D Underbelly

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D UNDERBELLY (spelled with all capital letters) is an underground network of independent performance artists and dancers of color based in Brooklyn, NY, founded in 1997 by Artistic Director Baraka de Soleil. D UNDERBELLY is invested in interdisciplinary exploration through the excavation of new work and communal exchange and reflects the traditions of the African diaspora immersed in a contemporary reality.

The Company’s work is diverse, difficult to characterise, and has included plays, elements of modern dance and African dance, new media, performance art and installation art. D Underbelly has toured the United States and internationally.

Works include:

N This Hous; developed at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center Residency Program
Water Moves the Soul, a project based on the physical, spiritual and emotional memories of ancestors who went through the Atlantic slave trade
KOOOL-AID LUV ODYSSEY, a hip trip psychedelic journey though the fixating liquid legacies of our society, premiering at BAX / Brooklyn Arts Exchange in February 2007

1 Plays written include:
2 Awards
3 Reviews
4 References

[edit] Plays written include:

First Dark Drama, written by Baraka de Soleil and Daniel Givens, which premiered at the Richard Foreman Ontological-Hysteric Theater in the East Village, Manhattan of New York City.

[edit] Awards

2006 AUDELCO Viv Award-winner
2006 Jerome Hill Travel and study grant to Ghana, West Africa, to study the experiences of slaves in the African slave trade and Atlantic slave trade routes
McKnight Foundation Choreography Fellowship
Nadine Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Fellowship

[edit] Reviews

Minneapolis City Pages "A-List Pick" "Awesome...a force of nature."
Village Voice“...haunting electronic compositions and poetic language."
New York Arts Magazine "Striking A Plus for Curation...D UNDERBELLY drew the audience into an examination of professional angst in an age of technology through movement."
Baltimore CityPaper "Listening to de Soleil speak...is like sliding into the flow of a poetry jam."