Kaatsbaan has space.

Kaatsbaan has outdoor land.

Works & Process at the Guggenheim has incredible programming that they've been working and doing for many many years and so bringing those two together we are so excited that we are able to provide a place for these Bubble residencies.

We're two hours north Of New York City and yet it's a completely different world.

And I think that we can bring world class art and also develop here within our own community world class art.

Welcome to the Petronio Residency Center We're on 170 odd acres of protected, beautiful forest.

We are intensely proud of it and we understand how important it is to begin to integrate the ecological preservation with the, um, with the artistic innovation that we've been, uh, that we've been committed to since the beginning of this retreat.

One of the things I've learned over the past three years is that it takes many different forms of residency to complete the, the potential of a space like this, And now we're working with Guggenheim Works, Works & Process I get the opportunity of brushing, brushing shoulders with the next generation of creators.

And it's very exciting for me.

♪ And if you don't know what beatboxing is, it's, uh, the art of creating music and expressing yourself with your mouth.

So like, yourself wit♪ your mouth.

So that's, that's a little bit of what beatboxing, uh, is.

And that's one of my favorite things to do.

♪ Me and my friends in the Beatbox House, we've won all the competitions, which is really cool, World champs, Grand Beatbox Battle, Like, you name it, we've probably won, a thing, here and there, right?

When people ever, whenever they see me, and Neil, and Gene, and Amit, and Ken, when we're doing stuff together, or we're doing our solo thing, they're like, why don't more people know about this?

I can't believe that this is real, right?

I'm like we're making this stuff up, we're making it up.

Like, our career along the way, which is really exciting.

There's something to be said about that.

exciting.

There's something to Who are your friends, who are going to, like, push you to become the greatest that you can be?

I seek that out because I think there's a lot of, uh, happiness that comes from growth.

Where - where you - oh This art form has gave given us hope.

And like, we know it can give that to other people, right?

So why not be at the highest level of performance, uh, and share that with as many people as possible.

Cause that's the goal we want to be in front of as many people as possible, um, to share this thing, that's like changed our lives.

You know what, when people see it, they're like, Oh my God, this is what, when people see it, thing I've ever seen.

I can't believe you can do this, but there's a whole community of people who do it, you know, we're just, and, our job as like the Beatbox House, uh, is to be the example for the next generation.

Like what is possible?

Anything is possible.

♪ Y'all that's awesome.

Oh thank you.

*ing awesome.

I'm the founder of the Beatbox House And it kind of happened organically cause Beatbox House, is really just my apartment.

And everybody just slept over who was participating in the American Beatbox *.

No, but I mean, we just, our group of friends really enjoyed being around each other and it consist of, uh, Amit Bhowmick He's very much like our spiritual center of the group.

There's Gene Shinozaki, one of the most amazing beatboxers on the planet.

And then you have Neil AKA NaPoM, who is, uh, arguably one of the most famous beatboxers in the world in terms of like the battle scene.

And like, he's like a beatboxer's beatboxer.

And then Kenny he's kind of like the fire and kind of the heart of, uh, the group.

Um, my job is just like facilitate.

I just bring everybody together and that's, and that's the Beatbox House.

You know, we're, we're people of kind of looking at us as a crew that kind of put American beatboxing back on the scene.

It's interesting.

Cause it started here, went over to Europe, Asia, blew up, everyone thought America was trash.

And then we went over there as the Beatbox House, winning all these like championships.

Like it turned the tide into like, wow, America is not whack anymore.

And then that could end there, or go into a different, like, that's like perfect.

Like I could definitely do stuff like that.

Me and my good friend here, Sagittarius, Fire Nation, We'll make magic happen.

I believe it.

I trust everybody every second.

Like I have no doubts, just go ahead and do it.

My crew, when we were doing battles.

Like we didn't have a count, like a five, six, seven, eight, because we saw other people doing that and we'd wait for them to start the routine, and the battle would would be like five, six, seven, eight.

So we didn't want to do that.

We would come unexpected.

We'd do the one.

And then people are, and then they go, like, it was just like, uh, based on the, whatever the DJ was playing.

Yes, there is a structured show, but the in-betweens or the, the openness of the creation and the openness of the, like the, the moment, some, some things call for, uh, no structure.

And I think like I have a good, uh, eye on when and when not to have it.

And I think that it creates a little uncertainty when I don't unravel it all at once.

Cause it's something that's self growing.

I just want to show them as much as I can.

That's what I want them to feel.

I want them to feel like, Whoa, this is just like, I could look left right up down, you know, and see something and take in something and learn something.

That's the process of how I work too sometimes.

And yeah, just have a little trust and, and uh, I'm excited to see how it happens myself, you know?

Yeah.

We, we all bring a different style more or less.

With Hallow - he's an explosive Krumper and he brings so much energy outwards.

Like I can't even describe it.

And Klassic is like, he's been working on this great number with the Amit and it's, uh, it's just a story to be told.

And Kilo is kind of the, the like fifth man in a way, but in the best kind of way, he's a great b-boy with a unique style.

Primarily with the dancers, uh, we're all a part of this hip hop world, but we are all on different blocks, so to speak, you know, we, the b-boys don't really mingle with the flex dancers or the flex dancers.

Don't really go with the Krumpers per se too much.

Like they may or may not in some battles in some instances, but it's like, they're all sect off, like in their own worlds in the same city.

And it's funny.

So like that idea kind of just came from that, you know, like why, why, why is this these like unspoken borders?

For me and us as a show and how we understand the, the separation and that is, this show is bringing that unity and that's, to me like a way to find unity in these times where it's, it's, we're all searching for a way to do that.

You know.

Now look at this, look at this beautiful, look at the clouds, look at everything.

This is magnificent.

This is some beauty.

♪ Boom It's that tempo.

One, two, three, four, Too fast five Yeah, too fast.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven One, two, three, four, I am fascinating about layering cultures, and layering art forms.

Um, and, I feel like, because I am trying to, to do that all my music all the time, it's inevitable that you can see, there are many levels into the one piece that we are trying to come across.

I feel connected to, to tap dance because I am deeply connected to, Samba de sapateado, which is a form of percusive dance in Brazil.

It really relates to me, but that specifically type of music that Greg and I dig into playing, uh, which is Tropicalia is a movement that essentially don't see one form of art, uh, separate from others.

It always fights to put everything together, like mix Brazilian forms with, uh, classical music forms and like having this, this huge salad of culture, but that are actually talking to each other.

It's a way of, it's a very Brazilian way of seeing culture.

The magic definitely happens when I'm like, rehearsal room and we're like, you know, we're like, we're getting there, like it's happening, we're making this thing, Ah, it sounds really cool, That's what I'm like the most excited.

And if we can recreate some of that on stage, great Yeah?

Okay.

A-one, a-two, here we go, and ♪ Two hits.

Yeah.

Last time.

One, two, So you're bringing up two guys have been a crew of five people including me.

Me, as a dancer, um, my husband with, which is one of the musicians, which is from Belgium.

Um, and I'm very fortunate to work with him.

Uh, we have José who is a Cuban sax player, uh, and Greg, who is my collaborator and director of my company too, as well and bass player.

And the other dancer is Gisele Silva.

Gisle Silva - sorry, I don't know why I say that in an English accent.

She's Brazilian as well, but we are looking forward to like, get this group of people up there.

And like I said, four countries, five different people, it's going to be fun.

♪ One of the things that Leo and I have been discussing about what we'd like to see when we get up there and what we'd like to be in the new piece is kind of creating some space for improvisation.

That, I mean, there's always a lot of improvisation in tap, but it's usually like a solo, you know, it's like sax solo, tap solo, but we wanted to open it up to have some space where we are improvising, but not necessarily a solo, like improvising together where everybody knows, like when we get to this place, we'd really don't know exactly what we're going to do, but here's a little bit of a structure where we're going to do it as a group instead of just being like, we'll all hold, hold the fort and you solo, but something a little bit more close to kind of putting yourself in that situation where you're like a little bit in free fall, but just trusting each other and trusting that the audience can appreciate it.

And that'll be okay.

♪ I learned in the hard way that it's good for you to come with a clear mind and like having not as much prepared, but it will give you much more trouble.

So pay attention and like try to not, not create a whole thing or like create half of a piece before you go there.

Or like even half.

Yeah.

Literally have a piece already set in your mind.

What we are trying to do is like build a couple of building blocks, uh, which is not really different from the process that Greg and I, and with the other musicians, the way that we've been working before, and we are trying to do like little, little, little, little building blocks to, to get there and like expand those ideas more and more.

♪ ♪ One of my main objectives is always to find beauty in that thing.

For me, I think it, it does the work that I feel that art is supposed to do, which is to inspire, move people, and to sort of get them to, to sort of like to create a type of mirror.

I basically try to create, try to have there be no separation between myself and the work.

I first start with, um, looking at myself, looking at myself, uh, from the inside and from the outside, looking at my past, looking at my lineage personally, and the lineage of let's say the Ailey Company where, you know, I've been dancing for the past 17 years and really sort of interrogate.

Why is it that I'm there?

Um, what sort of draws me to the place where, where does the love come from?

Um, and so in this way, as I'm like sort of digging backward, I'm also kind of learning more information about myself and my culture and moving forward in that way.

And then sort of adding what I have discovered into my work and at the same time, Sort of standing very firmly in my present and what I'm feeling now in this moment.

One, two, three, four, five.

Seven is probably here.

Seven is probably here, eight is probably, back.

Um, so, don't go, um, arms.

But go head.

Shaking.

Shaking.

I mean, there were so many moments in between the time I stepped in the doors of Ailey up until now where I, um, just didn't like...

I didn't know if I liked dance.

I didn't know if I loved dance and you know, it had nothing personal to do with the company.

I think it was just all my, my, my feelings about, where it was and how quickly I got there, you know?

18 is when I got there.

This is the time where kids are normally, like, I don't know.

But it was all in an effort to sort of find not so much what it is that I wanted to do, but just sort of find the clincher, like what, what, what was the thing that was going to like ground me, or really root me in something, anything really.

Probably when I was like well into the company, maybe for four years, four or five years until the Ailey Company.

years, four or five years until around and moving around myself, sort of like doing my own thing, uh, in between rehearsals, uh, in the back of the room when I wasn't being used in rehearsals.

Just always sort of thinking about, um, creating movement.

I mean, not so much because I was trying to be a choreographer.

I was just trying to gain access to, or agency over my own body.

Robert Battles, my boss over at Alvin Ailey saw a couple of works that I'd done and eventually asked me to set my first piece in the company.

And from that moment on, with things, stepped into another stream, like, you know, pushed me forward and, uh, it's been great.

I mean, it's been great to, um, solve all these riddles.

I kind of see each piece is like a new puzzle that I am both building and like the master of it, but I'm also like the player at the same time.

It's very strange.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Oh!

I just broke the house.

I just broke the house!

I just broke the house!

My dancers are Ghrai DeVore Harrison Jacquelin Harris, Brandon Woolridge, and Patrick Coker.

There are four Ailey dancers, they all have this drive.

I think they're all very smart.

Um, they learned very quickly so necessary for this, uh, particular project.

And, um, I think that they're very interested.

And when I say interested, I mean, like, I know that if I say, come with me in this really crazy direction, or they're interested, they're this really crazy direction, or know, they're very open essentially is what I'm saying.

And that's why I chose them.

They all have their own style and their own way of speaking.

And I like their style.

Lower, and I'm putting a lot of space on this side of the frame.

So if you can feel like, you're like, speaking to the trees over there that would be great.

The Petronio Residency Center, from what I see there's a lot of outdoor space, you know, you're sort of surrounded by trees.

Um, and for me, I, I've never really cared about, um, the environment of where I make the dance, like the, you know, the physical environment have to me, I've just been like, just give me space, just like clear the floor and then I can do anything that I need.

So, um, I'm really expecting to have a different experience, um, in that space to really sort of, kind of feed off of what that openness feels like and what, um, sort of, uh, being in commune with nature, how that will sort of affect the work.

I'm kind of afraid of it as well.

Like I've never, I don't think I've ever worked in a, in a space, so nature-y, I feel so excited.

We've been texting each other like "Can't wait to see you!"

In the flesh.

Yeah, because, we're, we're family, I mean, we've known each other for so long.

That we can be there at the same time to share this very very very unique moment together feels like it makes sense.