Hustle in the Park (2017)

SOCIAL \ PUBLICS

Conceived as a diptych, Hustle in the Park is a group dance for the park and for the theatre. On the heels of her three year project investigating dance’s relationship to domesticity and architectural modernism, Biba Bell moves out of the glass box in the sky to the communal space of the park. Employing old, new, and imagined versions of the hustle, a popular line dance in Detroit, with its rhythmic patterns and focus on personal style, Hustle in the Park brings together a group of performers who seek a world-making machine through social dancing.

Hustle in the Park was created over the course of two weeks, dancing as a group every day in the hot summer sun on Nellie’s Lawn in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The making of the dances where out in the open and the public was invited to come watch and/or join in. At the end of this park “residency” Hustle in the Park premiered at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY. Each performances culminated in the audience joining the dancers onstage to learn the classic Detroit version of the hustle. 

Choreography/Direction: Biba Bell

Music: Scott Zacharias

Performers: Biba Bell, Marianne Brass, Christopher Braz, Jessie Gold, Charles Gushue, Jordan Holland, Joey Kipp, Ta'Rajee Omar, Jeff Rebudal, Elizabeth Ward

Press Quote: “The season for dancing outdoors is upon us. In her two-part “Hustle in the Park,” Ms. Bell, who lives and works in Detroit, pairs each indoor show with an informal prelude in Prospect Park. Joined by a cast of 10 dancers, she offers up past, present and future incarnations of the hustle, a social dance form with a rich history in her city.” - Siobhan Burke, New York Times, June 22, 2017