SEPT 15, 16, 22, & 23 at 8 pm
SEPT 17 & 23 at 5 pm UMA Philly founder Vince Johnson collaborates with virtuosic Cuban jazz musician Francois Zayas for a raw, up close duet, inviting the audience into the many layers and textures of identity. “i.d.” is an uplifting journey through sound and movement that celebrates the complexity of race, culture and gender diversity. Vince Johnson is a former principal dancer for Rennie Harris Puremovement and Francois Zayas a former member of the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba. Johnson and Zayas’ virtuosities overlap as they effortlessly transform themselves through styles of dance and music. This shape shifting celebrates the richness of human expression and identity. Johnson fuses influences from hip hop, martial arts, and contemporary dance into aerodynamic expressions of grace and control. Francois delivers ear-bending beats that travel across a landscape of percussion instrumentation from around the world. Johnson and Zayas, both educators at Movemakers Philly and the newly launched Urban Movement Arts Philly have created “I.D” as dazzling and inspirational entertainment for all ages. Development of “i.d.” was supported by The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) Forward Dialogues Residency.
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Check out our Hip Hop H.I.I.T and Breaking Teacher BBoy Metal's footwork tutorial from this past summer. All our classes are beginner friendly, so if this looks fun to you but you're nervous about starting from scratch, don't worry! You'll be in good hands. Everyone feels like they have two left feet sometimes. And this stuff is an awesome work out! UMA's founder & director, Vince Johnson, acting out in the street. A note from Vince:
Lineage and intention are crucial concepts for me as a movement practitioner. I’ve been active in movement culture for almost my entire life, starting with the martial arts when I was 5. Since then, I’ve accumulated other practices. I’ve never stopped and in my most dedicated practices, martial arts tricking and hip hop dance, I’ve seen low points and success. I’ve been a scrub and I’ve also stood neck and neck with some of the best in the world. I say this to emphasize that I’ve encountered many training institutions and instructors throughout my career, the best and the worst. Whenever I step into a place that has the purpose of teaching me how to move my body, the first thing that always comes to mind for me is what gives this person the nerve to tell me how to use my body. I hope the same skepticism comes to mind for you. You should what to know your teacher/coach’s level, successes, failures, time spent in the game and overall intention and philosophy in teaching. You should want to know these things for all of the obvious reasons, because you want to thrive. I am quite sensitive to the difficulty of realizing physical change, learning new movements and skills. Often times it’s about an ongoing commitment to trial and error—lots and lots of error. Your training house should be composed of leaders that are dedicated to building you up. When they do not have the tools immediately before them, they must humbly and urgently go in search of the information needed to offer you support, or otherwise admit that said action is beyond their capability. See you in class, Vince |
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