This piece was inspired by the groundbreaking photography of Gordon Parks. Encompassed by the soulful stirrings of Sam Cooke, The New Tide takes an interdisciplinary approach to embodying the thematic ideas of love, community and advocacy personified in Parks’s extensive body of work.
–Dawn Marie Bazemore, choreographer
The New Tide
Nimbus Dance
To view the full performance click here.
To view an excerpt of the perfomance click here.
Choreography: Dawn Marie Bazemore
Assistant to the choreographer: Donovan Louis Bazemore
Music: Sam Cooke
Photography: Gordon Parks (courtesy of the Gordon Parks Foundation)
Lighting Design: Rebecca Nussbaum
Costumes: Erica Johnston
Props: Samuel Pott
Dancers: Xavier Alexander, Tyler Choquette, Leighann Curd, Catherine Escueta, Mika Greene, Shayla Hutton, Caleb Mansor, Aanyse Pettiford-Chandler, and Victoria Santaguida
In their third collaboration, Nimbus Dance and choreographer Dawn Marie Bazemore, premiered The New Tide in Spring 2023 at the Nimbus Arts Center in Jersey City, NJ. After working with Nimbus on the staging of Modern Dance Pioneer Pearl Primus’ iconic 1942 solo Strange Fruit, and following her creation on Nimbus of The After-Party, a thrilling dance composition set to vocal recordings by Nina Simone and Nancy Wilson, Dawn Marie Bazemore proposed a work based on the photography of Gordon Parks. The project concept was embraced by The Gordon Parks Foundation, and, receiving support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), Ms. Bazemore began work on the choreography in Fall 2022. Ms. Bazemore’s concept was to embody and bring to life the figures represented in Parks’s photography, telling both historic and imagined stories, and building a bridge between the present moment of performance and the historic figures and episodes pictured by Gordon Parks. Music and vocal recordings of Sam Cooke, form the soundscape of this work that was called an “absolute revelation” by the Jersey City Times. The New Tide remains in Nimbus’ repertory and was performed on tour. It returned to the Nimbus Arts Center in March 2023.
The creation of The New Tide was made possible through the support of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the National Endowment for the Arts.