New York City and New Orleans-based nonprofit dance and performing arts organization gaudanse and its Founding Artistic Director Imani Gaudin announce the world premiere of nanibu, a dance work, on Friday, April 18, 2025 at 8pm at Marigny Opera House, 725 St Ferdinand Street, New Orleans, LA. Tickets range from $10- $40 based on seating and can be purchased at

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gaudanse-world-premiere-nanibu-tickets-1278571916019?aff=oddtdtcreator.

Follow @gau.danse for more information and to sign up for our upcoming master classes!

the birth of nanibu…

“…an unusual subject executed in a clearly-communicated, respectful, and compassionate way, that’s neither understated nor overplayed…”

– Jerry Hochman, CriticalDance, August 24, 2022

nanibu is a dance-based performing arts and theater work merging movement, text, sound, and immersive staging to explore tradition, love, and sacrifice. In the powerful kingdom of Nagaua, where love and peace reign, prosperity comes at a devastating cost. Forced to uphold this legacy, Nanibu must navigate grief, duty, and destiny, ascending the throne forever in mourning. nanibu allows audiences to reimagine what fantasy and mythical worlds look like when centered on Black bodies, challenging narratives of who belongs in epic storytelling.

This work is supported through residencies at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (NY) and New Dance Alliance (NY), showcased at Battery Dance Festival (NY), Movement Research at the Judson Church (NY), Triskelion Arts (NY) with the support of the Artists of Color Council, and Dance Festival FUSA – French USA Dance Festival at LaMama Experimental Theater (NY), and the world premiere to be presented in Imani’s hometown, New Orleans, LA, with the support of Marigny Opera House.

Imani Gaudin is an imaginative, multidisciplinary performing artist, choreographer and creative director. As the Founding Artistic Director of gaudanse (Gaudanse, Inc.)—a 501(c)3 nonprofit interdisciplinary dance and performing arts organization— Imani is dedicated to promoting accessibility and sustainability in the world of dance and the performing arts. Imani was recently commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts and the Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance to premiere jakob&imani, a live, durational, visual and performing arts work in collaboration with visual artist Jakob Vitale at Bella Abzug Park in Hell’s Kitchen, New York that was free to the public and engaged both young and adult audience members from the community to participate in the live performance. As an Artist in Residence at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, she developed her new works, mamihlapinatapai, as well as, nanibu. As a performer, Imani is currently a movement artist and collaborator with TRIBE under the direction Shamel Pitts.

Imani studied dance at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts where she was awarded a Certificate of Artistry in dance. She then graduated with honors from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY where she studied abroad at the Amsterdam University of the Arts, Academie Voor Theater en Dans and received the Bert Terborgh Dance Award for Leadership and Excellence in Dance, the Minority Scholarship and the Adopt-a-Dancer Scholarship. She received the Delta Sigma Theta Artie-Rising Star Award and is a National Performance Network’s 2023 NPN Take Notice Fund Awardee supported by Ford Foundation. She trained at Juilliard, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, where she received the Homer Avila Scholarship Award, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, b12 (Germany), Orsolina (Italy) and Point Park University. She is also a Pepatián Dancing Futures 2024 AIR. She created a dance film, Art of Elegance, Vol. 1 for One Day Dance Season 4 that premiered at the TANK NYC. She has taught dance to New York public school students through the Battery Dance education program and has served as a choreography coach. She serves on multiple artists curatorial panels and is a board member for T2 Dance. Imani’s early dance training was through the NOBA (New Orleans Ballet Association) dance programs and she performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival as a member of the RRAAM Society and Kai Knight’s Silhouettes, where she also trained.

@imani.angele

Supporting artist, Christian Alexander Phenix Warner, from Houston, TX, is a New York-based interdisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, and instructor with a career that spans concert dance, musical theatre, and film. His extensive dance company credits include TU Dance where he was also a key collaborator in Come Through, a groundbreaking project with Grammy-winning band Bon Iver. The collaboration earned Dance Magazine’s 2018 “Coolest Collaboration” title and was presented at iconic venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and The Kennedy Center. He completed his BFA in Dance from Point Park University. His early career credits include touring in the production of Oliver! and Disney’s The Lion King! (2005) as Young Simba.

gaudanse (Gaudanse, Inc.), a collective of multidisciplinary movement artists, founded by Imani Gaudin in June of 2020, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is rooted between New York, NY and New Orleans, LA. Weaving together elements of dance, performance art, music, film, culinary arts, and visual arts, gaudanse builds immersive, whimsical worlds of fantasies that provoke thought and transport audiences into new dimensions of imagination. Through accessible programs, mentorship, workshops, and performances, the collective is committed to propelling the artistic growth of early career creators.

gaudanse’s mission is to utilize movement as a catalyst for creating compelling works that transcend boundaries and ignite conversations on meaningful and thought-provoking subjects, resonating with humanity on both individual and universal scales.

gaudanse has been in residence with Baryshnikov Arts Center, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, and Pepatián | Dancing Futures Residency in collaboration with BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) with major support from the Jerome Foundation and New Dance Alliance (NY). gaudanse is a member of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and appreciates funding and support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Baryshnikov Arts (NY) with support from Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance (NY), the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM) (LA) and Artist of Color Council (NY). gaudanse uses its artistic voice to spark social change by making an impact through its campaign, www.periodpovertypandemic.org, which has received support from the Rotary Club of Donaldsonville (LA).

gaudanse acknowledges and honors that we live and function on the land of the Munsee Lenape, Canarsie, Wappinger, Houma, and Choctaw peoples.

www.gaudanse.org

@gau.danse

The Marigny Opera House is a non-denominational, neighborhood church of the arts. It is supported by the Marigny Opera House Foundation, a 501(c) 3 organization founded by the building’s owners, Scott King and Dave Hurlbert. The building’s day-to- day operations and events are all subsidized by the Friends of the Marigny Opera House and other donors, grants from foundations and government organizations, receipts from ticketed arts events, and income from occasional rentals for wedding ceremonies and film shoots. Performing artists and arts/community organizations do not pay any rent for use of the space; tickets sold for any public performance are split between the artist/group and the Marigny Opera House Foundation—with the artists receiving at least 60% of all proceeds.

The mission of the Marigny Opera House Foundation is to support New Orleans-based performing artists by offering the church for creating, rehearsing and performing new work. Our goal is to build an appreciation and understanding of dance, opera, theater, classical music and jazz among the children and adults of the Marigny/Bywater and the city at large. We encourage and nurture local performing artists, who otherwise have few opportunities to develop and present their work in New Orleans. In 2014, the Marigny Opera House founded the Marigny Opera Ballet.

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