Hermitage Greenfield Prize Premiere “Losing My Religion”

When:
April 4, 2025 @ 7:30 pm – April 5, 2025 @ 7:30 pm
2025-04-04T19:30:00-04:00
2025-04-05T19:30:00-04:00
Where:
The Ringling Museum of Art, Historic Asolo Theater
5401 Bay Shore Rd
Sarasota
FL 34243
Hermitage Greenfield Prize Premiere “Losing My Religion” @ The Ringling Museum of Art, Historic Asolo Theater

“Losing My Religion”
by Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Rennie Harris

Presented in partnership with The Ringling Museum of Art

Made possible with generous support from the Greenfield Foundation.

Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Lead Community Sponsor.

Friday, April 4 @ 7:30pm
Saturday, April 5 @ 7:30pm

The Ringling Museum of Art (entrance at 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243)

Click here for more information.
Please note this performance is not part of the Hermitage’s traditional free programming. This ticketed event ($30-$40/person) is hosted by The Ringling in the Historic Asolo Theater as a part of the ‘Art of Performance’ subscription series.

Losing My Religion is a new dance creation from Rennie Harris, resulting from his 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission. The performance is a retrospective inspired by Harris’s life journey, the human experience, and today’s current political and socioeconomic theater. Through this original piece and his remarkable body of work, Harris challenges both what has come to be expected of street dance and hip-hop culture and degenerative social normatives/beliefs with his reconstructionist philosophy and approach to artmaking. As a part of this work, Harris will incorporate a reimagining of his renowned solo Endangered Species. The piece’s inclusion tells a story of systemic racism and revolt and offers a shift away from what was, to what is, and what can be. Losing My Religion examines languages of protest, resilience, and power, while the choreography and forms invite audiences to imagine the ways in which they can use their bodies as resistance.

Lorenzo ‘Rennie’ Harris, winner of the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Dance and Choreography, was born and raised in an African American community in North Philadelphia. In 1992, Harris founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, a street dance theater company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, hip-hop history lecture demonstrations, long-term residencies, mentoring programs, and public performances. Harris founded his company based on the belief that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a new generation. With its roots in the inner-city African American and Latino communities, hip-hop can be characterized as a contemporary indigenous form, one that expresses universal themes that extend beyond racial, religious, and economic boundaries, and one that can help bridge these divisions. Harris’ work encompasses the diverse and rich African American traditions of the past, while simultaneously presenting the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance. Harris is committed to providing audiences with a sincere view of the essence and spirit of hip-hop. Harris was voted one of the most influential people in the last one hundred years of Philadelphia history. Among his awards are honorary doctorates from Bates College and Columbia College. The London Times wrote of Mr. Harris that he is “the Basquiat of the U.S. contemporary dance scene.”