Sushi’s New Wave Showcase

Each year, Sushi’s New Wave Showcase presents a number of the most exciting up and coming performers in the city. An Advisory Board of renowned local artists and choreographers handpicks each work. The five short works chosen this year include a striking contemporary duet, two multi-media dance works, a one-man performance art piece, and a spoken word piece integrated with traditional Polynesian dance.

SHOWCASE ARTISTS

Rebecca Bryant, Specimens
Emerging choreographer, Bryant creates witty contemporary work. Specimens, a work set for six women, weaves together diverse movement, scientific texts, music and theatrical elements to create a romp through the manufacturing of female identity and the concept of beauty.

Michael Arata, Sleep Walk
Performance artist Michael Arata’s works weave stories and create environments that are down-to-earth real and engagingly physical. Sleep Walk is a personal reverie, rant, monologue that examines the issue of the homelessness through a composite of childhood memories.

Eric Lorico/John Medina, Spring Back/Fall Forward
Based in Riverside, Lorico and Median create work rooted in the investigation of structures, frames, and forms through movement that is both familiar and foreign. Examining gender issues, Spring Back/Fall Forward is, at once, a striking and languid duet set to traditional tango with underlying sounds of air traffic control tapes.

Natalia Valerdi, White Dreams
Originally from Mexico City, Valerdi’s choreography incorporates contemporary dance, video, poetry and live electronic music. White Dreams uses all of these elements to give form to a series of dreams that Valerdi has had over a five-year period.

Ant Black (Anthony Blacksher), Smile
Ant Black is a San Diego-based spoken word artist that creates multi-layered work with text that contemplates pop culture, literature, religion, and love infused with rock, hip-hop, and R&B. Smile combines spoken word poetry with traditional Polynesian dance, creating a dreamscape atmosphere between the artist and his muse.