An evening of short works in development by artists who embody a practice of multiple dance cultures with hip hop and house dance at the center.

The dance world is becoming increasingly hybrid in terms of how dancers identify and how dance practices are shared cross culturally. In mainstream culture, hip hop dance is often seen as pure entertainment, but more experimental and hybrid approaches have been happening in both the underground and performance contexts for several years. This platform initiates a deeper understanding of the cultural values of hip hop and street dance practices in the contemporary performance context as a counter narrative to tokenization.

Featuring work from Aisha and Stephen, Tom Tsai, Alex and Jesse from SyntheSoul, and Amy O’Neal

Followed by post show discussion with the artists.

Amy O’Neal has been merging hip hop and contemporary dance within the contemporary performance context since 2000 to challenge notions of race, gender, and the sampling nature of creativity. As a white woman, she is a guest practitioner of black social dance culture in the cypher, in battles, and as an event organizer. She teaches hip hop party dances, house dance, freestyle techniques/mindset, contemporary dance, composition, and lectures on black social dance historical context and culture at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.

https://www.amyoneal.com/