The Performing Arts Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo presents Amy O’Neal’s Opposing Forces on Tuesday, February 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the PAC.
“Amy O’Neal is a versatile dancer, performer, choreographer, and dance educator with one foot firmly planted in hip hop and street dance culture and the other in contemporary performance practices,” said PAC Manager Lee Dombroski. “She is passionate about the intersection of these worlds and how they connect energetically and philosophically while honoring its cultural differences.
“For 15 years, she has taught and performed throughout the US, Japan, Italy, and Mexico, and has choreographed for stage, commercials, rock shows, galleries, dance films and music videos. Her work is an amalgam of her diverse movement and life experiences presenting social commentary with dark humor and heavy beats.”
Opposing Forces uses breakdancing, live beats, hip hop, and gender roles as a lens to explore feminine perceptions in today’s culture. A cast of five world-class B-Boys examine the value systems of race and gender within the environments of battling, commercial dance, contemporary performance and ciphering.
O’Neal’s performance is made possible in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, WESTAF, the Western States Arts Federation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets are reserved seating and priced at $30 General, $25 Discount and $15 UH Hilo/HawCC students (with a valid student ID) and children, up to age 17, pre-sale, and $35 General, $30 Discount and $20 UH Hilo/HawCC students (with a valid student ID) and children, up to age 17, at the door.
Tickets are available by calling the UH Hilo Box Office at 932-7490 or ordering online at artscenter.uhh.hawaii.edu.