Ephrat Asherie Dance: UNDERSCORED 
A Visions and Voices Signature Event 

ADMISSION: 
Admission is free. Reservations required.

RSVP

DESCRIPTION: 
“Asherie’s movement phrases—compact bursts of choreography with rapid-fire changes in rhythm and gestural articulation—bubble up and dissipate, quickly paving the way for something new.”—New York Times

Don’t miss the Los Angeles premiere of Ephrat Asherie Dance’s UNDERSCORED, a living archive of five generations of NYC club dancers. The evening-length performance is a multi-generational collaboration of performers ranging in age from 28–80. Celebrating and investigating their connections to the NYC club scene from the 1970s at seminal parties like the Loft and the Paradise Garage through today, UNDERSCORED features EAD ensemble members and three NYC club legends, Archie Burnett, Brahms “Bravo” LaFortune, and Michele Saunders. Audiences join the company in an exhilarating journey through deeply personal histories; rarely seen archival footage; a vast musical landscape including funk, disco, and house; and decades of dancing through the culturally reflective styles of breaking, hip hop, house, vogue, waacking, and hustle.

The event will open with a conversation exploring the street and club dance scene of Los Angeles featuring street dance pioneer, choreographer, and singer Toni Basil; former Soul Train dancers Bill “Slim the Robot” Williams and Sharon Hill; Deidra “Krucial” of the Demolition Crew; Jackie Lopez-Foaad aka Miss Funk of Versa-Style; and Charlie E. Schmidt aka Vzion of the Groovaloos, moderated by the USC Kaufman School of Dance’s d. Sabela grimes.

The evening will conclude with an onstage dance party for the artists and audience alike!

The pandemic kept ALL of us from gathering. Whether on or off the dance floor, UNDERSCORED is a reminder of how essential it is to connect to one another.

Bios: 

Ephrat Asherie Dance is a New York City–based dance company rooted in African American and Latine street and club dances. Dedicated to exploring the inherent complexities of these dances, EAD investigates the expansive narrative qualities of various vernacular forms including breaking, hip hop, house, and vogue, as a means to tell stories, develop innovative imagery, and find new modes of expression. 

Club Legends/Featured Artists

Archie Burnett – Known for his waacking and voguing, Burnett is one of the prime dancers of the late ’70s and ’80s and continues to be a force in the NYC dance scene.  

Michele Saunders – Saunders has repped the some of the most innovative fashion and art photographers, been a music industry photo stylist, contributed to Document magazine, and been a trailblazing rebel since day one. 

Brahms “Bravo” LaFortune – Known for his lightning-fast footwork style and his flourishes of floor dives and spins, the self-taught dancer, illustrious DJ, and iconic party starter has graced dance floors and turntables the world over since 1977. 

The Company

Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie – The New York City–based b-girl, dancer, and choreographer is a 2016 Bessie Award winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance and co-founding member of the all-female house dance collective MAWU.  

Manon Bal – The versatile dancer from Marseille, France, was trained at the IFPRO Centre de International de Dance Rick Odums in Paris and the prestigious Ailey School in New York City. As a choreographer, Manon is a co-founder of Mozaik Dance. 

Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn – Originally from Columbus, OH, the b-boy and DJ has battled and danced with crews around the world and opened for heavy-hitters in hip hop such as Rakim, Pete Rock, Mobb Deep, and Slum Village. 

Teena Marie Custer – The member of the Venus Fly and Get Down Gang street dance crews has been with Ephrat Asherie Dance since 2012, while also touring with Bill “Crutchmaster” Shannon. 

Valerie “Ms. Vee” Ho – Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Ms. Vee has had the pleasure of working with Buddha Stretch, Rennie Harris, Luam, Maria Torres, Bradley Rapier, and Ephrat Asherie.

Matthew “Megawatt” West – Megawatt is an active part of NYC’s house dance community and teaches youth classes throughout the five boroughs. He can be seen in Baz Lurhman’s Netflix series The Get Down. 

Panelists

A multiple Emmy Award and Grammy Award nominee, Toni Basil has choreography and directorial credits on over 50 videos, her double platinum song “Mickey” was installed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of the groundbreaking singles of the 1980s, and she is one of the seven original lockers that is considered “the group that changed the face of dance.” Recognized as a seminal influence in bringing street dance to the attention of the American public, Basil is currently writing a book on the history of American street dance.

Sharon Hill was an original Soul Train dancer along with partner Tyrone Proctor, with whom she won the 1975 American Bandstand competition. They would go on to form the Outrageous Waack Dancers along with Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniels, and Cleveland Moses, Jr.  

A talented krumper, Deidra “Krucial” is a member of Demolition Crew who performs at schools, women’s prisons, marches, protests, boot camps, and more. As a teaching artist with Heidi Duckler Dance’s Duck Truck Residency Program, she provoked imagination in her students through original movement, inspired collaboration and team building, and helped students of all ages develop their communication skills. 

For the last 25 years, Jackie Lopez-Foaad aka Miss Funk has been working as a professional dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, and cultural educator. She is not only Versa-Style’s co-founder and co-artistic director, she is simultaneously a lecturer at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, teaching hip hop and developing the curriculum there for over 10 years.  

Charlie E. Schmidt aka Vzion of the Groovaloos has acted in Robert Zemeckis’s Flight, Michael Mann’s Collateral, and Jon M. Chu’s The LXD: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers; worked as a dancer with Michael and Janet Jackson, Prince, Will Smith, Usher, TLC, and JLo; and performed spoken word on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, So You Think You Can Dance, and The Wayne Brady Show.

Bill “Slim the Robot” Williams was an early Soul Train Dancer who was taught to robot by Charles Robot. Slim went on to tour with the improvistional dancers known as the Campbellock Dancers and was an original member of the original Lockers. He revolutionized the basic robot style with quick karate-style robot movements and was also known for introducing a colored light suit and flame-throwing capabilities into his act.

d. Sabela grimes (moderator), a 2014 United States Artists Rockefeller Fellow, is a choreographer, writer, composer, and associate professor of practice at USC Kaufman, whose interdisciplinary performance work and pedagogical approach reveal a vested interest in the physical and meta-physical efficacies of Afro-Diasporic cultural practices. Considered one of the most imaginative and innovative artists in his field, grimes created and continues to cultivate a movement system called Funkamentals.

UNDERSCORED has received lead commissioning and development support by Works and Process, Inc., for its world premiere at the Guggenheim. UNDERSCORED was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable foundation and Mellon Foundation. This project is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals for a residency at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center, made possible through support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. UNDERSCORED is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Works & Process in partnership with ArtPower at UC San Diego, the Momentary and The Yard. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Co-sponsored by the USC Kaufman School of Dance and the USG Performing Arts Committee.

Photo: Lamont Richardson