Sneakers tell a story: a story about those who make them, those who wear them, and those who dance in them. Antics’ new show, Sneaker Suites, tells the story of sneakers through the virtuosity and hyper-physicality of street dance vocabulary.
Antics performs Sneaker Suites at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) in Philadelphia, PA on April 20, with a student matinee show at 12:00 p.m. and an evening show at 7:30 p.m. Sneaker Suites is a performance collaboration between Antics and story architect Mark Gonzales featuring 11 dancers, live spoken word poetry by Gonzales, animated paintings by Matt Sheridan, and 5 short films with OG BBoys Ken Swift, Kwikstep, and Zulu Gremlin (OG BBoy = original generation break dancer).
Sneaker Suites delves into the diverse and personal relationships that street dancers have with one of the most highly-purchased fashion items in the world: sneakers. Hip-hop dance choreography intersects with the text of provocative poetry, childhood memories, instrumental beats, and voiceovers as Sneaker Suites unravels the iconic importance of sneakers through this multi-layered performance. Sneakers represent both empowerment and exploitation, and Sneaker Suites embraces the contradictions of this symbolism with funk and style. The pieces in Sneaker Suites search for the complex truths between the personal importance of sneakers to hip-hop dancers, the role of sneakers in material culture, and the global implications of sneaker consumption.
Antics is a hip-hop dance theater company based in Los Angeles under the artistic direction of Amy “Catfox” Campion. Antics creates multimedia urban dance performances that incorporate bboying/bgirling (breakdancing), krump, house dance, locking, popping, waacking, capoeira, DJs, MCs, poetry, theater, and film into hand-clapping, foot-stomping performances. Founded in 2007, the Antics company members represent the best street dancers in Los Angeles with credits that include Step Up and America’s Best Dance Crew, among others. Antics is committed to innovating the realm of hip-hop dance theater as well as participating in community engagement through workshops, residencies, and special events.
Artistic Director Amy “Catfox” Campion received an MFA in Choreography from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. She has been bgirling, training Capoeira, and studying various forms of street dance for more than 17 years.
Sneaker Suites
April 20, 2016
12:00 p.m. Student Matinee
7:30 p.m. Performance
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tickets start at $21.00 and can be purchased on the Kimmel Center website at kimmelcenter.org/pifa.
