BAM's Next Wave to Premiere Stefanie Batten Bland's EMBARQUED: STORIES OF SOIL in November

The evening-length piece explores ideas of memory and memorialization through the lens of African ancestral stories.

By: Oct. 06, 2022
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BAM's Next Wave to Premiere Stefanie Batten Bland's EMBARQUED: STORIES OF SOIL in November

Stefanie Batten Bland's EMBARQUED: STORIES OF SOIL will premiere at BAM Next Wave 2022. The performances will take place at BAM Fisher Fishman Space (321 Ashland Pl.) Nov 1-5 at 7:30pm. The evening-length piece explores ideas of memory and memorialization through the lens of African ancestral stories.

Embarqued: Stories of Soil, a new dance-theater work from global artist and Jerome Robbins Award-winning choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland, is an excavation of self and country, created in textiles, skin tones, labor, land, humor, and moving bodies. The work centers around a transformative ship mast that invites reflection of our shared history and interrogates our relationships with memorialization, revealing post-colonial foundations and mythologies. Performed by an extraordinary cast, the work's rich storytelling offers a visceral journey toward wholeness, connecting people and places through an unfolding time continuum.

The evening-length work is inspired in part by the African American Heritage Trail on Martha's Vineyard-still a living, evolving memorial site-to reveal heroic stories of survival, loss, and resilience. The journey unfolds through the integration of lighting, sound, textiles, and movement, each element complementing and adding to the rich layering of storytelling at the heart of the work.

Embarqued is performed by five extraordinary dancers: Jamal Abrams, Emilie Camacho, Raphaël Kaney Duverger, Jennifer Payán, and Latra A. Wilson. The engagement is a part of Next Wave 2022, the New York premiere of the work, and the BAM debut for Batten Bland. For more information, visit www.bam.org.

**All performances will adhere to protocols developed in accordance with New York State regulations and in consultation with medical professionals for the safety of our artists, audiences, and staff. **

Embarqued: Stories of Soil

Company SBB // Stefanie Batten Bland

Conceived and choreographed by Stefanie Batten Bland
Set design by Emmanuel Bastien
Dramaturgy by Guillame Segouin
Music by Paul Damian Hogan
Costumes by Shane Ballard
Lighting Design by Yuki Nakase Link

Photo credit: Raphael Kaney Duverger




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