Kahilu Theatre presents Amy O’Neal’s Opposing Forces at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Kahilu Theatre presents Amy O’Neal’s Opposing Forces at 7 p.m. Saturday.
In Amy O’Neal’s Opposing Forces, five B-Boys from different generations and cultures come together in curiosity, strength, vulnerability, and grace in this dance performance that has one foot squarely in street style dance (hip hop) and one foot in contemporary dance story telling.
In Opposing Forces, choreographer O’Neal examines the paradoxical nature of B-Boy culture as it relates to femininity and the value systems of dance battling, commercial dance, stage performance and freestyle cyphers (jam circles). How do these different environments affect expression? Where are stereotypes changing and where do they remain the same? O’Neal pries open these topics and more via conversation, collaboration, and transfixing dance moves.
Opposing Forces Performers and Movement Collaborators consist of Alfredo “Free” Vergara Jr., Brysen “Just Be” Angeles, Fever One, Michael O’Neal Jr. and Mozeslateef.
O’Neal is a dancer, performer, choreographer, and dance educator based in Seattle. For 15 years, she has taught and performed throughout the U.S., Japan, Italy, and Mexico, and she has choreographed for stage, commercials, rock shows, galleries, dance films and music videos.
She teaches contemporary dance and urban styles at Velocity Dance Center and House dance at The Beacon: Massive Monkees studio in Seattle. She also teaches dance composition and improvisation for Seattle Theater Group’s “Dance This” program. She spent seven years developing and teaching for Young Choreographer’s Lab and Seattle Youth Dance Collective and has worked extensively with musician/comedian Reggie Watts since 2002 both on stage and screen.
O’Neal will offer a Master Class at 4 p.m. Friday. The class will provide lessons in stylistic and cultural differences between hip hop (which is breaking, popping, locking, and party dances), house, vogue, whacking, commercial hip hop, street jazz, and her signature amalgam of all these things. The cost is $10, and reservations are available online.
Kahilu Theatre doors open at 6 p.m. for the show. Tickets range from $20-$68 and can be purchased online at www.kahilutheatre.org, by calling 885-6868, or at the Kahilu Theatre Box Office from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Info: www.kahilutheatre.org