The Hybrid Lab: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures
by
Amy O’Neal
OCT 5-7 | 7:30pm
The Hybrid Lab: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures is part dance party, part performance cypher, part contemporary performance art, and part conversation facilitated by dancer/choreographer/curator/dance educator Amy O’Neal. O’Neal has been merging the experimental and social natures of Hip Hop and Contemporary dance since 2000 to challenge notions of race, gender, and the sampling nature of innovation. Her primary movement languages are contemporary, hip hop, and house and she creates dance experiences within the experimental performance context, dance film, and virtual reality. The Hybrid Lab is a space for real time dialogue between dancers primarily from and in relation to hip hop culture who merge multiple movement styles and contexts to experiment with artistic form, build community, and shift power dynamics between artists, venues, funders, and audiences.
For this engagement in collaboration with Velocity Dance Center, The Hybrid Lab: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures will feature the evolution of Amy O’Neal’s latest house inspired choreographic work “A Trio” and real time experiments by featured Seattle hip hop, house, waacking, and contemporary culture luminaries Orb, Alfredo “Free” Vergara, Tracey Wong, and Majiin O’Neal, as well as a few emerging artists. Each night will be slightly different due to the improvisational nature of the show. Expect DJ sets by WD4D, audience agency to move around, surprise musical guests, post show dance parties, and juicy conversation.
ARTIST BIOS
Amy O’Neal is a dancer, choreographer, curator, and dance educator. A sought-after artist for over two decades, she teaches and performs nationally and internationally and choreographs for live performance, dance film, music video and virtual reality. From 2010 until now, she creates experimental dance work merging Black social dance practices from hip-hop and house culture and contemporary dance while directly addressing race, gender and the sampling nature of innovation. She premiered her first evening-length solo in 2012 for Velocity Dance Center’s first Made in Seattle program, where she examined her influences, questioned her relationship to Blackness as a white woman, and paid homage to her teachers and dance heroes. As a practicing guest of Black dance culture, she has participated in experimental and all-styles battles in NYC, San Francisco, and Seattle, co-organized and co-produced Seattle House Dance Project, and developed hip-hop curriculum for the University of Washington. Her passion and research meet at the intersection of the hip-hop, house and contemporary dance communities. Within this intersection she explores the complex differences, nuances and layers of hybridized movement vocabularies.
In 2016 Amy relocated to Los Angeles and started The Rhythm Assembly, a freestyle techniques class merging the social and exploratory natures of hip-hop and contemporary dance. She joined the faculty of the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance in 2018 where she teaches hip-hop, house and freestyle techniques, composition and improvisation, contemporary dance, and lectures on Black social dance history, practice, and media literacy. Amy started The Hybrid Lab: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures in Los Angeles in 2019 as part of the LAX Festival produced by Los Angeles Performance Practices. She feels the most at peace when she can embody her full human experience as an artist and is passionate about creating space for others to do the same.
ALFREDO “FREE” VERGARA
DUFON “ORB” SMITH
MAJINN O’NEAL
AMARIA STERN
GABY COLON
NIA-AMINA MINOR
TRACEY WONG
DANIEL DAY
MAIA DURFEE
REV SOLVEJ “AMELIA” NOA
PROGRAM SUPPORT
The Hybrid Lab is made possible by John Robinson, the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Interested in joining the community of support that is making the Seattle presentation of this work possible? Contact erin@velocitydancecenter.org to learn how you can be involved.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
12th Avenue Arts is fully accessible for wheelchairs and walkers. The lobby, bathrooms and theater spaces are at street level, and seating is available without the need for an elevator or stairs. Bathrooms will be gender neutral.
ASL interpretation will be provided on Friday, October 6 | TICKETS
For specific questions and accommodations, please contact Shirley at operations@velocitydancecenter.org
Nia-Amina Minor (she/they) is a movement artist, choreographer, curator, and educator originally from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the body and what it carries using physical and archival research to explore memory and history. She approaches her practice as an imaginative space grounded in rhythm where improvisation, Black vernacular movement, and choreography meet. Nia-Amina is co-founder of Black Collectivity, a collaborative project developed through the Velocity Made in Seattle Artist Residency Program. She has received regional and national commissions for her choreographic and film work and has a working background as a performer and dramaturg. She has provided dramaturgical assistance to choreographers Jade Solomon-Curtis (Keeper of Sadness 2023) and Donald Byrd (Grief 2022). As a performer she has worked with Zoe Juniper, Will Rawls, Alice Gosti, dani tirrell and from 2016-2021 she was a Company Artist at Spectrum Dance Theater under the direction of Donald Byrd. In 2021, she was recognized as Dance Magazine’s 25 Artists to Watch. As a curator, Nia-Amina has developed programming at Wa Na Wari, Velocity Dance Center, Base Arts Space, and Spectrum Dance Theater. From 2014-2016, she was a co-founder and curator of Los Angeles based collective, No)one Art House. Currently, she has been invited to work on a curatorial project titled To Gather at On the Boards for their 23/24 season. Nia-Amina received her MFA in Dance from UC Irvine and a BA from Stanford University and is based in Seattle.
Dallas native Amaria Stern (she/her) is a performer, teaching artist, and arts administrator. Now based in Los Angeles, she works to traverse the intersections of art and culture, especially as it pertains to afro-diasporic traditions, through performance, community outreach, and collaboration. She has performed the work of renowned choreographers in both commercial, concert, and theater realms, working on film projects with artists like Solange Knowles, Aluna, and Brandy, as well as performing in Disneyland’s Tale of the Lion King. She has developed and contributed to a number of platforms that celebrate black dance and is currently the program coordinator for UniverSOUL Hip Hop, an organization that provides transformative Hip Hop education programs to K-12 schools throughout California.
Seattle based artist, Orbitron is a Hip-Hop (Breaking), and House dancer with over twenty years of experience. Worldwide, he attended major street dance events as a contestant, judge and teacher. Orb’s dance tribe is the legendary Circle Of Fire Crew out of Seattle, Washington. This crew is one of the few who blends House Dancing, Hip Hop (Breaking) and Capoeira in their movements. Orb, has taught dance workshops, competed and performed in over ten different countries and holds a wealth of knowledge as a mentor and personal coach. He teaches Hip Hop & House Foundation and creating awareness of music through musicality & originality. As such, he has also released many records over the years (produced by Beacon Skillz), where his talents as a lyricist do not go unnoticed. Orb’s songwriting overflows with conscious poetry and a relaxed soulful vibe that has uplifted many crowds across the globe.
As a founding member from one of the most innovative and influential dance groups, Seattle based CIRCLE OF FIRE, Alfredo Vergara aka “Free”, embodies the true essence of self expression through movement. With over 25 plus years of experience deeply rooted in the street dance Breaking, he has gained the respect and admiration of his peers and his community. Inspired by his crew’s (COF) individuality within the dance and philosophy towards the arts, Alfredo founded SOULSHIFTERS crew, a collective of creatives that spans in cities across the US, including Canada, Korea and Japan. Composed of artists that practice a variety of mediums, from DJ’s, producers, musicians, photographers, videographers, designers, graffiti and tattoo artists alike to come together, collaborate, elevate one another, inspire and spread positivity through their perspective art form.Alfredo has also participated in various dance events and competitions locally and internationally. From world famous breakdancing events such as FREESTYLE SESSIONS (USA), DANCE DELIGHT (JAPAN), RED BULL: LORDS OF THE FLOOR (USA), R-16 (KOREA), JUSTE DEBUT (FRANCE), IBE (Netherlands) and the INTERNATIONAL BATTLE OF THE YEAR (GERMANY) just to name a few. Internationally known for his charismatic style and finesse, Alfredo has also starred in his self-titled solo DVD “A Beautiful One Man Show” which shines a new light to the art of storytelling through dance in a series of videos. Alfredo performed in Amy O’Neal’s Opposing Forces at On the Boards in Seattle in 2014, toured the show nationally until 2017, and is featured in a documentary about the show How it Feels that premiered in 2019 and screened in dance film festivals through 2020. Alfredo’s knowledge and experience within Hip Hop dance culture of Breaking, along with other dance styles such as House, Freestyle and the Brazilian martial arts/dance Capoeira, has led him to take part in judging competitions, discussion panels, as well as teaching workshops all over the world. He has taught in schools, community centers, dance studios and a variety of dance programs all over the US and other countries with students ranging from all ages. Through dance, the art of movement, Alfredo strives to express himself physically, mentally and spiritually, to uplift the soul and be Free.
Majinn (They/Them) is a queer, disabled, and mixed Black dance artist/educator and massage therapist who utilizes their training in multiple dance forms to find and express their whole self. They believe that to be the best dancer and person they can be they need to continuously push their own comfort zone. Majinn works to help guide people in becoming more confident and connected in their bodies, find joy in their movement and be able to speak their voices through Black social dance forms. One of Majinn’s biggest goals in dance is to spread the histories of Black social dance forms in and out of academia so that the cultures are learned and more respected. They also aim to give back to the communities that these art forms were created from through any way they can. Majinn’s art is for them and the communities they come from, always striving to be authentically themselves in their movement and work. Majinn performed in Amy O’Neal’s Opposing Forces at On the Boards in Seattle in 2014, toured the show nationally until 2017, and is featured in a documentary about the show, How it Feels, that premiered in 2019 and screened in dance film festivals through 2020. You can find Majinn under Majinn_Moves on Instagram or youtube.
Tracey Wong 黃麗塋 (she/her) is a queer Teochew-American interdisciplinary artist that lights up and inspires spaces through her art. She was born and raised on Duwamish Land/ Seattle, WA and she is the co-director and co-founder of Malicious Vixens, a dance crew and sisterhood of Asian American women that perform globally. In 2022, Tracey was deemed a legend in the Pacific Northwest kiki ballroom scene to honor her years of achievements and for creating memorable moments in ballroom. In 2017, Tracey was honored at Seattle House Dance Project in recognition for her community work, and in 2020 as a Seattle Dance Crush. She would not be here today without the support of her loved ones.
Maia Melene Durfee (they/them) is a dancer and choreographer in the contemporary, house, and hip hop communities of Seattle. They work with musicians and mixed media artists to create worlds of movement that are full of visceral texture, abstract thought, and vivid musicality. They’re currently working with ideas about what happens after a shattering, following melodic and rhythmic detours in their bones, and discovering new ways of seeing and relating with the self and other, like looking through transparent or opaque glass, or in a mirror.
Gaby (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, mixed Puerto Rican movement artist and choreographer based out of Seattle. Their movement foundation is based in street styles of breaking, and freestyling in the cypher. A budding performing artist, they take from their Hispanx diaspora and transform their movement into a story. Currently you can find Gaby stunning the stage with their Boriqua magic, performing with House of Kilig. You can find them @gsteel.rmk and @hibiscuslust for nightlife performances.
Daniel-Day (he/him) began his journey through movement in a small city in California called Delano. Hip Hop drew his fascination into its culture and all the elements. Breaking is where his roots are grounded, and now he is branching out through doorways that continue to grow his movement. Living in Seattle for the last three years Daniel-Day’s dance has grown from curiosity to trusting his feelings. He enjoys sharing his development with others and experimenting with curious minds. Daniel-Day has recently collaborated with Gaby Colon and othersBI in SFD+I under the direction of Dani Tirrell, and has been diving into the world of performance art since then. You can find Daniel-Day on Instagram @ddayroc
Reverend Solvej “Amelia” Noa is an improvisational multi-genre performance artist, as well as an educator, Embodiment Coach and non-denominational minister, based in Seattle WA. Amelia’s dance background is primarily in ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop and afro-brazilian dance styles. She received her formal training in the preparatory dance department at Cornish College of the Arts. She also attended Cornish College as a vocal jazz major. Amelia fell in love with House dancing when she started jumping into local freestyle cyphers in the early 2000’s. She is a self-care activist, and the creator of Joy of Dance Experience (J.O.D.E.); a self-care centered movement practice which uses a trauma-informed approach to tend the holistic needs of the body, prioritizing safety, joy and freedom. Reverend Noa’s ministry, Our Love of Life Opera (OLOLO), is largely expressed through the soundscapes and poetry she vocalizes using a loop pedal. She explores, cultivates and disseminates the potent medicine availed of the arts, which she considers the primary mediums through which Inspiration is expressed. Amelia is also the founder of M.A.N.G.O. Family Wellness; a trauma-informed source for Embodiment Coaching for children and adults, as well as parent and family coaching for families in distress. Through MANGO, Amelia also provides trauma-informed anti-bias training, as well as infant mental health workshops for educators and care-givers. Amelia identifies as FREE and dedicates her life to a Higher Power.