Zari Le'on Dance Theatre
Friday TBA | Saturday TBA

Contemporary Vernacular Movement is dedicated to storytelling that explores the intersectionality of gender, race and sexuality through interdisciplinary forms and political movement. CVM is an embodied language that juxtaposes a set of foundational references from ballet and Dunham technique with the articulations and gestures of club, street, and hip hop dance. Contemporary Vernacular Movement explores the technical interrelatedness of classical and popular movement to transcent the one-dimensional representation of Black vernacular dance in the media.

Zari Le'on studies the effects of the human condition at the turn of the century through movement invention. Zari Le'on has taught and choreographed at Mills College, University of San Francisco, Oberlin Dance Collective, Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, and most recently the Alvin Ailey camp, and presented academic work at the Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley and the National Association of Ethnic Studies Conference in Philadelphia. Zari Le'on has danced with Savage Jazz, choreographed for pop sensation Keyshia Cole and was invited to tour nationally with Punany Poets. Recently, Zari was awarded the CHIME award under Margaret Jenkins Dance Company to mentor under political theater activist Rhodessa Jones.

"Oakland-based Zari Le'on Dance Theater emerged with presence and woke up the crowd with social commentary on repressive institutions like the church and military, giving hope that emergence is possible. Celebration, transformation, defiance. She played with ideas about who powerful women are - both strong and sensual, serious and playful. By the end of the performance, the crowd of thousands was on their feet dancing. The troupe parted the sea of sexiness, winding through the crowd like a snake, inviting women to celebrate their own erotic power." Dyke March 2006

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