The Second Installment of Up Close, The Shed’s New Digital Commissioning Program, Features Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring 

New Dance Performance, Revelation of Proverbs, Premieres on Sunday, May 3 at 6 pm EDT  

NEW YORK, NY, APRIL 27, 2020—The second installment of Up Close, The Shed’s new digital commissioning program, features Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring in Revelation of Proverbs, a dynamic street dance performance within the confines of home. Revelation of Proverbs premieres on Sunday, May 3 at 6 pm EDT on The Shed’s social media platforms (@theshedny) and its website at theshed.org.

Revelation of Proverbs brings Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring dancers back to The Shed, after their sold-out performances in Maze last year, for a virtual performance inspired by the desire to rediscover self in this moment of isolation and confinement. Filming themselves within their own homes, the dancers move while enclosed in different rooms, just as the online video format encloses them on the screen. Set to original songs by Epic B, a longtime collaborator of the D.R.E.A.M. Ring, Revelation of Proverbs showcases the dancers’ individual styles of Flexn—a form of street dance with roots in Jamaican Bruk Up, pioneered by Gray in Brooklyn—as they face their disrupted days with an awareness of emotions and intention to ultimately liberate themselves from their normal routine in bursts of freestyle movement. The D.R.E.A.M. Ring dancers include: Rafael ‘Droid’ Burgos, Quamaine ‘Q Virtuoso’ Daniels, James ‘Banks’ Davis, Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray, Calvin ‘Cal’ Hunt, Joshua ‘Sage’ Morales, Risa ‘Risa’ Morales, and Derick ‘Slicc’ Murreld.

About Up Close
The Shed is committed to expanding the scope of how a cultural institution can serve its communities, a mission that is even more critical while distanced from one another.

To creatively engage artists and audiences in this moment of great uncertainty and upheaval, Up Close launched in April with the first installment featuring the HawtPlates and continues every other Sunday with intimate performances, conversations, curated playlists, and other forms of original content that explore what it means to make art right now.

Up Close is organized by Solana Chehtman, Director of Civic Programs, with Adeze Wilford and Alessandra Gómez, Curatorial Assistants, Justin Wong, Civic Programs Coordinator, and Lily Wan, Digital Content Producer. The Shed’s multidisciplinary commissioning program is developed by Artistic Director and CEO Alex Poots with the senior program team, including Emma Enderby, Chief Curator, Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer, Madani Younis, Chief Executive Producer, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Senior Program Advisor.

Artists in future installments, many of whom The Shed showcased in its 2019 season, include Troy Anthony and Jerome Ellis on May 17; DIS OBEY teaching artists NOVA CYPRESS BLACK, Tasha Dougé, and Gabriel Ramirez on May 31; DJ April Hunt and Rashaad Newsome with Legendary Monster and Precious Ebony on June 14; Justin Allen, S*an D. Henry-Smith, and Yulan Grant on June 28; and Tomás Saraceno,Tony Cokes, and Kiyan Williams (dates to be announced). 

About Reggie ‘Reggie Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring
Brooklyn native Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray is a dancer, choreographer, and pioneer of the multi-genre dance form, Flexn. As a child, Gray became fascinated by Michael Jackson, and as a teenager, he turned to the hyper-expressive styles of dance that originated in the Jamaican street culture of Brooklyn, such as Bruk Up and dancehall. Named after the regional television program Flex-N-Brooklyn, where local dance groups showcased their latest moves, Flexn is a combination of various styles from the local scene, such as bone-breaking, pauzing (the style Gray evolutionized), gliding, get-low, connecting, and hat tricks. Gray has traveled all over the world with his award-winning dance crew RingMasters, and in 2011, he founded the D.R.E.A.M. Ring. In 2015, Gray produced his first major work of choreography "Flexn" and followed it with Flexn Evolution in 2017. He has toured both productions around the world. Gray is a regular feature on American television, appearing in the third season of America’s Best Dance Crew, various advertisements, and in music videos for Wayne Wonder, Sean Paul, Nicki Minaj, and other artists. Currently, Gray serves as an artistic director for FlexNYC, a social justice dance residency program that partners with schools and community centers around New York City (created by The Shed and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring). 

About The Shed
Located on Manhattan’s west side, The Shed commissions original works of art, across all disciplines, for all audiences. From hip hop to classical music, painting and sculpture to literature, film to theater and dance, The Shed brings together leading and emerging artists and thinkers from all disciplines under one roof. The building—a remarkable movable structure designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect, and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect—physically transforms to support artists’ most ambitious ideas. Committed to nurturing artistic invention and bringing creative experiences to the broadest possible audiences, The Shed, led by Artistic Director and CEO Alex Poots, is a 21st-century space of and for New York City. 

PRESS CONTACTS:
Sommer Hixson
Director of Communications
(646) 876-6933
sommer.hixson@theshed.org

Christina Riley
Publicist
(646) 876-6865
christina.riley@theshed.org