By Carlotta Mohamed
Legendary hip-hop dancer, Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio, who started dancing at the age of six and was influenced by Soul Train and block parties in New York City, has choreographed DIMENSIONS, The Queens College Fall Concert.
The concert features four world premieres by choreographer Marshall Davis Jr., Kwikstep, and Queens College professors Richard Move and Edisa Weeks, from Nov. 29 through Dec. 3 in the Goldstein Theater in the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College, located at 65-30 Kissena Blvd.
Harry Feiner, Queens College professor of Theatre Design, created the lighting and Amanda Shafran designed the costumes. Each work of the concert is inspired by game structures and portrays how people interact with alternate or parallel worlds.
“Soul Close, Soul Far…” by Kwikstep, is a reflection on how society is hypnotized and trapped in the dimension of social media. A “sleep” they can only come out of by moving as one, or one moving the masses through the message in the music that is at their fingertips—soul close, but yet soul far…the solution? Rocking together as “One Nation Under a Groove” is the only way to break free from this altered state they find themselves in. It’s a battle for their souls; will they lose or will they win?
The choreographer, (also known as DJ KS 360), has performed in PBS’s Peabody Award-winning Everybody Dance Now, The Great Performances 20th Anniversary Special, and Kurt Weill’s September Songs, which was nominated for an Emmy Award.
In 2017, Kwikstep was associate director and choreographer for a hip-hop theater piece, Synching Ink, directed by Niegel Smith, which ran at the Flea Theater. Recently, Kwikstep and Rokafella received the 2018 Distinguished Teaching Award from American Dance Festival.
Today, the dance artist is an international icon in breaking and is best known for his smooth style, versatility, and signature head spins.
The three other performances to be featured at DIMENSIONS:
#Hyperlink, by Richard Move, is a modern dance that explores the increasing permeability of organic/inorganic matter and human/nonhuman objects in contemporary life. The cast of six resides in a world of synthetic materials and synthesized sounds in which connectivity between human bodies is attempted, disrupted, and ultimately, fleeting.
The Future of Memory, by Edisa Weeks, interweaves dance, live video, interactive software by Liubo Borissov, and projection to deconstruct time and space through movement and stillness. The movement of the dancer is captured by a video camera, analyzed, and processed in real-time and projected on stage. The piece creates environments in which the dancer’s bodies deconstruct time and space through movement, while movement and time spatially deconstruct the body.
uniTy – The Rhythm of the Movement, by Marshall Davis, Jr., is inspired by the music of Nina Simone. The intent of this tap piece is to encourage unity and love through the art of sound and movement.
DIMENSIONS will be performed Friday, Nov. 30 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $18 and $11 for students and seniors. All tickets cost $5 on Nov. 30.
To purchase tickets in advance, visit www.kupfe
Reach reporter Carlotta Mohamed by e-mail at cmoha
