Here are two of the phenomenal performance events coming this season to OZ Arts, and will be here over the next few weeks, Kedagoro November 14 and 15, followed by Try / Step / Trip December 4 and 5.
Get your tickets now for Dahlak Brathwaite (New York) Try / Step / Trip, coming Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5 at 8 p.m. each evening. The reviews are in: “A story of Hip-hop rehabilitation with the body as battleground” — The New York Times. “Breathtaking and chilling…dynamic and heartfelt” — Sacramento News & Review.
Exhilarating rhythms reverberate through the theater as a chorus of step dancers transforms the stage into a powerful expression of resilience, memory, and survival. In Try / Step / Trip, New York writer, poet, and performer Dahlak Brathwaite draws from his own experience navigating the criminal justice system to create a riveting fusion of theater, music, and movement. As step becomes both ritual and resistance, Brathwaite confronts his own struggle to be truly seen in a society that too often reduces Black men to stereotypes.
Known for blending spoken word with incisive social commentary, Brathwaite crafts performances that are deeply personal and profoundly resonant. The traditions used in Try / Step / Trip include Black fraternity stepping and the evolving history of Black American music — both becoming vehicles for reclaiming identity, dignity, and self-definition. Directed by Roberta Uno and featuring choreography by Toran Moore, the acclaimed piece is an unforgettable theatrical experience that pulses with urgency, compassion, and hope.
KEDAGORO (Japan) is bringing The Age is Yours, My Liege! (A Tale of Proto-Japan) to OZ Saturday, November 14 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 15 at 5:00 p.m. This production is recommended for mature audiences due to adult content and partial nudity. The reviews are in on it, too: “Utterly mad, and utterly brilliant” — Seeing Dance Journal and “Extremism with visual absurdity and a touch of whimsicality” — Asahi Shimbun News.
A giant hamster wheel spins wildly as frenetic fairytale empresses race through a whirlwind of flags, symbols, and startling theatrical images in this wildly imaginative dance-theater spectacle. In The Age is Yours, My Liege! (A Tale of Proto-Japan), acclaimed Japanese director and choreographer Reisa Shimojima and the fearless performers of her KEDAGORO group conjure a world where power is performed, myths become institutions, and obedience teeters on the edge of absurdity. Blending kinetic choreography with surreal theatricality and biting humor, this thrilling, eccentric new work questions who creates authority, why societies choose to follow it, and what happens when long-held systems begin to crumble.
One of the most exciting new voices in Asian performing arts, Shimojima creates boundary-pushing works rooted in her belief that “dance is a method for interpreting the world.” Her rebellious artistic vision confronts entrenched systems with equal parts wit and spectacle, inviting audiences to look beyond the pageantry of power and imagine what lies beneath. Coming to the U.S. for the first time, KEDAGORO delivers a singular theatrical experience that is as visually outrageous as it is thought-provoking.
