Full Circle News: July 2005

Peace Everyone… Summer is here.. wow!! Winter was busy..and full of touching moments. Just to recap the Spring season.. Shortly after the life altering/life enriching residency/performance at Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, the company went into full rehearsal mode to re-mount Soular Power’d with some old - new cast and technical members. The morning school shows were a success and so was the evening performance. Big shout to Varushka, Kevin Rivera, Alina Bloomgarden, David Collazo and Amy Mckraney who brought their enthusiasm to the presentation at New Jersey Performing Center. Also a big Congratulations goes out to our cast members B ready, Rival, Thianna, Tiffany and GM DJ Roc Raida who were initiated into the Soular Family. Kwikstep and Rokafella pulled it off as a dynamic duo with a billion hats yet again and hold on to their hopes of traveling with the company to share the energy and vibe of this piece

In April, Full Circle performed “Hip-hop to da Head” at the Tilles Center of Performing Arts on a night threatened by stormy weather. To the company’s relief, the audience was in the house and into the pieces. May brought the company back to Hostos Community College to work with Community Works providing the educational lec/dem program to high schools and middle schools. Many questions about TV and the all time popular one about “does that hurt your head??” And just in case any of you were wondering.. yes at first but then your body builds resistance. Miami’s International Hip-hop Exchange invited Kwistep and Rokafella to share expertise and dialogue about the company’s trajectory. They got to hang out with as well as attend the premiere of Miami Light Project’s very own “Scratch and Burn” directed by Teo Castellanos. Big shout to B girl Candy and B boy Xeno’s beautiful newborn daughter and Beth Boone’s beautiful newborn son. Upon their return, Kwik and Rok jumped right into a performance at the Apollo for the United Way’s Citywide Essay Awards ceremony. Big Shout to Monica Williams for extending the invitation. After some rest in between, Full Circle performed a revised “Hip-hop to da Head” at the Peekskill Paramount Center for the Arts in June for their Hip-hop weekend series and shared the evening with Philly’s own Olive. Full Circle’s performance celebrated the additions of two new excerpts of new material Kwikstep is preparing for a hush hush duet commissioned by DTW and Hip-hop Theater Festival. Once again we had to give another big shout to Jon Yanofsky who invited the company and Will Power (Flow) who was at the theater during FC’s load in.

The very next day Rokafella performed for Kr3T’s-Violet‘s dance company - www.kr3ts@aol.com- for the Puerto Rican Day Parade’s Saturday Festivities in El Barrio. That evening she joined Full Circle to perform at the inauguration of the Hip-hop Theater Festival at New York Theater Workshop. What they thought would be an abbreviated version of “Hip-hop to da Head” still ran over ...oooops! Big shout to Playback, Universes, Danny Hoch, Kamilah Forbes, Clyde Valentin and all who participated in the week of events.

School programs came to a close with year end showcases and cheerful graduations (Big shout to Racine Lancaster!!) and a big thank you to Manuela Arciniegas who reached out and helped in the booking of the school programs! The Door will close and begin again in the Fall and we look forward to the summer hiatus. Kwistep and Rokafella will be at the Illadelph Legends workshop series in August. The Fall as of right now holds many high expectations for the company as they prepare to present the first half of Soular Power’d at Montclair Sate University. We look forward to next year’s ten year anniversary..!