Les Ballet Afrik is a multi-cultural dance company that explores the masculine and feminine energies within different dance forms. Our mission is to bridge the gap between the progressive LGBTQ community and the traditions of the Diaspora. We hope to bring awareness to the Black and Latino experience within the ballroom scene and put a focus on the importance of community and connection to ancestry. Rooted in traditional African, House, Vogue, and Latin movement, and under the direction of legendary Omari “Oricci” Wiles, Les Ballet Afrik has pioneered a new movement style called Afrikfusion, a unique blend of dance and movement unlike anything that’s ever been done before.

House of Oricci founding father and ballroom community legend, Omari Wiles, brought ballroom to the Guggenheim in the long-awaited premiere of New York Is Burning in 2021, commissioned by Works & Process. The work features Wiles’s AfrikFusion, which combines traditional African dances and Afrobeat with house dance and vogue.

Wiles developed the Works & Process commission, New York Is Burning, for his company, Les Ballet Afrik, in a summer 2020 Works & Process bubble residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, a spring 2021 Works & Process bubble residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation, and a January 2022 Works & Process LaunchPAD “Process as Destination” residency at The Church, Sag Harbor, in partnership with Guild Hall.

Throughout this time, in some of New York State’s first permitted performances during the pandemic, Works & Process co-produced Les Ballet Afrik’s outdoor, filmed, and preview performances at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Guggenheim Museum rotunda, with the world premiere in the museum’s Peter B. Lewis Theater. The company also performed previews at Jacob’s Pillow, New Victory Theater, and SummerStage and toured the American Dance Festival. New York is Burning is a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Grant Finalist. Les Ballet Afrik was awarded a 2023-24 CUNY Dance Initiative Residency at City College Center for the Arts.

This program is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment of the Arts.