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.
“The Brave New Works Lab has proven to be a vital program for the development of thrilling new local works, and we are ecstatic to feature such a high-impact group of projects this year,” said Mark Murphy, Executive and Artistic Director of OZ Arts Nashville. “The four artist teams chosen the 2025 Lab program are all an important part of Nashville’s vibrant performing arts scene who have put forward inventive, contemporary projects that will make quite the impression on audiences who come out to support the debut of these new works.”
This year’s program features a new dance work by Stacie Flood-Popp inspired by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, a collaboration between Windship Boyd and Tumelo Michael Moloi exploring the interplay between gumboot and step dance, a trippy live music and multimedia experience from Landry Butler and Inglewood Social Club, and a fresh Hip-hop dance creation by Kourtney “Koko” French. Each performance includes all four works.
Windship Boyd & Tumelo Michael Moloi: South African gumboot dance and the step – dance tradition of HBCUs collide in this explosive, cross – cultural new work featuring dynamic original choreography and expressive live music.
Landry Butler & Inglewood Social Club: Underground art music collective Inglewood Social Club creates a visually stunning multimedia experience with an abstract, silent black and white film and live accompaniment.
Stacie Flood-Popp / Found Movement Group: A dozen dancers from Found Movement Group create a highly theatrical new dance work inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s famous artwork The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Kourtney “Koko” French: Eight of Nashville’s most talented dancers use powerful Hip – hop choreography to explore the limited nature of time and the ways we all battle to make the most of each moment.
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. The hope is that 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.
Performances are at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, May 15; Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17, 2025. Tickets are $20 – $25; seating is general admission and tickets are available for purchase at: www.ozartsnashville.org/brave-new-works-lab-2025
