Northrop and the Walker Art Center Present
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
Touch of RED
Past event
Mar 06, 2025
Mar 07, 2025
Mar 08, 2025
2024 MacArthur Fellow and 2024 Doris Duke Artist Award winner Shamel Pitts performs in Touch of RED, a multidisciplinary duet inspired by the rapid-fire footwork of boxing, the African American jazz dance style Lindy-Hop, Gaga movement language, and nightlife culture. Set in a stylized “boxing” ring designed by the MacArthur Fellow Mimi Lien, with the audience seated on the stage surrounding it, this powerful dance duet examines the way Black men are perceived and perceive themselves in contemporary society, and how masculinity and vulnerability can be reconsidered and reconciled in a non-combative, compassionate, and healing way.
Bold. Boiled. Blood.
Touch of RED is part of the “RED Series” which continues the research to propose and share the colorfulness within Blackness, creating a body of work that supports, shelters, and cultivates an Afrofuturistic performance art landscape in which the multitude of Black diversity and capacity is realized, allowed, nurtured, and shared.
Articles and More
Quotes / Reviews
“Touch of RED held me in its grasp from the second I entered the venue, from the twisting route to my seat, to the stark intimacy immediately on display. It set all my nerves on fire, still burning as I recall the experience.”–See Chicago Dance
“So often I felt like my vulnerability and sensitivity and fragility was a weakness. But I wish to share with people, particularly other Black boys and men, that there is power within vulnerability.”–Shamel Pitts, DANCE Magazine
“Touch of RED is a work where the space–as opposed to time–determines the movement, exploring both the lethality and vulnerability with being close to another person.”–BODIES NEVER LIE
“It’s a dazzling show.”–Fjord Review
“Another person challenging the traditional views on Black masculinity is Shamel Pitts, one of the most acclaimed dancers/choreographers of his generation and a shining example of Black excellence.”–AFROPUNK
"Pitts and Fredericks bring their radical vulnerability to the audience."–Fjord Review
Related Event
Learn More - Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop's mission towards intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
Theater Technology: Sound & Light Design
Theater: Performance, Devising
African & African American Studies
African Diaspora
Afro-Futurism
Gender & Sexuality Studies
Queer Studies
Dance: Contemporary/Modern, African Diasporic
Music: Composition
Athletics: Boxing
Take a deeper dive with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the art form, and the artistic process.
Links:
Touch of RED - TRIBE teaser video
Touch of RED - TRIBE: Overture video
Shamel Pitts creative process video
LA Dance Chronicle: “Shamel Pitts and Tushrik Fredericks Negotiate Human Instinct In ‘Touch Of RED”’
The Met: “Afrofuturism in the Stacks”
Essence: “A Beginner's Guide To Afrofuturism: 7 Titles To Watch And Read”
Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Northrop and the Walker Art Center will copresent Touch of RED, a creation by Shamel Pitts, artistic director/founder of the Brooklyn-based, Afrofuturistic arts collective TRIBE. TRIBE’s mission is to cultivate space to create a platform for artists—most specifically artists of color—to "tell new stories and create a brighter future that is different, and shines more luminously, from its past."
- Afrofuturism is said to connect people from the African diaspora to their forgotten African ancestry. How might this “creation of a brighter future” be inspired by imagining the experiences, hopes, and dreams of African American ancestors?
- Why is it important to unlock this imagination? Do you think that unlocking this imagination could potentially provide us with clues about how African American ancestors felt about the world around them?
- How do you think spaces for dreaming and imagining are created for and by artists, especially artists of color? Why is it important for artists to cultivate identity-specific spaces?
In creating the work, Pitts became curious about his disdain for boxing. He began studying boxing footage and realized the connection between the fighters’ footwork and Lindy Hop, a famous jazz dance from the early 20th century. In Pitts’ words, Touch of RED fuses the two forms into a “heat path between two performers [building] not out of aggression or combat but within an enhanced electrifying effeminacy that heals.”
- How does power arise in softness and vulnerability? What are examples of gentleness or vulnerability that led to positive change?
- After viewing Touch of RED, what do you imagine the performance is sharing about the world around us?
- What similarities do you see between Lindy Hop dance and the footwork of boxing?
Shamel Pitts is a creative force across many mediums who has worked as a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher.
- How does learning multiple art forms affect an artist and their art?
- How do we cultivate versatility in our professional or creative practice?
Acknowledgments
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
The presentation of Shamel Pitts | TRIBE was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
