Soulforce Dance Company

MISSION IN THE MIX HIP HOP PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP — A LESSON IN DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS
The first time I encountered Micaya was about 8 years ago. I never took her class before. The piece she was doing for her class was Black Sheep’s «The Choice is Yours», a song I remembered from my high school days. I really got into the choreography of the piece in class. I didn’t know at that time she was doing the piece in preparation for the Mission in the Mix Performance Workshop. I eventually saw the showcase. During the 10 minute piece one of the songs was that Black Sheep song with the same choreography I learned in class. After watching that performance in the showcase I knew I wanted to participate in the performance workshop.
After the showcase I was taking Micaya’s intermediate hip hop class weekly for the next 3 years, but I never participated in the workshop due to scheduling conflicts. I finally was able to participate in the workshop in 2011. I ended up participating in the workshop two more times in 2013 and 2015. Each year there’s a different theme. In 2011 the theme was basketball. In 2013 there was a wedding theme, which was fitting as my sister was getting married that year. This past year the theme was a professional kitchen, which was my favorite theme of all three. The theme was fitting as most of my Unilocal reviews are on food eateries. For a costume I bought myself a black chalk line apron at a thrift store. I envisioned my character as a chef. Being into character when I performed I would try to seduce the females in the audience with an intent to show that if a man can’t cook and dance he doesn’t know how to make love to a woman. LOL.
What I love about this workshop is the repetition of rehearsals and performances. The length of this workshop is 8 weeks from May to June. You get 6 weekends of rehearsal where you learn choreography that you’ll perform in the showcase in a 10 minute piece. The last two weeks of the workshop you perform 6 times in front of the audience at the Dance Mission. I can’t reiterate how the number of performances are vital. I participated in other hip hop performance workshops where you get to only perform once. You can’t do anything well if you do it just once. The more you perform the more you get better. The price of other workshops is about the same as this one. Ask yourself would you perform just once or 6 times for almost the same price?
For those who are aspiring to become dancers who need to gain experience I can’t think of another workshop besides Mission in the Mix where you’ll get a lot of experience in performing. For those who aren’t aspiring to become dancers but want to have fun performing participate in this workshop as you’ll definitely get your money’s worth. If there were 6 stars I would give 6 stars for performing 6 times.

4 stars for very appropriate use of hot pants.

«STRONGER BETTER FASTER STRONGER»
I saw them last night at Yerba Buena cente rfor the Art’s Unilocal Holiday party — and was BLOWN away. Super innovative, fresh, and inspiring.
SoulForce Dance Company was created in 2001 by choreographer, teacher and SF Hip Hop DanceFest producer Micaya. Not your average hip hop dance company, SoulForce is a company not afraid to take artistic risks and fuse other dance styles and theatre into their repertoire. I mean — they got some FREAKY SHIT goin’ on.
Micayas’ choreography and SoulForce dancers have been featured in music videos, touring productions, nightclubs, cabarets, festivals, corporate events, colleges, theatres and commercials. Described as «witty, dramatic and emotionally nuanced» by Dance Magazine, this dynamic group brings together dancers of diverse backgrounds to create inspiring works on stage.
Wanna take classes?
BEGINNING:
Thursdays, 6:00 — 7:15pm, Dance Mission, San Francisco
Saturdays, 12:00 — 1:15pm, ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco
INTERMEDIATE:
Tuesdays, 8:00 — 9:15pm, Dance Mission, San Francisco
Thursdays, 8:00 — 9:15pm, ODC Dance Commons, San Francisco
For more info about SoulForce, Micaya’s classes; her website at: