With the Special Award in Choreography from the Gerbode Foundation in 2022, I worked with dancers specializing in turfing—a street dance originating in Oakland’s predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods in the 1990s, descending from boogaloo, strutting, popping, and the Black Power movement of the 1960s. Our process began by collectively designing research questions and gathering research artifacts such as poems, rap lyrics, clothes, collages, family stories, community interviews, choreographies and recorded freestyles. Through an iterative rehearsal process, we synthesized our analysis of these materials into a 90-minute multidisciplinary street dance theater production that combined turfing, video projections, mockumentary-style speculative storytelling, AI-generated motion graphics, soundscaping, and audience/community participation. Several originators and pioneers of turfing shared the stage with the cast at key moments in the show, along with a predominantly BIPOC audience many of whom grew up in the Bay Area with turfing.
Credits:
Directed, written, and produced by My-Linh Le
Performed and choreographed by Shaka Perdue, Charlie, Telice Summerfield, Gary Morgan aka Icecold3000, Jarell Boyd aka Skeeter, Arthur V. Gardner, Jr. aka DopeyFresh, Alante Hall aka Tae-Ninja, Michael Chicago II aka NoName
Special appearances by Animaniakz, TurfFeinz, B.A., and H.E.A.T.
Original songs by Randy Mcphly and LargoBlas
Presented by Dance Mission Theater and Mud Water Theatre
Lighting designed by Harry Rubeck
Stage direction Megan Lowe
Rehearsal management and assistance by Terrence Paschal
Projections by Jeffrey Yip and Lauren Bedal
