[photo credit: Sierra Madre Playhouse]
“Parable of Portals” transforms Butler’s Parable Series, personal writings, and incomplete manuscripts into a living testament blending dance, sound, and visual media at Sierra Madre Playhouse.
grimes brings formidable credentials: 2021 Bessie Award recipient, 2014 Rockefeller Fellow, and the first USC Kaufman faculty member to receive the 2023 USC Associates Award for Artistic Expression.
The performance features grimes alongside dancer Brianna Mims (USC Kaufman BFA ’19) and video projection artist Meena Murugesan.
grimes and Murugesan collaborate as “SiriusShapeShifters,” having previously performed Butler-inspired work at Caltech.
grimes is known for developing a distinctive movement style called Funkamental MediKinetics, derived from layered dance styles, community building, spiritual practices evident in Black vernacular, and Hip Hop/Street dance forms.
Butler (1947-2006), the Pasadena-born author who became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, created the fictional religion Earthseed around the principle “God is Change.”
As Butler wrote: “All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you.”
“Parable of Portals” will run on Saturday, September 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre. For more call (626) 355-4318 or visit https://www.sierramadreplayhouse.org/event/dsabelagrimes2025. Tickets: $12 to $35.
