Now do a little ditty.

Okay everyone, this is "Care" Wait wait you gotta be like I'm "Care".

and "Rona".

And together we're Corona-19.

I was just coming to look for you so that's good.

Sorry.

Found it.

And you lean back.

When you travel back.

So always leaning in the direction that you're going.

It's called Dusty Dusty.

If you're in 102, Dusty Dusty towards somebody, toward somebody, hey, towards somebody, go towards each other.

But you know, stay six feet apart.

I forgot.

Okay!

Oh!

Coming for me with that one leg!

So everybody in the company is connected to the scene for various numbers of years they've been going out to clubs or breaking all the time or a combination of both.

Everyone has a different set of entry points, how those entry points intersect with the generation above us and the generation to come.

Yeah, I'm a community person.

I really like being with people and like being together and that I think brings out more of the best of me when I'm with yeah, working together and best of me when I'm with yeah, excitement and the being in the Bubble with everybody.

I'm a club dancer.

I'm a freestyle dancer.

I'm a bgirl.

So we always talk about words, like, go off, get it in.

You lose your mind.

And in performance too, you have those moments, right?

Like just like you almost blank out zone out.

I really credit the underground dance community in New York City for giving me the confidence to pursue a life as an artist.

And in many ways for teaching me the power of expressivity of movement.

This piece "Underscored" looks at the lineage of music and dance and the underground scene and how certain seminal parties in the 1970s really birthed this whole lineage of underground DJs, dancers, you know, bouncers, you know what I mean?

Like coat check people like the whole ecosystem, right?

With this group of dancers, they like to hear my stories because they didn't go to the clubs I went to and there was not the same freedom.

And that's part of the show to tell the story telling.

She calls us the elders.

We represent a certain era of clubs and a certain way of dancing.

There's so many elements involved in club culture that make the scene what it is and give these kids the real reason behind the dance forms that they're doing.

It's how you interact with the energies that are presented before you in the club.

All of these things are important.

Is it okay if I do a bigger so- That's what I'm saying.

Make the path like super sweeping.

So that you get past the- Go, go, go, ah ooh.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah.

You're going to be - it's one, two three and four?

Yeah.

Oh!

Counter with like we end however we end and keep that while y'all.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like we did it.

Yeah!

You know, if we're looking at the birth of these clubs in the seventies, essentially these underground spaces being some of the only safe spaces where communities of color and LGBTQ communities of color could really be together and express fully cause above ground, they couldn't do it.

And goodness, look at the moment we're in right now, like how necessary those underground spaces still are.

Part of the mission of the company too, is finding ways for Black and Brown dancers to also be able to tell their own stories in their own voices.

Right.

Because that's what the club is, right?

That's what this lineage of dances that we're talking about, house, breaking, whacking, hip hop, vogue, right?

It's all that you know, and we're really talking about very reflective styles, you know, that come out of like the Black and Brown LGBTQ community.

I mean, we've never experienced anything like this, like the biggest social uprising for Black liberation this country has ever seen.

And what, you know, what it means to all of us who are working in Black and Latinx vernacular forms.

Right.

And talking about whiteness, our whiteness, you know, or like the company is super diverse, right?

White, Asian, Black, like we're everybody is represented because that's the club scene that, that fullness, that diversity, that, you know, complexity.

I really really respect and admire each person in the company as unique individual artists.

And that is what the club is where everyone has space to fully be themselves.

And I want to see that on stage.

I want everyone to be fully themselves.

The retired effect?

No.

No, no, no.

I want to be busy with Ephrat.

That's what I want to do.

The first one.

I don't think it But more like a it's like an attitude of the neck versus the whole back, right?

Les Ballet Afrik is very, very, very unique from any other company, I feel.

Not to toot their horn, but they are.

They're diverse in race, in physicality, in dance.

You know, it's just so much that each individual in the company brings in.

I don't want Afrik to just be my style, just what I do, but I'd want to find people who understand the importance of bringing us together as a collective our differences and finding our similarities and being okay with our differences and learning from them and learning from each other.

I think that's the beauty of my company.

Humanity, honesty, vulnerability, truth, heart pain, joy, all of these things are innate and obvious, and it's not something he has to that's first the feelings first.

And then we can talk about the six, seven, eight.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Throw it.

You gotta travel.

Travel!

And!

Nice.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Yeah, just like relax that.

Feel that.

So you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, use, pull this.

So it's almost like the same thing we said about that.

There's so much more technique in what we do.

It's just about like little setups is that even though the arm going around the face, you know, and being able to sell this moment and seeing the hand and the gesture of the hands and how it waves and going through it and the flicks of the wrist and where they dropped the subtlety of the elbows versus having these strong elbows, and you see this presence here versus just dropping the elbows down here and how that changes the femininity of the quality of the movement versus it being so, you know, masculine, or, or just like, you know, straight forward, you know, to be so here and proper, it's like, yeah, it's there, but this, this, this, this something else it's essence that is tribal.

And I want to connect the roots of our ancestors to what we do and the nuances of what ballroom is the regalness of what ballroom allows us to be these Kings and Queens of the ballroom floor.

You know what I'm saying?

Like that is important to me.

Fish outta water!

He's a fish outta water!

My background has been a journey.

I did African dance for years.

I was seen as you know, the son of Marie Basse, the son of Olukose Wiles.

Um, they are pioneers.

You know, they are icons in my eyes.

Um, they are masters at what they do and having to even live up to that, you know, those names to what they've done, their footsteps has been something that's always been constantly on the front of my brain.

Being African, being a proud African.

Today, that is what I am.

But back then, it was difficult to be proud when there was things internally that I was fighting against.

I still carried faith.

Um, and that was one thing that helped me deal with a lot of trauma, um, that I faced, you know, coming out about my sexuality, um, Finding what love is.

Finding what relationships really mean.

Make sure you have a lot of fun because we're going to show you what the ballroom truly truly is.

Yeah.

Are you ready to have a show have a good time?

Are you ready to see the girls perform in battle?

For their life?

Are you ready to see them slay?

And carry on today?

Because we are here at the Kaatsbaan Mock Ball.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen feel it, welcome Welcome, ladies and gentlemen feel it, Welcome, to the function.

Welcome.

Ballroom culture is the LGBT's community way of having a voice, being creative, a safe space to create, to feel challenged by each other because that's what we do.

We battle.

We battle each battle makes us stronger win or lose.

Ballroom is competitive.

You know, why did we make it competitive?

Because we are constantly competing already in life.

So why not compete amongst our peers, but in a way where we are still uplifting each other, not competing amongst our peers like society has us competing every single day of our lives, but always still there to tear us down.

Honestly, ballroom is activism.

That's what it was created.

It was created to, to stand up for ourselves, you know, as gay, bisexual, trans, Latino, you know, members of society, because we are still members of society.

We're still, you know, civilians, we are still human.

That doesn't change who we are.

We bring a tradition onto the stage and what we do and how we perform.

We're all connected.

If people don't see it, we are all connected.

And I learn so much from each and every one of my members each and every one of my friends, brothers, sisters, daughters that are, that danced with me on the stage.

And again, that's why I said, I feel honored to be their director.

And that's all I do.

I just give them a direction, and they get to creating.

And then after you do the big scene you'll come and go.

Hey!

Okay!

Look who it is!

What did I say?

♪ Yes!

Yes?

Yes.

Yeah that works.

[Multiple people speaking] Oh, so then we'll be on.

So then we'll be on.

Got it.

I've always had a great interest in "Seven Deadly Sins".

You know, it's just incredible piece of music, uh, written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in the early thirties when it was originally written and, um, premiered, like I said, it was, you know, during Hitler's reign and was commenting on society at that time.

And I just felt like, again, it was speaking to our, you know, the times that we're living through right now.

I just felt in so many ways that, um, it needed to be put out there again.

At the same time, I was starting to get to know Justin.

Uh, I worked in theater and opera and dance in the city, "Kiki and Herb", which is where I met When you find someone like Justin Vivian Bond, for me at the time, it was like, I'm done.

She's the one.

And then as I listened to "Kiki and Herb" and listened to that voice, there was this raw power, this character behind this voice that I felt was right for A production of "Seven Deadly Sins".

♪ I think I had the flu for Christmas ♪ ♪ Cause I'm not feeling up to par ♪ ♪ It just increases my paranoia ♪ ♪ Like looking in a mirror ♪ ♪ And seeing a police car ♪ As I got to know Justin more and more, and then got into "Kiki and Herb" more and more, and really would stand on the side and listen to this voice.

I just thought this is so Anna One.

And, um, you know, there's a part of me that thought, okay, you know, I kind of had to put it on the side and didn't know where it was really going to go, but it was exciting for me to think that there was an Anna One.

And then years later, I started at New York City Ballet.

And I became fast friends with Sara Mearns who was quickly becoming a principal at City Ballet.

And there was one day I was watching Sara.

And this was a dancer who I saw creating characters on stage.

Because it is two personalities that are representing one character.

And it just seemed so right.

♪ To someone ♪ ♪ To someone ♪ ♪ Oh yes I feel ♪ ♪ Like I owe it ♪ ♪ To someone ♪ So I always felt because of the history of the Brecht vile cannon and, uh, that period, you know, the Weimar Era that it really resonated with me as a queer and a trans person because of its subversiveness.

Uh, and that, that was actually what was used by the, uh, fascist regime to sort of propel themselves, uh, into power and the decadence that it was ascribed.

Whereas I didn't think of it as being decadent at all.

It was actually reflecting society and giving people an opportunity to see what was really happening.

I really felt like I needed to go back to the material and really strip it down, you know, take away all of the, the sets and the, the scenery and the props and the, you know, just take all of that away and just present Anna One and Anna Two.

And this story of going out in the world and, um, trying to create these, you know, the money to come back and build the house for the family.

Ah!

We're here!

And then we go this here!

It's sort of mind blowing that we're here now from when like March and April, when we we're just like, this, is it like nothing's ever going to happen again?

Like we're done.

So it's kind of just when you sit and think about it, you're like, woah.

it's like, you can't even like express in words what it really means.

You're down here.

Do you get taken up?

Yes yes yes, or, And then also I've never been at a residency with my husband, You know?

Yeah.

You can even, you can even get, get the other arm as well.

This is the first thing that he's been able to do creatively really in a studio since March.

And so I just, I can tell in his energy, he's just like so excited.

It's just like beaming from him.

Yes, yes.

That totally did it.

Totally did it.

I think a successful outcome from this process, this residency would be a really good understanding of the piece, of "Seven Deadly Sins".

I'd like a deeper understanding for all of us, um, understanding of process between each other, like how we work together and then how we can, um, you know, continue to collaborate and build on that collaboration and that connection with, with each other.

Um, and I think, you know, if we came out of it with, you know, chunks of material that we really love and think really work that we can take to the next stage, that's, that's, you know, that's a bonus, that's a huge bonus for us.

You know, when you do a residency, it's like the beginning, it's usually the beginning of something.

And you know, all you really hope for is that it continues on to be something else.

And it goes somewhere and you know, we really have high hopes for this and we've started it.

So now we don't want it to go dormant.

I feel like the last piece really represents a kind of emotional feeling of like what [Gregory] I'm feeling about this experience here.

And the last two weeks we haven't named it, we just keep calling it "12/8" [Leonardo] Because we need to change the name.

[Gregory] Since we don't have a name feel like somehow it is the piece of like here know, being here and then being not wanting to go home.

And then like having disagreements when like making a up and being here with your husband and being like, Oh, like being so, um, fond of José and Gisele.

And I feel like that piece... [Leonardo ] Needs a name.

[Gregory] It needs a name that represents all that this group on this time.

Okay.

[Leonardo] Do you have a name?

I already have a little light bulb in my head.

Uh it's "Cat's Band", but it's spelled... [Gregory] C A T S B A N D, I thought about that [Leonardo] "Cat's Band" but it's spelled C A T S no, C A T apostrophe, S B A B A N D. "Cat's Band" [Gregory] Because we're the cats.

[Leonardo] Yeah.

And we are in a band.

I [Gregory] I think that's the name.

[Leonardo] Okay.

So it's not a "12/8", It's a "Cat's Band".

Yeah.

[Leonardo] Yeah.

It really does express the feeling that we had in here.

[Gregory] It's like kind of sad, but happy bittersweet somehow in the way that songs... [Leonardo] Yeah.

There's like a little roar in the middle and then we'd go back to whatever we were back to.

[Gregory] Yeah [Duke Dang] The magic here is that at the tail end of the Bubble residencies, these performers will have the chance to perform in front of a live audience outdoors at Kaatsbaan Stage.

This will be the first time in America since the pandemic that this has happened.

And while because of regulations only a select few audience members will get to see these performers live at Kaatsbaan, But what is very exciting is all of these artists will be arriving at Lincoln Center to film performances that will be shared with the world.