Bronx-Based Artist Alethea Pace To Premiere BETWEEN WAVE AND WATER

This September, Bronx-based multidisciplinary movement artist Alethea Pace will present her latest work between wave and water, a performance walk rooted in remembering and reclaiming the history of an African Burial Ground in Hunts Point.

The performance will take place on Saturday, September 28, at 12:30pm (rain date: Sunday, September 29, 12:30pm), at Joseph Rodman Drake Park/Enslaved African Burial Ground (corner of Hunts Point Avenue and Oak Point Avenue) in the Bronx.

A 1910 photograph titled "Slave Burying Ground" from the Museum of the City of New York documents the location where Africans who had been enslaved by the Hunt, Leggett, and Willet families were laid to rest in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. This area, currently 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. This site and its history are at the center of Pace's current process-based project.

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 and present-day realities. Along the way, a time-traveling Trickster joins the group, colliding at times with the pervasive yet irretrievable past. Trickster tells stories, invented mythologies that expose and disrupt dominant narratives. At moments, the dancers mirror and amplify the Trickster's double-talk and duplicity, and at other times translate unspeakable memories into movement.

between wave and water begins at Joseph Rodman Drake Park, a site that holds the echoes of those who came before us. From there, the group will traverse through Drake Park, witnessing the collision of past and present on the way to Hunts Point Riverside Park. A communal exploration of memory, identity, and hope, grounded in the rich history of the land we walk upon, the performance is an invitation to co-create a space to honor ancestral legacies and envision liberated futures.

Writing about a recent work-in-progress showing for Culturebot, Maura Nguyễn Donohue said, “Alethea Pace's between wave and water honors the memory of the ancestors buried at Joseph Rodman Drake Park in a potent passage of works… It is a purposeful, hefty juxtaposition of care-fully crafted encounters, movement through space as memorial practice, memorial practice as malleable time conjuring, and the ghosts who precede, join, and follow our days.”

between wave and water is written and directed by Alethea Pace. Choreographed by Alethea Pace with the dancers. Music composed and arranged by S T A R R Busby. 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.

Tickets for between wave and water are $5-$25, and can purchased online here.

Details: The performance is outdoors. The journey begins at Joseph Rodman Drake Park/African Burial Ground. The experience continues for two more blocks outside of the park. There will be a brief intermission before boarding a bus for a short ride. This transition will lead the group to Hunts Point Riverside Park for the finale. The performance is expected to be approximately 75 to 90 minutes. The experience involves standing and walking. Audience members should wear comfortable shoes to ensure they fully enjoy the work.

Following the performance, Pace and her collaborators invite the audience to join them at Pregones/PRTT's Stage Garden Rumba. Stage Garden Rumba is an open invitation for all New Yorkers to experience the cultural riches, green spaces, and vibrant casitas of the South Bronx! The series comes at you pumped up with new performances featuring extraordinary artists; actors, singers, dancers, and writers; activists with the pulse of local, national, and international struggle and social justice; and community members. Hyperlocal and universal, Stage Garden Rumba brings together voices of joy and revolution to fuel our collective imagination and propel us into the future.

between wave and water is part of Alethea Pace's Civic Practice Partnership Residency at The Met Museum and is created with support from the Bronx Council on the Arts' Cultural Visions Fund, Bronx Council on the Arts' Bronx Dance Fund, Loghaven Artist Residency, MAD Artist Residency at Modern Accord Depot, and the MAP Fund.