Brave New Works Lab 2025
Featuring
WINDSHIP BOYD & TUMELO MICHAEL MOLOI
LANDRY BUTLER & INGLEWOOD SOCIAL CLUB
STACIE FLOOD-POPP / FOUND MOVEMENT GROUP
KOURTNEY “KOKO” FRENCH
May 15-17 at 8PM
Tickets from $20
“One of the most interesting and dynamic presentations of locally grown talent.”
– Nashville Scene
Celebrate local innovation and creativity with a bold evening of entirely original short-form performances featuring dance, theater, music, and multimedia. The fourth-annual Brave New Works Lab invites daring Nashville artists to transform OZ Arts into a laboratory for the creation and premiere of new works and works-in-progress. Encouraging multimedia experimentation and collaboration across disciplines, the lab creates a safe space for high-risk artistic adventures. Following up on the success of 2024’s ambitious Lab presentations, this year’s event promises to be the biggest and bravest Lab yet.
2025 ARTIST LINE-UP
Windship Boyd & Tumelo Michael Moloi
BA TSAMAILE
It is impossible to resist the rhythmic artistry created by the convergence of two visceral percussive dance forms, originated around the same time, but in different continents: South African gumboot dance and the Southern tradition of stepping. But when the artists add in the core instruments of a marching band, the result is nothing short of transcendent. South African artist and dancer Tumelo Michael Moloi, known for his rousing work with famed Cirque du Soleil, collaborates with French-born Nashville choreographer Windship Boyd to create this explosive new production, which also features projections by artist Sari Hoke and performances by stepper extraordinaire Aniya Coleman alongside Guinean drummer Ibrahima “Ibro” Dioubate and brass instrumentalists from TSU.
Landry Butler & Inglewood Social Club
WELCOME TO PARADISE
A large-scale projected supercut of visually arresting black-and-white images sets the stage for this new multimedia production by incisive spoken word artist Landry Butler and the multi-instrumentalists of the underground collective Inglewood Social Club (one of the best kept secrets of East Nashville’s thriving music and art scene). At a time of global chaos, these long-time collaborators are imagining possible futures in Welcome to Paradise, drawing on their collective experience with such influential musical outfits as JonesWorld, The Shapeshifters, The Emancipators, and Landry’s nom de plume Seventh Sister.
Stacie Flood-Popp / Found Movement Group
BOSCH
Eleven of Nashville’s most dynamic contemporary performers take inspiration from a surreal, 500-year-old painting by Hieronymus Bosch for this vital new production by choreographer and artist Stacie Flood-Popp and her Found Movement Group. With a highly visceral movement dreamscape, Flood-Popp and collaborator Kat Driver bring new life to The Garden of Earthly Delights, drawing connections between current issues and the painting’s themes of debauchery, temptation, chaos, sin, bliss, and utopia/dystopia.
Kourtney “Koko” French
ABOUT TIME
The infectious and virtuosic Hip-hop moves of Kourtney “Koko” French are powerfully delivered by 8 inexhaustible dancers, creating a non-stop powerhouse performance examining the concepts of time and urgency. The soulful choreography expounds upon the ways our time is borrowed, spent, wasted, or cherished. Koko has helped shape the Nashville performance scene as the founder and director of Ink Movement and as the inventor of her individualized Ko-Style Method, in addition to serving as a choreographer for legendary Gospel performers like Cece Winans and Kirk Franklin. As a sought-after teacher and performance creator, she has assembled a breathtaking team of hyper-committed performers for this dynamic new dance work.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Gumboot & Pantsula Masterclass with Tumelo Michael Moloi
Artist Chat: Art as a Spiritual Practice with Landry Butler
Tuesday, May 6 | 6-7PM
Artist Applications for the 2025 Brave New Works Lab have closed. 2026 Lab applications will open in Fall 2025. Sign up for our email list to receive announcements and updates about future opportunities.
Through the Brave New Works Lab and other local programs, OZ Arts strives to create meaningful opportunities for artists from Middle Tennessee to imagine, develop, and premiere new performance works. We hope artists can focus on the creative process and collaboration, without being overly burdened by the normal trappings of self-production, such as marketing, administration, detailed technical matters and venue management.
Questions about the Brave New Works Lab?
Contact OZ’s Associate Director of Programming & Partnerships Daniel Jones at daniel@ozartsnashville.org.
