Velocity to Present THE HYBRID LAB: CONVERSATIONS IN MERGING DANCE CULTURES By Amy O'Neal

This October, Velocity will present The Hybrid Lab: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures 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 to be announced. 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.

“I have witnessed immense growth in the house dance community in Seattle in general, but am seeing multiple social dance scenes popping off in Seattle right now. The contemporary scene I have witnessed many ebbs and flows of activity over the years,” says O'Neal.

“I know that there are a handful of folks from both the hip hop/Black social dance communities who have been in dialogue in various ways over the years. These communities learning from each other is becoming a more intentional practice locally, nationally, and internationally. We see contemporary dancers training in street dance forms and street dance folks training in contemporary classes. There are contemporary dancers entering battles all over the world and street dance folks participating in contemporary dance performance. Both dance cultures are sampling in their nature but exist for different reasons. I see more people becoming aware of the historical contexts and differences of both while acknowledging the connections in the creative practices. Hybridity is what humans do and I am excited that I am witnessing a more nuanced understanding of what this means and want to continue to cultivate a more in depth self awareness among dancers and audiences.”

PROJECT & EVENT DESCRIPTIONS

Velocity Presents: THE HYBRID LAB: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures

By Amy O'Neal [LAX]

OCT 5-7

12th Avenue Arts

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. 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, The Hybrid Lab will feature the evolution of Amy O'Neal's work "A Trio” as well as appearances by Seattle hip hop culture luminaries Orb, Alfredo “Free” Vergara, Tracey Wong, and Majiin O'Neal among others to be announced.

The Hybrid Lab is made possible by John Robinson, the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) and the National Endowment for the Arts.

ABOUT VELOCITY

Velocity is Seattle's center dedicated to contemporary dance, and an essential incubator for new dance in our region. With artist-driven, community-responsive programming, Velocity provides vital resources and advocacy for one of the most active dance communities in the nation. Velocity's programming includes classes, workshops, residencies, performances, discussions, and the Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation.

Home to hundreds of independent dance artists and renowned for producing investigative, thoughtful work, Velocity's artist residencies have fostered the early work and careers of Cherdonna, Zoe Scofield, Dani Tirrell, Kate Wallich, Danielle Agami, Alice Gosti, Kim Lusk, Coleman Pester, and several more; and was the first to bring to Seattle the work of art stars Tere O'Connor, Miguel Gutierrez, Anouk van Dijk, Bebe Miller, Deborah Hay, Ralph Lemon, Faye Driscoll, Monica Bill Barnes, and many more. 

Velocity advances contemporary dance and movement-based art by fostering the creative explorations of artists and audiences through an invested commitment to education, creation, performance, inquiry, community participation, and inter/national exchange.

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.

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