- Coming up next on "Curate."

- [Guillermo] Some people in this community exist more on like the fringes of what society considers acceptable.

A lot of it is people finally getting to express themself.

- [Allegra] I wanna help people with my art, and I feel like dance is very healing.

- [Jo] It gives me hope that I can probably make it to Hollywood one day.

(character speaks in Japanese) - Welcome once again to "Curate."

I'm Heather Mazzoni.

- And I'm Jason Kypros.

Supernova Ska Fest began humbly in a brewery parking lot.

- Now it's an international celebration of ska's history and future, a cultural movement bringing together fans from across the globe.

- This epic event has become a home for the misfits, the dreamers, and everyone who's ever felt that rhythm in their soul.

(rock music) - I grew up in Indiana, was really into bands like Aerosmith and AC/DC and Metallica.

(jet roaring) Joined the Air Force, went to Japan for three years, and really got into the indie music, into ska music.

Just kind of fell in love from there.

I work for US State Department.

We had bands coming through, you know, cultural events.

It was a lot of fun.

And then like went straight into working for a nonprofit that was running events in Iraq.

Came back from Iraq.

Well, the government closed down, so we had a couple weeks.

You know, I'm like thinking maybe we could do, you know, a festival.

We had one of our favorite artists that was like touring the East Coast, and he was playing house parties.

He's an acoustic guitar guy.

We approached a brewery owner about doing something small at his brewery and kind of went from there.

We liked the way that 2014 worked, and so we expanded it out to a two-day festival that we called the Virginia Ska Festival.

We had a whole bunch of East Coast ska bands that came down that year.

In 2017, we ended up kind of rebranding it, thinking that we wanted to do something international, where we brought in artists from the UK and Jamaica and all over.

We decided to crowdfund for the 2020 show, but 2020 obviously never happened because of COVID, so we decided to have a virtual music festival.

- We wanna thank the Supernova 2020 Quarantine Sessions for having us.

(singer singing in foreign language) - [Tim] And we had about 75 bands from around the world give us tracks, live tracks, rare tracks.

♪ I'm looking at bright lights now ♪ - And we did a virtual festival that benefited the Alpha Institute.

The Alpha Institute is in Jamaica.

It's been around for more than 150 years.

It's one of the birthplaces of ska.

- The Alpha School of Music is a continuation of a long legacy of music education in Jamaica.

In 1880, the Sisters of Mercy in Jamaica started an orphanage for boys, and one of the things they taught them was music.

A lot of significant Jamaican musicians have come from that school.

And also out of that school was most of the original members of the Skatalites ska band.

- We wanted to have that connection to the past of ska and to kind of give back to that lifecycle, you know, to that history of the music.

And so we've been raising money for them ever since.

We relocated the festival to Hampton in 2021, and Hampton has been getting more involved each time in a great way.

They've been providing us with financial funding, which is phenomenal.

They've been providing shuttles for the bands.

♪ Ba-ba-da ♪ ♪ Then Aunt Francine smoked without fire ♪ - About 80% of our fan base is coming in from outside of the state of Virginia.

People are coming in from all over the country.

People are flying in from as far as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, to join us.

And they're staying in hotels.

You know, it obviously benefits Hampton, but, you know, they're very great hosts.

A lot of the festival is just, it's arranging the bands to appeal to people that saw the ska taking off in the '90s that maybe are in their 40s or 50s now, appealing to them, but also appealing to the younger demographic, you know, like bringing in 20-year-old kids, seeing some of the up-and-coming bands that are out there that, you know, are the same age as them and, you know, not old men like me.

(performer sings in foreign language) - Very family-oriented.

You see all kinds of ages here, and you see kids.

You see, you know, teenagers.

You see older people.

♪ All I know is that I don't know nothin' ♪ ♪ We get taught to decide ♪ - A lot of it is people finally getting to express themselves.

Some people in this community exist more on like the fringes of what society considers acceptable.

My band itself, a lot of it is mental health, anxiety, depression, that sort of thing, and just kind of bringing that to the forefront.

And with this community, so many people are so supportive no matter what the issue is, so I would say that's a really big thing with music in general, but especially here with ska.

♪ And I need to hide from your gentle life ♪ ♪ But I need no one ♪ ♪ No ♪ ♪ So far there's nothing that's ♪ - Being there for the outcasts and representing 'em and having a place for them to go to with, you know, people that feel out of place at school or within a certain community of music.

And we feel like that too a lot of times.

♪ So run, run back to me ♪ - [Tom] What connects this whole community is music and love of music.

♪ Out on the street ♪ - [Tom] Music is kind of our life.

Ska is part of it.

♪ Don't look at me out on the street ♪ - [Heather] WHO's journalism department is quickly becoming Hampton Roads' most trusted source for local news.

Check it out for yourself at whro.org.

- Born into a legacy of movement and creativity, Allegra Pi DuVal's story began while still in the womb.

- Her mother, a professional dancer, instilled a lifelong passion which Allegra has used to inspire the masses.

- From helping students find their confidence to inspiring audiences moved by her performances, Allegra uses dance as a force for inclusion, empowerment, and hope.

(intense energetic music) (intense energetic music continues) - [Allegra] My mom says I've been dancing since before I was born.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she was still teaching dance and performing herself up until the last minute that she wasn't allowed to dance anymore.

- So we're tapping away and tapping away, and she just loved it.

I could feel the energy, the noise, the, you know, and then just doing things.

- That explains why I'm really good at tap then.

- You're very good at tap.

You're good at all of it, you know?

- [Allegra] My mom was a professional dancer her whole entire life too.

- I went to high school in New York at that Fame High School.

♪ Fame ♪ - [Heidi] Got training there, and we were just about through with my senior year, and there was a notice saying, "Auditions for the ballet company at Radio City noon on Monday."

I can't come to class.

I'm gonna audition for the ballet company, and everybody laughed.

"Sure, go ahead."

As it turned out they went, "You'll do.

Thank you very much."

(joyful orchestral music) I was at Radio City basically 10 years, four shows a day, seven days a week.

And then you got a week off after about three or four weeks of that.

After Radio City, Crested Butte was my stop, and I started my own dance school.

(tranquil somber music) Nothing was the same.

It changed with number one, my son.

He was a handful.

2 1/2 years later, she was born in the car on the way to the hospital.

- My first memories of dance was the Crested Butte School of Dance, the school created by my mother and her partner, Bobbie Reinhardt, in Crested Butte, Colorado.

- She started teaching professionally at my school when she was 13.

She beat me from the 17-18 group.

She just did it.

She choreographed.

She taught the class.

Then she started teaching advanced.

You know, she taught advanced jazz and tap.

- Yeah, and hip-hop and belly dancing.

- And the belly dancing.

- Yeah.

- So, yeah.

(energetic music) - Graduated high school in 2006.

I already was kind of doing my career.

Like, you know, I already knew what I wanted to do for my life.

And so I thought, "Well, college isn't really doing much for me at this point, so maybe I'll just do it, do what I wanna do," and then I did.

So I started teaching at dance schools around Denver.

I started working at different entertainment companies, doing like stilt walking, backup dancing, doing "Thriller" flash mobs at Union Station.

Like whatever random entertainment thing, weddings and birthdays and stuff that we did, I just did.

(energetic music continues) And then in 2016, because of the presidential election that happened at the time, I saw so much hate and animosity and aggression and danger towards a lot of marginalized communities that I really align with, and so I started my own dance company, Dance is Love.

I wanted to transition from just being an entertainer up on the stage doing something cute and pretty and fun and sexy and sparkly to inspire and educate people on current situations and actually creating change and seeing progress with an artistic movement, if you will.

- [Maya] I intend to use my energies constructively as opposed to destructively.

If you can do that about the negative, just think what you can do about the positive.

- My first piece was a Maya Angelou number into like a women's empowerment number, into an anti-racism number, into a LGBTQ rights ending.

♪ You wanna help me ♪ ♪ You wanna go with Daddy ♪ ♪ You want another life ♪ - [Allegra] We did Denver Pride Fest, which is huge.

There's like 300-plus-thousand people that come over the two days.

At the very end, a guy that runs Denver Pride Fest, DeMarcio Slaughter, said... - [DeMarcio] I would like you to be my official dance crew moving forward for Denver Pride Fest for the next few years.

- That was huge.

So we immediately shot from just kind of a concept company into like the official dance company of Denver Pride Fest.

The next year we did a suicide prevention production that actually ended up saving somebody's life in the crowd.

They wrote us a letter after the performance and said how moving and touching it was what they saw that they were no longer considering leaving this planet.

And I told my dancers before we went on stage, "If I only save one person's life with this performance, I'm happy.

That's all I wanted to do."

♪ Oh ♪ - [Allegra] It was just really a test to art and how life-saving art can be.

♪ There's nothing in this world I wouldn't ♪ - I myself have been through ups and downs with substance abuse and depression and just being a young crazy 20-something.

And dance was always the one that was there for me when other people weren't.

- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, give it up and give the Dance is Love love.

- So we were on top of the world with Denver Pride Fest.

Thank you guys for coming again this year.

2020 happened, COVID happened, and (imitates swooshing), my company was just slashed.

(static crackling) All the arts were just gone.

Nobody knew what was gonna happen.

We didn't know when we were gonna come back.

And then my brother actually committed suicide in 2020, so it was all (beep).

(somber music) - Her brother, my son, Rob DuVal, he's still in my heart and in her heart.

Directly after that, I negotiated with Pi to come and live here.

- [Allegra] She left Colorado in, I think, like 2012.

I left Denver, came all the way across the country to Hampton Roads.

It was really nice to come be with my mother again, to be closer with her.

- [Heidi] I love having her here.

- We were kind of just like floating there, like in the atmosphere, just like hoping things would come back sooner than later, and they didn't.

So, yeah, I joined TikTok, what every sane person did over the pandemic.

You know, we all joined social media of some form to keep ourself entertained.

And I started making Britney Spears TikToks for fun 'cause I have a lot of her costumes, and I know a lot of her choreographies, and I've been told I look like her forever.

And I'm a '90s kid, so of course I love her.

I'm a huge fan.

I thought, "Oh, this is fun.

I like this.

You know, I could just do this to pass the time until things come back from the pandemic."

And they went viral AF.

They went viral AF.

♪ Hit me baby one more time ♪ - They actually took off so much that I perform as Britney all over the country now.

I got my first message one time of a lady in Texas that was like, "Hey, I would like you to perform at my husband's 50th birthday."

I thought, "Really?

Okay.

Okay, I can do that, yeah."

And then the next month, a lady in New York contacted me, and it kind of snowballed into it being almost every weekend I'm out of town now in a different city, Boston, New York, or Los Angeles, Chicago.

You name it, I've kind of been to almost every major city now.

I found some local LGBTQIA+ establishments and immediately met some of the drag queens that worked there.

And you know, the girls and the gays, they love Britney.

They had me audition right then and there on the spot, and everyone went crazy.

They went wild.

(laughs) And I booked my first show here locally.

(upbeat electronic music) A lot of these local areas and queens have been very supportive and helpful in continuing my Brittany life out here, and it's been so much fun.

It's been reinventing the wheel, if you will, of being a professional dancer/entertainer and still actually using it to help others.

I actually have raised almost $21,000 for No Kid Hungry through Brittany.

♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ What am I to do with my life ♪ - I wanna do that as long as I can, but I do really wanna start my dance company again.

I wanna bring back Dance is Love, Dance is Love 2, if you will.

It can be a Britney Spears production that features Dance is Love, or it could be just Dance is Love or, you know, for a les performance or a Pride Fest performance.

It's such a basic phrase, but it means so much 'cause like I said, I wanna help people with my art, and I feel like dance is very healing and can help anybody and everybody that it touches.

I would love to take Britney and Dance is Love around the world, do a whole tour.

And I wanna bring my mom with me too.

My mom can be my manager/mother.

(laughs) (intense energetic music) - [Heather] To see previous segments, go to whro.org/curate.

- Welcome to "Curate Presents."

I am Kayda Plus, and I'm here with Jo Yumul.

How are you?

- I'm doing great.

Thanks for having me.

- I wanna know how you got into films in the first place.

- My earliest memory is when my dad took me to go watch "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."

And the character Short Round, played by Ke Huy Quan, he kind of inspired me.

I'm like, "Hey, I could be that guy one day."

Whether it was acting, directing, or some something behind the camera, I just wanted to be a part of film, and after college, did my first 48 Hour Film Project, which was around 2014.

And I got to work with a lot of amazing people, people that worked in film in the Hampton Roads area.

- Your film with the 48 Hour Film Project, what's the name of that?

- The movie is called "Nintai."

"Nintai" in Japanese means to persevere from suffering, pain, and anger.

My co-writer, who is also the actor in the film, Shunsuke Araki, both him and I recently became fathers in 2023.

He had a boy, and I had a girl.

The girl in the film was actually my daughter Luna.

We wanted to explore the struggles of what parents can go through.

Through all those struggles, we wanted to show hope and that anyone could get through it.

My parents came here from the Philippines.

They never expected me to do film.

They always wanted me to become like a doctor or something.

- Yeah.

- But they support me, which is really wonderful, and so does my wife.

My wife definitely played a big role helping me become the person I am today as a filmmaker.

She's helped me, whether it was with a boom mic.

She's a really good producer.

She does everything behind the set, whether it's scheduling our cast, our crew.

I mean, I guess she's the ultimate production assistant.

- Nice.

- And she's super supportive, and I love her for that.

- Do you have favorite parts of this film?

- In this film, the father loses custody of his child, and my favorite part is when he searches for multiple jobs and keeps trying and trying and failing.

But at the end of the day, he perseveres.

He succeeds.

He wins his daughter back, and I think that is my favorite part of the film because it's so empowering to parents.

- Nice.

That's beautiful.

Your film won a lot of awards, right?

- [Jo] We got Best Actor for Shun and then Best Kid Actor, which was my daughter.

- Okay.

- And then I got Best Director and Best Cinematography.

- That's awesome.

How does that even feel?

- It feels good considering I've been doing this for many years, and it just proves that I could actually do it.

It gives me hope that I can probably make it to Hollywood one day.

- Is that a goal of yours, to make it to Hollywood?

- One day, yes, I would love to make it to Hollywood.

- And to think it all started with the 48 Hour Film Project.

- Absolutely.

- Thank you so much for stopping by.

- Thank you.

- All right, well, now we're all excited to see the film "Nintai."

(gentle music) (parent speaks in Japanese) (parent continues speaking in Japanese) - Boo!

(child laughs) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (no audio) (parent speaks in Japanese) (crowd chattering) - [Passerby] Hey.

Hey.

Hello?

Don't just stand there.

(uplifting music) (parent speaks in Japanese) (parent yells and continues speaking in Japanese) (uplifting music continues) (parent continues speaking in Japanese) (uplifting music continues) (parent speaks in Japanese) (parent continues speaking in Japanese) (uplifting music continues) (parent speaks in Japanese) (uplifting music continues) (soft uplifting music) (parent speaks in Japanese) (soft inspirational music continues) (parent speaks in Japanese) - I love that film.

- Oh yeah, it was very inspiring on so many levels.

I hope to see more of Jo's work in the future.

- Well, maybe you will.

WHRO has a new platform on Roku and other streaming devices called WHRO+, which showcases our wonderful programming as well as the region's best filmmakers.

- Well, count me in then.

- Try it out and let us know what you think.

(bright rock music) Now here's a bit of Hampton Boulevard nostalgia for you.

Starving Artists are a Norfolk band from the '80s founded by Old Dominion University math professor Burt Kerr.

This is the video from their song "Model Without a Cause."

- [Jason] Starving Artists were a staple of the ODU bar scene, playing King's Head Inn and the Corner among others.

But they also had success up and down the East Coast, including shows at famous venues like the 930 Club and CBGB.

Find more of their music at starvingartistsband.com.

- [Heather] They play us out.

Thanks for watching.

- [Jason] We'll see you next time on "Curate."

♪ She's like a Cosmopolitan ad ♪ ♪ A model without a cause ♪ ♪ But if you seen her in the light of day ♪ ♪ She could blind you with her flaws ♪ ♪ For your own safety I reserve her name ♪ ♪ Because playing with fire can be a dangerous game ♪ ♪ A dangerous game ♪ ♪ A model without a cause ♪ (bright rock music continues) (bright rock music continues) ♪ She's like a Cosmopolitan ad ♪ ♪ A model without a cause ♪ ♪ But if you seen her in the light of day ♪ ♪ She could blind you with her flaws ♪ ♪ For your own safety I reserve her name ♪ ♪ Because playing with fire can be a dangerous game ♪ ♪ A dangerous game ♪ ♪ A model without a cause ♪