Parris Goebel choreographed the 40-minute production which gatecrashed Haute Couture week in Paris earlier this month, and it was an evening to remember.

Nike has always been a pioneer in women’s sportswear. Whether it’s creating leak protection period shorts for women and girls.

Including designing custom pro shorts with the special absorbent lining for women footballers.

Or fashioning double-knit technology with the sole purpose of concealing sweat and helping athletes accelerate their performance in any field.

The athletic corporation is at the forefront of innovation when it comes to catering to women. 

And their boundary-breaking has reached yet another level of brilliance.

Earlier this month, Nike continued its championing of women and non-binary people through a breath-taking movement performance staged in the French capital.

The powerhouse sportswear brand high-jacked the tail-end of Haute Couture Fashion week in Paris – one of the most anticipated events on in the fashion calendar.

To put on a blockbuster 40-minute production constructed by renowned choreographer Parris Goebel (the woman behind Rihanna’s Emmy-nominated Super Bowl performance this year) with over 30 Nike partners and athletes.

Devised to usher in a new era and the latest string of designs for Nike’s womenswear division, guests gathered inside the Accor Arena, and the audience, which included the likes of designers and Nike collaborators Simon Porte Jacquemus founder of Jacquemus, Martine Rose and Yoon Ahn, creative director of Ambush, were stunned into silence as a row of treadmills were unveiled from underneath a white sheet. Animated dancers came bounding in and descended into full-on sprints on treadmills while clad in sportswear, soundtracked by a series of short video clips of the dancers as kids.

At the crux of the immersive performance titled ‘Goddess Awakened’ (a play on the company’s name, which derives from the Greek Goddess of victory) was a commemoration of female empowerment and womanhood, spearhead by women. The audience were privy to striking pieces (soon to hit stores) designed by Rose, Ahn and Feng Chen Wang, which helped seamlessly tie the evening’s narrative together.

Alarms bells began ringing as one dancer led the pack and took centre-stage while donning a multi-coloured fleece with ‘Ambush’ emblazoned on the back. Elsewhere, old-school tracks by Jay-Z echoed into around the room as a singular dancer held the room’s everyone’s attention while break-dancing in gradient purple and blue Martine Rose X Nike shox mules (which will surely sell-out in minutes when released on July 25). A little while later, a mashup of smash-hits by Lola Brooke and A$AP Rocky blared through the speakers as the audience cheered alongside a cohort of dancers who fluidly moved through an impressive range of dance styles, comprising interpretative dance, twerking, voguing and more.

Right after a poignant moment when a collective of dancers embraced one another in grey and green form-fitting leggings and sports bras to Cleo Sol’s hauntingly beautiful track “Know That You Are Loved”, a line of scarves tied together was thrown down to the dancers to symbolise unity amongst women. A dramatic change in pace brought about a fencing spar with Ibtihaj Muhammad and another fencer, and Paralympian Scout Basset’s story of resilience and perseverance after being orphaned in her birthplace of China, before being adopted into an American family and later qualifying for Team USA brought the room to a standstill.

Amplifying women via movement and enlisting an inspiring network of athletes and dancers was necessary and a means of inclusion, says Liz Weldon, VP and Global Nike Women’s Brand Management of the spectacular event. ‘We know that one of the greatest ways we can champion women is to open space for them to feel seen and included.’ Above all, though, women taking ownership and autonomy over their bodies through movement is, for Goebel, a moment she couldn’t have been prouder to be involved in. ‘To me, there is no better way to express the love, grief, power and femininity of this moment than through dance and I’m grateful for Nike’s partnership in giving me the stage, literally and figuratively, to do it.’

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Source: Tampa Bay Times