Praise!

Praise! Project is an original dance theater performance that opens the door into a conversation around sacred bodies, queerness, and coming in-to ourselves. As the performers crisscross memories and fantasies of divine encounters, the piece asks how we reconcile past experiences to make new meaning for the present.

At times during the performance, the audience will be welcomed into call and response movement, song, and facilitated dialogue. In this way Praise! is co-created, immersive, and always evolving.

PERFORMANCE DATES
Friday, March 21 at 7PM
Saturday, March 22 at 7PM

LOCATION
Bethany Arts Community
40 Somerstown Road, Ossining, NY 10562

TICKETS
$25 General Admission / $20 Student/Senior
Ticket sales are final, non-refundable, and non-transferable. Please ensure you are purchasing tickets for the correct date.

Praise! is presented by Wender Collective and VTDance and is co-created and performed by Vincent E. Thomas and Gabriel Thom Pasculli with Desiré Graham and Malia’Kekia Nicolini. This project was created with the support of NPN Creation Fund, co-commissioned by Bethany Arts Community, Sandglass Theater, and The Baltimore Theater Project.

This production is recommended for ages 15 and up.

SACRED BODIES WORKSHOP:
Tuesday, March 18 at 6PM
*join project creators for a sneak-peek FREE creative storytelling workshop before the premiere!
Grace Episcopal Church, Trinity Campus (7 S. Highland Ave, Ossining NY.
To RSVP: email [email protected]

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Vincent E Thomas is a Black gay man, a professional dancer, and a Professor of Dance at Towson University (MD). Vincent’s dance company, VTDance, recently celebrated its 22nd Anniversary in Baltimore. Vincent grew up in Edgefield, SC where he sang joyfully (and dutifully) in the choir at his Southern Baptist Church, and yet he felt as though he had to spend much of his adult life washing the church from his soul.

Gabriel Thom Pasculli is a queer, white-bodied, second-generation Italian-Irish-American, who has been working in Chicago and New England as an ensemble theater-maker and is now a Lecturer of Directing and Performance at Union College (NY). Gabriel Thom grew up in the Catholic Church in New Jersey and has spent his adult life seeking the mystical experience he failed to find in the religion of his childhood.

Both artists are returning to a time they thought they had left behind. They are returning to the tender questions they developed as young people, torn between their inner desires and the confounding morality of the communities in which they were raised. With great curiosity, intimacy, risk and availability, Praise! is asking how we reconcile those past experiences and conflicted parts of our younger selves to make new meaning in the present.

Praise! Project events are co-created, curated, and co-facilitated by Desiré Graham, a New Haven-based artist working in original theatre and musical performance, and Malia’Kekia Nicolini, a Massachuesettes-based dancer, actress, choreographer, artistic director, facilitator, and arts educator.

PROJECT HISTORY
The lead artists have been developing this work over a series of workshops between 2019 and 2025. The first week-long workshop happened at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH in 2019, and four workshops took place at Art Omi in upstate NY between 2021 and 2025. A work-in-progress excerpt was shared in April of 2023 at Baltimore Theater Project as part of VTDance’s 20th Anniversary Concert. In 2024 The project had a two week residency at Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, NY and will premiere at Bethany Arts Community in March 2025.