A celebration of African-American culture is coming to Abu Dhabi today.
As part of New York University’s Art Centre season, the immersive dance spectacle Ink will make its Middle Eastern debut, featuring themes stemming from both history and today’s news.
Choreographed by New Yorker Camille Brown, who will also perform with her cast on stage, the fast-moving, hour-long production moves through various dance suites that touch upon myriad strands of the African-American experience, from migration to self-empowerment and fellowship.
These are heady topics that Brown has been exploring for the best part of a decade; Ink marks the conclusion of a trilogy of works that began with 2012’s Mr Tolerance and 2015’s Black Girl: Linguistic Play.
“But Ink can definitely be approached as a stand-alone piece,” she confirms.
“When I did the trilogy I didn’t want each piece to seem like run-on sentences. If you see them individually, they should be able to stand alone and if you put them together, they do form a commentary of the past, present and future in terms of black identity and perception.”