Alethea Pace To Present BETWEEN WAVE AND WATER In May

This spring, interdisciplinary, movement-based artist Alethea Pace will reprise between wave and water, a site-specific performance rooted in contesting and reclaiming the history of an African Burial Ground in Hunts Point, the Bronx.

The performances will take place on Saturday, May 10, at 12:30pm and 4pm, at Joseph Rodman Drake Park/Enslaved African Burial Ground (corner of Hunts Point Avenue and Oak Point Avenue). between wave and water is presented in partnership with BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) as part of its Boogie Down Dance Series.

Combining dance, storytelling, and song, between wave and water is an immersive journey where fragments of ancestral memory guide the audience through layers of history. A contemporary Bronx Trickster character leads the way, colliding our present realities with the pervasive yet irretrievable past. Trickster tells stories, invented mythologies that expose and disrupt dominant narratives. The performers mirror and amplify Trickster's double-talk and duplicity, and at other times translate unspeakable memories into movement. “A purposeful, hefty juxtaposition of carefully crafted encounters, movement through space as memorial practice, memorial practice as malleable time conjuring,” (Culturebot), between wave and water activates public spaces and transforms them into sites of reflection, remembrance, and resistance.

A 1910 photograph titled “Slave Burying Ground” from the Museum of the City of New York collection documents the location where Africans enslaved by the Hunt, Leggett, and Willet families were laid to rest in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. Today, this area—now known as Drake Park—serves as a memorial to the slave-owning families' plots. However, no tangible evidence of the burial ground or the African ancestors buried there remains. In 2023, the site received landmark status, recognizing the enslaved people who were central to the area's history and ensuring the burial ground is preserved and protected. This historical legacy informs Pace's current work, which seeks to honor and reclaim the narratives of those buried at the site through interdisciplinary, process-driven art and community engagement.

between wave and water is written and directed by Alethea Pace, and choreographed by Pace with the dancers. Music is composed and arranged by S T A R R Busby, with lyrics by Alethea Pace. The work is performed by nine extraordinary performers: Maria Bauman, S T A R R Busby, Imani Gaudin, Darvejon Jones, Alex LaSalle, Alethea Pace, Maleek Rae, Katrina Reid, and Indigo Sparks. Costume design is by Mauricio Barrera.

Tickets are $10 to $25, and can be purchased online at here. between wave and water takes place outdoors. The journey begins at Joseph Rodman Drake Park/African Burial Ground. The experience continues for two more blocks outside of the park before boarding a bus for a short ride. This transition will lead the group to Hunts Point Landing for the finale. The performance is approximately 75 to 90 minutes.

In addition to the performances of between wave and water, Pace will host her Listening With: Hunts Point Walking Tour Series this spring and summer. The walking tours invite participants to meaningfully engage with the layered histories of Hunts Point while bridging connections to our present-day landscapes. Through a combination of storytelling, movement, and embodied practices, these guided walks invite participants to explore how our past and present converge to shape our collective experience of place. Centered around the history of the African Burial Ground at Drake Park, the walk simultaneously reclaims and contests marginalized histories while creating opportunities to imagine new futures. Dates TBA.