Mission in the Mix !

Here is the performance schedule for Mission in the Mix- (subject to change)--


Friday June 18
SoulForce Dance Company
Micayas' Performance Workshop Classes
Motion Explosion Lindy Hop
Groove Monkeez
Kani Terry (singer)

Saturday June 19
SoulForce Dance Company
Micayas' Performance Workshop Classes
Alter Ego
Motion explosion Lindy Hop
Shereen prince Performance group


Sunday June 20
SoulForce Dance Company
Micayas' Performance Workshop Classes
Shereen Prince performance Group
Elemental remix
Team Rodchata Bachata Group

Friday June 25
SoulForce Dance Company
Micayas' Performance Workshop Classes
Kings Krew (from Oregon)
Groove Monkeez
DownEFX

Saturday June 26
SoulForce Dance Company
Micayas' Performance Workshop Classes
Kings Krew (from Oregon)
Team Rodchata Bachata Group
Nick Van Casino Salsa

Sunday June 27
SoulForce Dance Company
Micayas' Performance Workshop Classes
Alter Ego
Elemental Remix
Bliss dance company
Kani Terry (Singer)

why

For as long as I have been doing what I do, I have never used the term "dance crew".
For some reason, I just dont like it. I have used the the term dance company since the beginning and Im sticking to it. To me it gives it more artistic credibility to say "dance company".
Dance Crew reminds me of a team, a sport-- which is great ..but where is the art?
And if hip hop dance is fighting to get its well deserved respect and credibility as a legitimate art, then wouldnt it be good to support that with what you want to be called?

I realize always that these terms have their origins and roots and I do not want to take a way from/disrespect that. But I have witnessed an evolution of the artistry that in this dance form...

So-- if you have ever wondered why you have never heard me use the term dance team or dance crew.. now you know why..

much love and respect
Micaya

music

The Past week music used in class--
Tuesday SF- I get it In by Omarion
Wednesday in Marin - How Low by Ludacris
Thursday 6pm and Saturday (tomorrow) Noon SF Classes- How Low by Ludacris
Thursday 8pm SF Class- Code Red by Omarion

whats up

Here are things that are going on in my worlds

Mission in the Mix is getting booked with the invited guests- i will post them very soon on the blog so you can know who else is performing

I am working on donation brochures for the SFHHDF. Its time to get some funds together so i can afford to bring you all these amazing dance companies from all over the world! Please help out by going to the website www.sfhiphopdancefest.com and donate through paypal

I just finished choreographing the second piece for SoulForce Dance Company to perform at Mission in the Mix . They are called "Day by Day" and "Tra la la" I still want to do one more piece..

My youth students are performing on June 5 at the Marin Civic Center at the Roco Dance Show . 4:30 show is the younger ones and 7:30 show is the older ones. Super cute lions and clowns!!!

I am hiring a new lighting person for the SFHHDF this year. I am interviewing people. If you have anyone to recommend , let me know.

Well theres plenty more- BUT thats enough for now. I dont want to overwhelm you! what a life-- what a crazy beautiful life!

Love and respect
Micaya

great weekend!

What a great weekend! Ok, it was all about "working", but it was so much fun. The workshops went very well and the pieces are actually starting to look like pieces now. Im very proud of my students. They are putting in the time and it is starting to show.
On Saturday after workshop, a huge group of us went to the taqueria around the corner and hang out and ate and drank. It was good to have folks get to know each other on a social level . I enjoyed getting to know some of my newer students that I had never met before.
The more I do this, the more inspired I become. It is my sole goal that every student feels fulfilled from this experience.

I am really looking forward to Mission in the Mix!

PHOTO- Danniel Derrick of SoulForce dance Company performing at the Dance Mission Benefit

Music I used in class the past week--
Beginner SF classes- How Low by Ludacris
Int/Adv Tuesday class- Makin Love by Neyo and Fabolous
Int/adv Thursday class- He aint wi tme now tho by richgirl
Marin class- He aint wit me now tho by Richgirl

LOVE AND RESPECT--
Micaya

Moving On

Allright already - Im moving on past the London trip and back to goings on right here in the Bay. Here is the flier for my show "Mission in the Mix" . You can get your tickets online at Brownpapertickets.com

SoulForce will be performing new pieces that I am in the middle of creating. My student in my performance workshops will also be performing along with special guest performances.
The show always sells out, so dont wait too long to get your tickets.

Love and Respect
Micaya

Continuing

Image - Pro Phenomen form France

I am continuing with my experiences at Breakin Convention last weekend.

Interlude from UK
Youth dance company - many young people on stage at once. There was a little girl that was workin it!
They did a MJ tribute (actually, several youth companies did a MJ tribute) which I think is weird . Only my opinion people so dont get your panties in a bunch. But I wouldnt have let my child anywhere near the man - so why would I want a child doing a tribute to him...

moving on --

A Diaspoa Collective from UK
I Loved this piece. It consisted of 5 very talented women expressing their frustrations of womanhood. There were very powerful moments of "internal dialogue" as I call it. The dancers in my company hear me say that phrase a lot. It's when you KNOW the dancers are doing more than just dancing. Know what i mean?
The dancing was super beautiful nonetheless. It was a mixture of contemporary, house, african styles that were earthy as well as intricate. One dancer has on a microphone somewhere n her body and she does spoken word and dances! Every moment is riveting and creative. The lines they create feel original and their sequences are captivating. The soloist was great.
They almost lost me at the end when they walked around for a bit. I wasnt sure of the significance of that. Otherwise this was a real TREAT to witness.

Pro-Phenomen from France
Awesome y'all. Im trying to book them now and bring them here to the SFHHDF this November. I cant wait to share them with the Bay. Beautiful musicality, very clever- f*&%in Beautiful!

More later
Love and Respect
Micaya

Music I used in class this week
Marin- Outta control by E-40
SF Beginner class- Drop it Low by Chris Brown
SF Intermediate class - Makin Love by Neyo and Fabolous

Going on---

Here is some more performance info for the Breakin Convention-
Spread Expression From UK.
This was a very heavy, intense piece about slavery that still exists on this planet. i got very consumed with this piece. It took me there---
There was a platform onstage with ropes of some sort and the dancers would get entangled in this structure. The danced at first to a voice talking about facts of existing slavery . There were occasional explosions that were alarming.
The movement was strong - present - fierce-powerful- beautiful!
I must admit that the women in the piece were WAY more captivating than the men-
Toward the end of the piece, I wondered if the dancers would be "freed"- to give the audience some kinda of hope. I had a strong feeling that they wouldnt be and that was fine with me , but I sensed that the audience would have preferred a different ending.

Robert Hylton from UK
This is a piece that I have seen footage of before. They submitted this piece to me last year for the 11th annual SFHHDF but I did not book it. It is a 10 minute popping piece that explores the human body's physical reaction to movement. Even though the movement is captivating and the dancers are incredibly skilled, I cant listen to the sound of bones cracking for 10 minutes! Im not sure if everyone feels the same way as I do, but I find it personally irritating. 10 minutes of bones cracking and popping? I dont know know- I just dont prefer to hear that.

Jane Sekoyna John from South Africa
This was another very intense piece that consumed me as well. It was a solo piece that was heavy at times and light at times. The story is about an old woman that every time she puts on this hat, it transforms her to her younger self- taking her through her past experiences.
She is very lovable and relatable and does an excellent job of storytelling and dance. The piece is super fresh and cute with some heavy moments of the protests in South African history.
I absolutely LOVED this piece!!!!

More later

LOVE AND RESPECT
Micaya

and more---

right now im on a plane on my last leg of my trip. im so ready to be back home- love my life!

Heres more on the Breakin Convention

I had the opportunity to see the group Big City Brains from Denmark twice. I enjoyed it even more the second time. It was a lighthearted clever lovable animation style piece. It started out with an awesome solo and then three dancers entered and performed the rest of the piece. The soloist from the beginning doesnt come out again until the very end , which is lightly weird,but at least he comes out again.
There were so many cute skits that were done so very well in this piece. The timing had to be impeccable for the sound effects and for the lighting effects to actually bring the whole thing together.
They did cute stuff with a virtual remote control, many different "doors" they kept going through only to find themselves in many different scenarios. The audience thought it was hilarious. It was so silly but so amazing at the same time.
There was one section where one guy was doing the effect of walking in heavy wind. Between the sound effect , light and his incredible skill of animation , I was Blown away! It was so cool!

Another performance was Renegade from Germany. This was an hour long piece that fused hip hop, performance art modern dance, b-boying and bike tricks ! There was a conjoining of dancers and choreographers from two worlds of dance that seemed to work- at least for me. The audience was NOT feeling the modern dance . Actually at times, it did seem long.

They danced to very loud heavy metal music, classic music, pop music, and some music that sounded like opera that had cat and horse sounds underneath ....(im serious!)
There were buckets, jackets, bikes, cigarettes lit and smoked on stage.
There was competition between the dancers, for jackets, the bike , the woman.

The b-boys did some pretty amazing stuff- some of it was just stellar jaw dropping and some was like you were watching them do power moves in slo mo!

There were times while I was watching this piece where I just wanted to take a photo or paint a portrait of what I saw. There were still images that lasted in the mind sometimes longer than the movement itself did.

More to come- stay tuned
Love and Respect
Micaya

PHOTOS
Poppin Pete and me
Jonzi D and Danny Francis
Plague (reppin the SFHHDF t-shirt!)

2nd day of Breakin Convention

Well tonights performances blew me away- There have been so many moments in the past few days where I felt so blessed to be alive to witness such powerful art. Tonight could have killed me. There were a lot of very deep pieces tonight that I got caught up in emotionally. This coupled with the staggering level of skill that was displayed was nothing short of wonder-ous!

Here are some more random notes I took while watching the performances so far.

Status from UK
They did a Alice in Wonderland piece. Cute costumes and interesting use of stage. They were doing the slow/fast style and it was nice. They had tricks and nice choreography and great presence. They were not always together , their transitions were sometimes a bit weak and the piece itself did not feel complete.

Dance Offensive from UK
Young dancers making statements about their lives. "Each One Teach One" was the motto-Piece used spoken word as well as imagery on back screen .Most of the imagery was the words that were being heard - just to double enforce the message, i guess. One memorable moment was when one dancer stood still in the middle of many dancers moving wildly then they all run offstage and leave him on floor.
There were several soloists who were great. One guy did a crazy hollow-back kind of thing on his head. He had a very flexible back.The piece ended with a very young girl dancing at the end. The future --

Phase T from France
The first thing I thought when I saw these guys on stage is they are some big men honey!
They did a cool rewind theme thing in the beginning that was effective. There were a lot of gun shot sounds in their mix-
They did many beautiful tricks- incredible air moves and lifts.
They had a skit that the audience loved where they had a paper of instructions. The dancers then formed a machine of sorts and the person with the paper had to read the instructions to figure out how to either fix it or put it together.
Oh and check this out-One dude actually entered onstage sliding on his head!
And one guy literally "surfed" on top of another guy while he was sliding across the stage!
The tricks were definately the highlight of this piece!
Oh yeah I almost forgot to tell you- they took off their shirts at the end for their bow to show us how ripped their abs were. They were very proud of themselves.

Ok enough for now- more tomorrow-

Photos I took tonight- dancers from Plague, Nobulus and Bad Taste Crew (all of whom have previously performed at the SFHHDF!)

Love and Respect
Micaya

oh my

i just woke up about an hour ago- i slept for 12 hours! i woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon-- my internal clock is off- very funny-
catching up on things here at the hotel and then heading to the theatre to check out day 2 of the Breakin Convention.

I have not had a chance until last night to really rest- its been hectic.

And no- Im still not over what happened to me from Continental Airlines. I think I have post traumatic stress !!!

More later

Love and Respect
Micaya

*photo of Hakeem Onibudo and I - Hakeem is the host of some of the shows. He came to SF last year to attend the SFHHDF !

Breakin Convention Day 1

Ok I will try to tell you as much as I can but this will be an ongoing topic for a little while. I attended the first day of the Breakin Convention in London today and was impressed by what I saw so far.

I will be here for 2 more days. The festival runs three days and hosts many different companies from all over the world. Today I saw a lot of companies perform.

Jonzi D is the artistic director and I think that we both have very similar tastes in what talent we book for our festivals. I was greeted by the very awesome staff who hooked me up with the best seats ever , hotel reservations and such. If I had a staff like them, I would be able to rest a little. They got it under control honey!

I took photos of the theatre because it is enormous and beautiful. It has three floors of seating plus a floor on the ground level for people to stand and watch.

The two companies that really stood out to me tonight were Compagnie Mira from France and Renegade from Germany. Here are some notes I took while watching the shows tonight.

Compagnie Mira is a husband and wife duet company whose piece they performed tonight was very cohesive. It was a story of their love and relationship which at times was so intimate that you felt you knew them personally. However it had a huge relate-ability to it which made it so so sweet. I too have felt so many of the same things that felt on that stage and they took me on the journey very gracefully.

The piece runs about 30 minutes, in my opinion a bit too long. Thre is alot that goes on in the piece: they sometimes speak (in french but it doesnt matter- i understood anyway). They danced to french music , very fresh -

As in love and relationships, Of course encounter their combative moments. I felt at times I was watching a conversation they were having with their movement.At times it was funny and light and at other times it took on a heavy realness.They had a beautiful artistic sense and had interesting ways of using the stage.

So yeah I loved it. It was the first piece I saw tonight and was blown away by it for sure...

Ok I am tired -- more tomorrow

Love and respect
Micaya