
Last week, we met Ronnique from Step Afrika! and explored her community in Washington, D.C. This week, we’ll take a closer look at what inspires Ronnique to create dance as a choreographer and Step Afrika! company member, before creating some dances and rhythms of our own.
This season, we’ve visited artists all around the world, getting a glimpse of where they live and how they create work. Now it’s time to return to our home continent of North America and check in with some artists who have performed on the New Victory stage, including Step Afrika! in Washington, D.C.
We’ve spent the last few weeks exploring the arts in Africa, learning about musical instruments, opera and ensemble storytelling. As we end our visit to the African continent this week, we’ll experiment with transforming the art forms we see in our communities into exciting new performances.
This week is all about play—playing with music, that is! Inspired by the musical stylings and operatic adaptations of Isango Ensemble, let’s have some fun learning how to warm up our voices, start an opera club and retell our favorite stories through song.
In last week’s Arts Break, we met some members of South Africa’s Isango Ensemble and explored their community. This week, let’s look closer at Isango Ensemble’s work as music-makers and performers. Then, we’ll make some music of our own!
It is time to head to Africa! This season, we’re visiting artists from all around the world to get to know their art forms and their homes! As we explore the continent of Africa, you might remember a few theater troupes from their performances at New Victory. Let’s learn about some awesome companies and then learn a bit about Africa and its rich cultures.
