Choreographer Jeremy McQueen’s ballet collective, The Black Iris Project, has been using movement to celebrate black artists since 2016. At SummerStage, the performance will include MADIBA, a ballet inspired by the life of the late Nelson Mandela, whose 100th birthday is being commemorated this year. The work, which was selected by the celebrated ballerina, Misty Copeland, and previously performed at the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2017, will be followed by the world premiere of A MOTHER’S RITE featuring Alvin Ailey dancer Courtney Spears. The ballet, set to a four hand piano version of “The Rite of Spring” written and arranged by Igor Stravinsky, was co-commissioned through The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Dance and Visual Arts Collaborative Commissioning Program and 651 ARTS, with additional support provided by Vineyard Arts Project.

For more about The Black Iris Project:
Facebook: @blackirisproject
Instagram: @blackirisproject
Twitter: @BlkIrisProject

Photo by Matthew Murphy of Courtney Celeste Spears in A MOTHER’S RITE.

About the Artist: Jeremy McQueen

Jeremy McQueen (Artistic Director & Choreographer of The Black Iris Project), is an award-winning emerging choreographer, dedicated to story-telling rooted in experience and social engagement. His work aims to create spaces of comfort, solace, and connection through reflection—a sharing of observations of what is going on around him.

Born and raised in San Diego, California, McQueen is a graduate of The Ailey School/Fordham University, B.F.A. in dance program. At the age of eight McQueen saw a production of The Phantom of the Opera and was immediately drawn to the arts. That same year he began studying music and theater. At the age of 11 he started his training in dance at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts. McQueen has also trained as a scholarship recipient in the schools of American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet.

McQueen was a 2013 recipient of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s Choreographers of Color Award and two-time finalist of the Capezio Award for Choreographic Excellence. His work has appeared at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, SummerStage in Central Park, Jacob’s Pillow Dance’s Inside/Out series, Dancers Responding to AIDS’ Fire Island Dance Festival, and more. As a performer, McQueen appeared in the Broadway national tours of Wicked and The Color Purple in addition to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and Metropolitan Opera’s productions of Die Fledermaus, Aida, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Don Giovanni.

McQueen cites two influential instructors as a source for his work and creative energy, Donald Robinson and Kazuko Hirabayashi. From Mr. Robinson, McQueen learned his guiding principle of discipline, doing what you know you’re supposed to do even when no one is there to make sure you do it. At a time when McQueen was in a struggle trying to make his way as a dancer, Ms. Hirabayashi told him to choreograph about it. It is in the craft of story-telling and making a way for yourself through discipline and focus that McQueen was led to start The Black Iris Project, a creation of space for other like-minded artists to reflect their experiences.