Support the Premiere and Tour of "Urban Love Suite"

Sekou McMiller & Friends are preparing for the world premiere and tour of Urban Love Suite. An evening length dance work featuring original music performed live, the piece will premiere at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2025, with touring to follow. We are seeking your support to get the piece to the finish line and sustain future touring. We hope to raise $25,000 by June 30.

What will you be supporting?

There are expenses essential to the success of this production, that smaller non-funded dance and music ensembles incur which are not covered by artist fees alone.

Your generous donation will assist with the following expenses:

* Artist fees for rehearsals and residencies

* Rehearsal space

* Travel and lodging expenses

* Original music compositions

* Ongoing touring support costs

* Production and administrative costs

* Marketing materials

Your contribution ensures a successful premiere and a healthy and sustainable tour of Urban Love Suite. We are very excited to share this work highlighting past, present and future intersections of the black and brown communities in this Afro Diasporic art form. Thank you for being a valued member of our shared community.

About: "Urban Love Suite"

The latest incarnation of Sekou McMiller dance and music project Afro Latin Jazz and Soul Experience. A joy-filled rhythmical journey through African American, Afro Latino/a/e and West African music and dance traditions, Urban Love Suite is a love letter celebrating the cultural connections between Black and Brown peoples, through encounters in cityscapes including Harlem, the Bronx, Dakar, São Paulo, New Orleans and Chicago. This world premiere is supported by the Jacob’s Pillow Joan B. Hunter New Work Commission.

Sekou McMiller & Friends

The collective known as Sekou McMiller & Friends is led by the esteemed choreographer, Sekou McMiller, and comprises a talented ensemble of seasoned professional dancers, musicians, composers, and club/street performers. The primary objective is to persistently create authentic artistic endeavors that not only enable individuals to experience the captivating fusion of music and dance, showcasing their infectious rhythmic nature, but also actively engage in and witness a profound cultural reunion of once interconnected communities. By doing so, this initiative contributes to the ongoing dialogue on reshaping and fortifying the concept of self-identification for individuals with black and brown bodies in an era of increasingly blurred borders and global citizenship. Past performances include Jazz at Lincoln Center, Bryant Park, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and Little Island NYC. Most recent performances include Jacob’s Pillow creative lab, Guggenheim: Works & Process and Pocantico: David Rockefeller Center.

Artistic Director | Choreographer: Sekou McMiller

New York City/Chicago-based choreographer, teacher, curator, and producer at the forefront of a new movement in Afro Latin dance. McMiller’s unique fusion style has a strong Afro-Caribbean essence that is laced with many different dance techniques combined with an explosive energy. McMiller’s choreographic work has been featured at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Guggenheim Museum, Dance Chicago, The Actors Fund Theater, New York City Center, Ailey CitiGroup Theater, Symphony Space, Edison Ballroom, the United Nations General Assembly, Olympic Park Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, the Great Wall of China, Harbour Dance Vancouver, and Winter Gardens in Blackpool, England. McMiller’s diverse career ranges from performing off-Broadway to choreographing for Bravo, NUVO TV, and Good Morning America. He has also performed and choreographed for top Latin artists including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Willie Colón, Ismael Miranda, Cheo Feliciano, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Rojas, Tito Nieves, Pitbull, as well as the pop icon Madonna. McMiller can be seen in the Warner Bros. theatrical feature In the Heights (2021), directed by Jon M. Chu, and in the newly released documentary Uprooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance.