the company
“…curiously stylish and sincere, glossily cold and tender. Always visually striking, it’s never dull. But it transpires at a distance.”
– The New York Times
TRIBE’s mission is to cultivate a space of discovery and a platform for artists – most specifically artists of color – with huge inspiration from the Afrofuturism movement. This movement states that we have a responsibility through our work to tell new stories and create a brighter future that is different and shines more luminously from our past.
Founded by award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts in December 2019, TRIBE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Brooklyn, NYC. TRIBE projects include, but are not restricted to: movement-based works, live multidisciplinary performance, video art, video documentary, photography, exhibitions, commissioned dance choreography, art residencies, artist talks, and workshops.
the director
SHAMEL PITTS is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow and Doris Duke Artist Award recipient whose multidisciplinary work spans performance art, choreography, and spoken word. Born in Brooklyn, he trained at LaGuardia High School and The Ailey School before earning his BFA from The Juilliard School, receiving the Martha Hill Award for excellence.
Pitts’ professional career includes tenures with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. He spent seven years with Batsheva Dance Company under Ohad Naharin and is a certified Gaga teacher. As the founder of the arts collective TRIBE, Pitts developed the acclaimed “BLACK series” and the emerging “RED series,” which have toured internationally since 2016.
His extensive accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Princess Grace Award, and a Knight Choreography Prize. Beyond his Doris Duke recognition, his work has been supported by major foundations including Mellon. A dedicated educator, he is an adjunct professor at Juilliard and has held faculty or residency positions at Princeton, NYU, Harvard, and Wesleyan. Shamel Pitts | TRIBE has also held residencies at New York Live Arts and 92Y Harkness Dance Center.
Marks of RED
A work of magical realism narrated by and featuring the viewpoints of six women, Marks of RED continues award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts’ research exploring Black embodiment, aliveness and human connection.
Marks of RED is an Afrofuturistic meditation on the “womb space,” divining the effect that memory has on our experiences, senses, bodies, reality, and our imaginative possibilities.
The multidisciplinary work includes scenic designs by Mimi Lien, video mapping projection by Lucca Del Carlo, lighting design by Sarai Frazier, and production by TRIBE arts collective. The fourth chapter in the RED Series by Pitts, Marks of RED explores the nuanced multiplicity and deep complexity of self-expression, and the perceived spaces for regeneration, enfoldment, implosion, rupture & potential.
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Little black lake of RED
little black lake of RED & its attributes simulate the fluidity of waves, within a close proximity between audience & performer, in which childlike wonder, aliveness within stillness, and polyrhythmic embodiment evolves within a multidimensional flow of eccentricity, passion, rituals of self-flagellation, pleasure, & peace overlaps solitude, vigor, nightlife, and the communal rite of dancing together.
TOUCH OF RED
Touch of RED (2022) is a duet of two men that takes place inside of a contemporary ring. Its research deals with the allowance of black men to soften; the power in vulnerability; the meeting point of two individuals within a boxed space that references a futuristic and voyeuristic gladiator entertainment site in which a heat path between the two performers builds not out of aggression or combat but within an enhanced electrifying effeminacy that heals.
Bold. Boiled. Blood.
BLACK HOLE: TRILOGY AND TRIATHLON (BLACK HOLE)
In BLACK HOLE (2018), a trio of Black performers (all of African heritage) shares the stage in a narrative of unity, vigor, and unrelenting advancement. Their journey originates in the darkness of the titular Black Hole, understood not as a cosmic void but a metaphorical place of transformation and potential. Engulfed in an evocative soundscape of original music, sound samples, and spoken word, the dancers embark on an hour-long, uninterrupted journey in movement in which their tenacity and grace are emphasized by cinematic video projections and stark, monochromatic lights. BLACK HOLE’s creation had the Afrofuturism movement as its biggest inspiration. The project marks the initial meeting between choreographer Shamel Pitts and the artists of TRIBE.
Stay tuned for work in development…
SHAMEL PITTS — In~Practice MOVEMENT WORKSHOP
The In~Practice Movement Workshop, guided by Shamel Pitts, is grounded in developing physical efficiency & proficiency, expressive range, and clarity through creative prompts. We will physically examine & experience embodied movement sources, dynamics, speed & rhythm & groove, aliveness within stillness, while incorporating visualization to discover our unique individual expression through dancing in a communal space.
SHAMEL PITTS — GAGA/PEOPLE + GAGA/DANCERS CLASSES AND WORKSHOP
Shamel Pitts is a certified Gaga movement instructor since 2010, teaching Gaga with institutions, companies, and centers all over the world.
TUSHRIK FREDERICKS — MOVEMENT WORKSHOP
Tushrik’s work continues to research and push the boundaries of the limits that ‘man’ has placed on himself when it comes to rigor on the body and mind which blurs the fine line between sanity and insanity, thus resulting in a highly physical practice which pushes the limits of the psyche.Drawing information from many different movement techniques, this practice consists of physical research which pushes durational studies which then informs how the physical being relates to the mental being. The research feels highly sacred as well as spiritual in the way that we relate to the world and all things around and inside us. Tushrik believes that it takes pushing the body to extreme physical boundaries so that we may reach moments of bliss by breaking beyond those boundaries and connecting to our higher purpose.
MARCELLA LEWIS — MOVEMENT ALCHEMY
Movement Alchemy is a movement language Lewis created and has been investigating for 2 years. It is the art/process/practice of transmuting something from one form to its higher more evolved form through movement; using water, fire earth, air and spirit–all elements we have within us.
Lotus Showcase | APAP 2026 – presenters, rsvp: info@lotusartsmgmt.com
