Shamel Pitts

Shamel Pitts is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn New York, Shamel began his dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. Shamel received his BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He then went on to dance in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Shamel danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years, under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin, and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language.

Shamel has created a triptych of multidisciplinary performance art works entitled: BLACK BOX: Little Black Book Of RED, BLACK VELVET: Architectures And Archetypes, and BLACK HOLE: Trilogy And Triathlon. He is an adjunct at The Juilliard School and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. He is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award winner in Choreography. Shamel is the artistic director and founder of TRIBE, a New York based multidisciplinary arts collective which holds the afro-futuristic movement as its biggest inspiration.

Photo Credit: Scott Shaw