The following is a press release:
Contemporary arts center OZ Arts Nashville will host its most international season of programming yet, featuring 10 groundbreaking performances created by artists from 6 continents, all using power, grace, and even humor to confront and transcend our turbulent times. The diverse, acclaimed, and occasionally provocative artists in the 2025/26 line-up include high-tech multimedia productions; low-fi, real-time creations of charming live films; fresh and vital voices from contemporary dance; and innovative theatrical experiences. The season features original works by artists all the way from Chile to South Africa, from Japan to France, and from New York to Nashville.
The powerful season kicks off October 23-25 with the U.S. Premiere of French dance artists Compangie Dyptik and their riveting dance-theatre production Le Grand Bal (or “the big party”). This raw, high-octane fusion of hip-hop, theater, and contemporary dance is inspired by a tale of villagers descending into a chaotic dance party for days on end, and, in the modern context, transforms personal and global unease into an explosive celebration of collective release.
In mid-November, OZ Arts welcomes Chilean multimedia company TeatroCinema back to Nashville for the first time since their highly memorable performances in March 2020. Their latest, cutting-edge production, Rosa, features eye-popping multimedia artistry masterfully fused with dynamic live theater to portray a woman whose life through times of personal and political tumult is flashing before her eyes.
Two of Tennessee’s most intriguing artists take center stage for a thrilling double-bill of contemporary dance and music collaborations on December 5 & 6. Statuesque and passionate choreographer and dancer Becca Hoback will perform her dance/film/music triptych Solus, capping off her triumphant, multi-year Sacral Series. Celebrated choreographer and community icon Shabaz Ujima and frequent collaborator Thea Jones gather their Shackled Feet Dance performers to team up with trumpeter, composer, and visual artist Rod McGaha on Synergy, a new work exploring the liberation of the body free from rigid structures via “Black Classical Music,” how Miles Davis referred to jazz music.
The new year kicks off a string of world-class visiting artists with Birdie from Barcelona’s legendary visual theater and multimedia collective Agrupación Señor Serrano on January 30 & 31. This “thrilling and thought-provoking” production utilizes 2,000 toy animals and props, Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary film The Birds, and golf to explore the migration of birds and humans alike.
Rising star Ogemdi Ude, one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” brings her tender and fierce homage to Black femininity, MAJOR, to OZ Arts from February 12-14. The Georgia native created this bold new work inspired by majorette culture, set to the groove of the Southern-born dance form richly mixing hip-hop, voguing, and kick-line precision. MAJOR arrives in Nashville after a world premiere in Hamburg’s prestigious Kampnagel International Summer Festival in July 2025 and a U.S. premiere at New York Live Arts in January 2026.
Tokyo-based, virtuosic multimedia designer and choreographer Hiroaki Umeda returns to OZ Arts in late March for the first time since 2019. His high-velocity performance style merges multiple video projections with inventive sound design and dance to create an unexpected thrill ride. In addition to his signature solo performance assimilating, the evening will also include a more introspective group work, Movement Slate 1, set on 5 femme Hip-hop dancers from the Somatic Field Project.
Also making her return visit to Nashville is post-modern, Australian cabaret legend Meow Meow, who will bewitch audiences at OZ Arts for one-night-only on April 11. The deliciously deranged diva and disruptor “drags cabaret kicking and screaming into the 21st century” (Time Out New York) with her hilarious and highly intoxicating stage presence, performing a blend of bawdy tunes, scintillating covers, and political songs from the Weimar Republic.
The final international visiting artist in OZ’s 2025/26 Season brings a cross-continental collaboration between South Africa’s Impilo Mapantsula and Switzerland-based choreographer Jeremy Nedd which explores the high-octane speed of the Pantsula dance form juxtaposed with the transcendant moments of Pentecostal “praise breaks.” The Ecstatic features fast-paced footwork and trance-like moments of calm, making its U.S. Premiere at OZ Arts on May 1 & 2.
Local artists will take center stage again at the fifth annual Brave New Works Lab, featuring multiple short-form creations by artists in Middle Tennessee with performances May 14-16. The game-changing laboratory for adventurous local artists has already served as a crucial incubator for some of the most exciting new work happening in the region, showcasing 16 new projects across the first four years. A selection of new works for the 2026 Lab will be chosen from an open call for proposals, now through September 30.
The 2025/26 Season closes with the latest magical production from beloved Chicago-based company Manual Cinema. In The 4th Witch, stunning projection techniques and live music combine to tell the story of a young girl living through war who is adopted by the three witches from Macbeth. Remembered from their amazing multimedia re-invention of Frankenstein at OZ Arts in 2019, Manual Cinema returns to Nashville from June 4-6 with this highly-anticipated new production that features the company’s deeply resonant visual storytelling and ingenious mix of old and new technologies.
“At a time when we are all working to make sense of the global upheaval all around us, this landmark season for OZ Arts builds on our commitment to highlight some of the most innovative artists from around the world, giving a platform to artists who are interrogating our present moment and envisioning bold futures,” said Mark Murphy, OZ Arts Executive and Artistic Director. “We are proud to expand our ‘window on the world’ with these brave artists, and we welcome audiences to join us in the essential dialogue around some of the most urgent issues of our time.”
Full details for the 2025/26 Season can be found here. Curious audience members can also plan to attend the organization’s Season Preview event at OZ Arts on Tuesday, September 9th between 5:30pm-7:30pm.
