Inspired by the music of 2Pac, Sherese Campbell’s Urban Ballet uses jazz, hip-hop, modern, pointe, and tap to explore what it is to be black in an America still wounded by racial division.

The work, choreographed by Campbell, Jaimee Vilela Navarrete, Stephanie Sermas, and Chris Thomas, portrays the different experiences in a “ghetto” neighborhood, using City Dance Company and guest company SonKiss’d to create a fusion of styles complex enough to depict the role of dance, music, sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, family, and personal struggle in the day-to-day life of these under-served, over-looked black neighborhoods across the country.

The project is funded in part by Mayor Sylvester Turner’s City’s Initiative Grant.