Try/Step/Trip (Work Sample) (Alternate)

This video features selected portions from the work-in-progress showing of Try/Step/Trip, presented at the end of our two-week CalArts residency in 2017. The 10-minute work sample tells the story of an “anonymous” narrator who encounters multiple instances of police profiling until one final interaction with the police sends him down a bad trip through the criminal justice system and into a court-ordered drug rehabilitation room. It demonstrates how the aesthetic of step dance also functions as a narrative device. Furthermore, this work sample reveals the various means of storytelling as the poetic language draws from church, court, military, hip-hop, stand-up, and recovery-meeting traditions.