Aszure Barton & Ambrose Akinmusire Bend the Rules

Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, the visionary Barton has been moving to her own rhythm since before she could spell the word “dance.” Barton trained at Canada's National Ballet School, where her passion for innovation surfaced early. Never one to stay within the lines, Barton launched Aszure Barton & Artists, a dynamic collective of dancers, musicians, and visual artists who autonomously shape immersive, genre-blurring works across international stages.

Barton’s category-defying choreography possesses a visceral, often hypnotic quality that is like “watching the physical unfurling of the human psyche, [where] every muscle and nerve ending of the dancers seems emotionally charged, transformed from biological entities into agents of humor, torment, lust, and uncertainty” (National Endowment for the Arts). She continues to reinvent how we dance, and how we feel while watching it. This distinctive point of view has earned Barton accolades and a place among the dance world’s most revered artists and companies.

One of the most acclaimed musicians of his generation, Akinmusire is a three-time Grammy-nominated trumpeter and composer of “kaleidoscopic vision” (NPR Music), known for his profound, expressive range. The Oakland, CA native grew up steeped in jazz, gospel, hip hop, funk, and blues, reveling in his religious experience of Black music—of “dealing with the invisible” (Liquid Music).

Akinmusire got his start in the music industry at the age of 19 touring Europe with Steve Coleman and Five Elements, then studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Southern California, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles. Along with his extensive musical collaborations (including recent Northrop performer Bill Frisell), Akinmusire is no stranger to dance. A a | a B : B E N D marks the inception of an ongoing creative collaboration between Akinmusire and Barton; they’ve since cocreated Slow Burn for Hamburg Ballet, Join for the Limón Dance Company, and Be for The Juilliard Dance Division. Akinmusire has also collaborated with Alonzo King LINES Ballet on Scheherazade.

Premiered in Hamburg, Germany in 2023 at Kampnagel International Summer Festival, the Northrop Centennial Commission A a | a B : B E N D is a multidimensional evening-length work that invites audiences to unlearn traditional views and break away from dominant patterns of moving and listening to create something entirely new. Music influences draw from jazz to deep house music, and dance inspirations incorporate genres from breaking and vogueing to ballet and Latin social dance.

Barton and Akinmusire create a provocative yet intimate experience, full of surprise, intrigue, and humanity that challenges and deeply connects. Audience members can choose onstage or orchestra-level seating, making for a personalized experience that lets each audience member determine their own level of immersion. While the piece is “dark and moody, revealing more of each performer as it unfolds” according to Northrop Director of Artistic and Community Programs Kristen Brogdon, it also is a “declaration of love for being together,” offering a place where “the soul finds enough air to listen carefully” (tanznetz).

Described by Barton as “half dance performance and half concert,” B E N D gives both disciplines equal weight. This convergence creates a cosmic refuge for the senses, shifting from up-close and personal to vastly distanced and massive. Both Barton and Akinmusire approach their work improvisationally, guided by exploration, abstraction, and intuition, defying genre-specific rules and conventions. “I’m not trying to shape any one particular thing,” Akinmusire says, “It is all discovery. It’s just what is coming out, there’s no judgement; there’s no preconceived ideas” (Liquid Music).

Beginning, Middle, Bend

Akinmusire’s play-it-by-ear music matches Barton’s style of dance-making, both respecting and dismantling classical and contemporary forms. Barton's open-ended process results in a “refusal of categorization” (tanznetz), where the only constant in her work is change (National Endowment for the Arts).

Barton’s and Akinmusire’s art forms remain in constant conversation with both themselves and each other. Akinmusire responds in real time to dancers’ movements, creating a living, breathing landscape onstage and making each performance unique. The rough working title for the project was Beginning, Middle, Bend, eventually shortened to B E N D, with an A a for Ambrose Akinmusire and an a B for Aszure Barton—and plenty of spaces in between to create something new for each performance.