Program Notes for JEREMY NEDD: from rock to rock... aka how magnolia was taken for granite
Jeremy Nedd
from rock to rock… aka how magnolia was taken for granite
Friday & Saturday, April 24 & 25, 2026
McGuire Theater
from rock to rock… aka how magnolia was taken for granite
Concept and Choreography
JEREMY NEDD
Performers
JEREMY NEDD, BRANDY BUTLER, NASHEEKA NEDSREAL, ZEN JEFFERSON, JEREMY GUYTON
Technical management & lighting design
Sebastian Sommer
Stage design
Laura Knüsel, Jeremy Nedd
Sound design
Fabrizio Di Salvo, Rej Deproc, Xzavier Stone
Dramaturgy
Anta Helena Recke
Choreographic assistant
Kihako Narisawa
Diffusion
ART HAPPENS
Production
Caroline Froelich (Moin Moin Productions)
In coproduction with Kaserne Basel, De Singel Antwerp, DDD – Festival Dias da Dança Porto, Gessnerallee Zürich, and Les Halles de Schaerbeek
With the kind support of Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater BS/BL, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, and Jacqueline Spengler Stiftung
Premiere: September 14, 2023, Kaserne Basel, Switzerland
Tonight’s performance is approximately 75 minutes in duration and is performed without intermission.
Sensory note: This performance contains haze.
Audio description services are available for the Saturday performance. For more information about accessibility, visit our Access page.
JEREMY NEDD (he/him) is a dancer/ performer, choreographer/ director, who divides his time between Basel, Switzerland and his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. As a performer Nedd has had engagements at the Semperoper in Dresden and Ballett Basel. He has also had the opportunity to work with various internationally acclaimed choreographers. Most notably Trajal Harrell and Kyle Abraham, where he performed in the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award winning work “The Radio Show.” As a choreographer he has realized and presented productions in major theaters and festivals across Europe (Switzerland, The UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal ) Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda) South America (Brazil, Peru, Colombia) and North
America. Most recently, he is a recipient of a 2023 Swiss Performing Art Award and in 2025 he received the Ellis Beauregard choreographer award. Jeremynedd.com @jeremy.nedd
NASHEEKA NEDSREAL is a Louisiana born, Berlin based, dance artist and choreographer working with sound and visual art mediums. Exploring subjects relating to identity, ritual, futurism, play and improvisation, her work incorporates use of voice, collage, found objects, textiles and masking. She is the co-founder of Blackism Collective and a member of Santo Schwarz. Her work has been shown at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Kampnagel, Sadler’s Wells, Theater o.N and many others. In 2018, she began working with choreographer Trajal Harrell and is currently a member of the Schauspielhaus Zurich Dance Ensemble. In 2022, diving further into her work as a dancing, visual artist, Nedsreal received the opportunity to attend the Black Rock Residency in Senegal.
ZEN JEFFERSON (he/they) is a Black & Queer Swiss-American performer, DJ & NY Bessie nominated sound collage artist based in Berlin. Zen’s collaborations and practice navigate the intersections of cultural and spiritual expansion within performance and ritual – exploring themes of intimacy, race, community & sound as a transformative vessel for connection and healing.
BRANDY BUTLER is a Philadelphia-born, Zurich-based interdisciplinary artist whose work spans music, theater, education, and activism. With a background in jazz performance and vocal pedagogy, she has collaborated with prominent Swiss artists such as Sophie Hunger, Erica Stucky and Phenomden. Her solo project Brandy Butler and the Brokenhearted, along with bands like Chamber Soul and King Kora, has taken her across Europe, The United States, and Africa. Butler’s artistic journey includes performances at major venues such as Münchner Kammerspiele, Theater Bochum, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Kaserne Basel, and Theater Neumarkt. She is the creator of MITOSIS – an LSD Opera, which she wrote, directed, and co- composed — a poignant exploration of mortality and healing through music and movement. She is co-founder of the artistic collective “braveneWWWorld” which uses the internet as a tool for theatrical experiences. Beyond the stage, she founded Smart Cookie Productions, promoting diversity and inclusion through creative initiatives like Drag Story Time and Protest Academy for young audiences.An advocate for social change, Butler continues to inspire through her multifaceted contributions to the arts and community engagement.
JEREMY DE’JON GUYTON is a performance artist and writer whose work primarily engages Afro//queer archives to imagine pathways toward collective liberation. He holds an M.F.A. in Choreography & Performance from Florida State University and a B.A. in Theatre & Performance Studies from Georgetown University. His choreographic research integrates
devised theatre practices, text and spoken word, media, and social and club movement languages to create immersive performance worlds that invite deep listening, critical inquiry, and collective dreaming. He has toured internationally with critically acclaimed artist, Solange Knowles, and is an active contributor to regional and international artist collectives. Bridging creative practice with community care and cultural preservation, he has designed and managed arts and advocacy programming for youth and adult artists. He is also the founder and legacy steward of a.l.t. ^home, a creative residency and living cultural archive housed in his family home in South Los Angeles. More information can be learned at: www.jeremydejon.com
The McGuire Theater and Walker Art Center are located on the contemporary, traditional, and ancestral homelands of the Dakota people. Situated near Bde Maka Ska and Wíta Tópa Bde, or Lake of the Isles, on what was once an expanse of marshland and meadow, this site holds meaning for Dakota, Ojibwe, and Indigenous people from other Native nations, who still live in the community today.
We acknowledge the discrimination and violence inflicted on Indigenous peoples in Minnesota and the Americas, including forced removal from ancestral lands, the deliberate destruction of communities and culture, deceptive treaties, war, and genocide. We recognize that, as a museum in the United States, we have a colonial history and are beneficiaries of this land and its resources. We acknowledge the history of Native displacement that allowed for the founding of the Walker. By remembering this dark past, we recognize its continuing harm in the present and resolve to work toward reconciliation, systemic change, and healing in support of Dakota people and the land itself.
We honor Native people and their relatives, past, present, and future. As a cultural organization, the Walker works toward building relationships with Native communities through artistic and educational programs, curatorial and community partnerships, and the presentation of new work.
The Walker Art Center’s Performing Arts programs and commissions are made possible by donors and Producers’ Council members: AJT Fund; Bridge Fund for Dance program through the City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department; Christina Evans and Weston Hoard; Nor Hall and Roger Hale; Judith Brin Ingber and Jerome Ingber; Neal Jahren; the Jerome Foundation; King’s Fountain/Barbara Watson Pillsbury; Knox Foundation: Susanne Lilly Hutcheson, Zenas Hutcheson IV, Henry Hutcheson, and Perrin Hutcheson; Sarah Lutman; Emily Maltz; the David and Leni Moore Family Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network; Rebecca Rand; Lois and John Rogers; the Serendipitous Leverage Fund; Therese Sexe and David Hage; Elizabeth and Mike Sweeney; John L. Thomson; Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation; Sue and Jim Westerman; and Frances and Frank* Wilkinson. Media partner MPR News, The Current, and YourClassical MPR.
To learn more about upcoming performances, visit 2025/26 Walker Performing Arts Season.
