Solange performed two sold-out shows at New York’s Guggenheim Museum on Friday (May 19, 2017) at an event titled “On Ode To,” whose invite foreshadowed that the event was aiming for something deeper than just a musical performance. In addition to the warning that phones and cameras would be collected prior to the show, attendee were given the assignment of wearing all white.
Requiring white as a dress code has long been a popular theme especially within black and gay communities and it happened to be a theme of Solange’s own wedding. Beyond all the power symbol the color holds, asking people to dress a certain way was a simple and fun way to bring them into the performance.
Hosted by Red Bull Music Academy, the event was described as “an interdisciplinary performance piece and meditation on themes from A Seat at the Table that incorporates movement, installation and experimentally reconstructed musical arrangements.”
The cast of players was led by Solange, who was backed up on the first floor by two vocalists, six musicians and eight dancers. Playing off on the Guggenheim circular space, a 13-member horn ensemble played above the band on the space’s second floor. Later on in the performance, 32 additional dancers descended to the ground floor for the event’s grand finale.
According to the NY Times, dancers included Kristen Foote of the Limón Dance Company and Davalois Fearon of the Stephen Petronio Company.
Check out more images from the event. Photography via by Carys Huws, Krisanne Johnson, and Stacy Kranitz for Red Bull Music Academy.
