Bronx Gothic's Final Performances take place in the Bronx at BAAD

BAAD! - The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance proudly presents  
The Final Performances of Okwui Okpokwasili’s 
BRONX GOTHIC 
APRIL 29 & 30 
For the First Time the Artist Performs Show near Her Bronx Neighborhood 

    BAAD! - The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance continues to be a beacon for contemporary dance in the Bronx and proudly presents Okwui Okpokwasili’s celebrated, Bessie Award-winning full evening event,Bronx Gothic. The show draws inspiration from Victorian-era novels and West African griot storytelling to reveal a dark and powerful Bronx tale of sexual awakening, the body in transformation and the humor, love, strangeness and even terror that accompany it. Okpokwasili returns to the Bronx where she was raised to perform the shows final two performances at BAAD! which is on the campus of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church where she had her confirmation. The two performances are on Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30 at 8pm. BAAD! is located at 2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461. Tickets cost $35 and $15 for residents of the Bronx. For tickets and information visit BAADBronx.org or call 718-918-2110. 

Bronx Gothic is a solo creation at the intersection of theater, dance and visual art installation, and gives a palpable force to the charged relationship between two girls on the verge of adolescence in 1980s Bronx--where Newports are bought in singles at the corner bodega, sex saturated notes are passed in class, and Orchard Beach erupts in flame. 

Okwui Okpokwasili is a New York-based writer, performer and choreographer who grew up in the Bronx. She frequently collaborates with the award-winning director Ralph Lemon and has appeared in dance and theater productions, and in films.  Bronx Gothic is her second collaboration with the director/designer/filmmaker Peter Born. Their first New York production, pent-up: a revenge dance premiered at Performance Space 122 and received a 2010 New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award for Outstanding Production; and Bronx Gothic is their second collaboration, premiered in 2014 and also received a New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award for Outstanding Production.  The show was produced by MAPP International and has toured nationally and internationally. 

On both days a limited group of guests are invited to a pre-show VIP Reception at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church with cocktails, a buffet, a tour of the 19th century cemetery that surrounds the campus, and reserved seating at the Bronx Gothic performance. The VIP event begins at 6pm and tickets costs $250. St. Peter’s is located at 2500 Westchester Ave., Bronx, NY 10461. 

The performances of Bronx Gothic are a part of BAAD!’s annual Boogie Down Dance Festival.  For a full schedule of performances and activities visit www.BAADBronx.org. 

Crowned “a funky and welcoming performance space” by The New York Times, BAAD! is a performance and workshop space that presents cutting-edge works in dance and all creative disciplines empowering to women, Latinos and people of color and the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual,  transgender and queer) community. BAAD! is home to Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre (AATT) and the Bronx Dance Coalition and was founded by Arthur Avilés and Charles Rice-González in 1998 in Hunts Point. BAAD! moved to Westchester Square in October 2013 to a gothic revivalist building on the grounds of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. 

The North American Tour of Bronx Gothic is produced by MAPP International Productions. Bronx Gothic was co-commissioned by Performance Space 122, Danspace Project, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and the Jerome Foundation with residency support from Park Avenue Armory’s Under Construction Series, New York Live Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and LMCC’s Extended Life Dance Development program. Additional commissioning support provided by Le Maillon in Strasbourg, Théâtre de Gennevillers in Paris, Théâtre Garonne in Toulouse, and Zagrebacko Kazalište Mladih in Zagreb, as part of PS 122 GLOBAL program. 

BAAD!/AATT receive support from The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Lambent Fund of the Tides Foundation, The SHS Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts,  and private donations.