BRKFST Dance Company | Saturday | January 25 | 7:30 PM

The 10 year old ensemble from Minneapolis, BRKFST, combines breaking and contemporary dance in a way that “makes you see both differently” (Minnpost). Their unique style movement and storytelling shines through in STORMCLUTTER, their newest work that premiered in June 2024. The musical composition is a reinterpretation of Dancers, Dreamers and Presidents by BRKFST member Renée Copeland after Daniel Bernard Roumain’s composition of the same name. Here, in this work, the score is a commentary on American life that is filled with a mix of ambition, passion, blame, justice, hope, and love. While this country is deemed the “land of the free,” it is riddled with systemic problems that seem impossible to overcome. For many, the American Dream remains just that—a dream.

STORMCLUTTER is an exploration of relationships and our ongoing efforts to resolve opposing states of interpersonal tension. Misunderstanding, compassion, resentment, egoism, love, loss, betrayal – moving through or attempting to compartmentalize complex dynamics between family and friends and the emotional baggage we collect over time becomes an overwhelming task that piles up. While maturation requires us to accept that which we cannot change, the dance and music in the piece illustrate the efforts individuals may take when working to resolve the inner chaos that triggers feelings of dissociation, paralysis, and isolation.

MonaLisa and MN Joe, Co-Founders/Artistic Directors of BRKFST, taught Breakin during BDF's Professional Training Program in 2024. BRKFST seeks to create intellectually rigorous, physically demanding works of art through abstraction, breaking and contemporary dance vernacular. Exploring original modes of artistic expression is continuously pursued. BRKFST’s egalitarian and choreographic collaboration is rooted in the Hip Hop adage, “Each One Teach One”. Regardless of class, race, experience, age or gender, everyone remains both teacher and student. BRKFST’s lineage stems from breaking and hip hop culture: earning respect from battles, receiving real world critique and embodying inclusivity by passing down their knowledge to the new generation. The lived experiences of this collective who identify as working class, queer, femme and BIPOC, inform their compositions.https://brkfstdance.com/

BRKFST performs regularly in Minneapolis, MN at the Walker Arts Center, Southern Theater, The Cowles Center and Orchestra Hall with The MN Orchestra and have performed nationally in the Belding Theater with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Hartford, CT and internationally in Dublin, Ireland for Dance2Connect (D2C) Hip Hop Festival. Their film Dreamers (2019) was deemed an official selection in 11 international film festivals receiving the Grand Jury Award (In/Motion Festival 2021) and Best Experimental Film (Tirana Int. Film Festival 2020). BRKFST has set repertoire and original work with dancers at St. Olaf College in MN 2023, Carleton College in MN 2022, D2C Hip Hop Festival in Ireland 2022, Bates Dance Festival in ME 2022 and the University of MN 2021.

Photographer: Adam Adolphus

Presented in partnership with the Bates College Department of Theater + Dance

STORMCLUTTER is originally commissioned by The Cowles Center, Northrop, Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts’ Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence Program and is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by John Michael Kohler Arts Center, National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron, Bates Dance Festival and NPN. The Creation and Development Fund is supported by The Doris Duke Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). BRKFST Dance Company is the recipient of a creative residency at The National Center for Choreography-Akron. The development of STORMCLUTTER was made possible in part by The National Center for Choreography-Akron.

BRKFST acknowledges this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

The creation and premiere of Dancers, Dreamers and Presidents was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation and was also commissioned by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra of Hartford, CT and the Minnesota Orchestra of Minneapolis, MN.

Host or Publisher Bates Dance Festival