MK Abadoo's "Octavia's Brood: Riding the Ox Home"

**Online tickets closed at 6pm/EST. Tickets will be available for purchase at the door at The Grace Street Theater Box Office starting at 7pm/EST.**

MK Abadoo's "Octavia's Brood: Riding the Ox Home"

Saturday, March 24th, 2018 at 8:00pm

Admission: $15 general admission / $10 students (with valid I.D.)

Photo credit: C. Stanley Photography

VCU Dance presents Octavia’s Brood: Riding the Ox Home, an original work by iCubed scholar MK Abadoo on Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24 at the Grace Street Theater at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $15/$10 students, and are available at vcudance.showclix.com or by calling 804-828-2020 during box office business hours from 12-4pm, Monday-Friday.

In Octavia’s Brood: Riding the Ox Home (ORBOH), MK Abadoo crafts an immersive, site-expansive dance work inspired by the prophetic envisioning of science fiction author, Octavia Butler and freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman. Abadoo draws from her background in Contemporary, West African and Funk dance genres to explore story-telling from the perspectives of women of the African Diaspora.

“I am still in awe..hours after the performance.”

– DC Metro Theater Arts

The evening-length ensemble work borrows a portion of its title from Octavia’s Brood, a collection of “short stories for social justice movements,” co-edited by Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown. Similar to Imarisha and Brown’s anthology, Abadoo uses nonlinear science fiction narrative to imagine more socially just realities, brought to life through dance theater. The dance leaps back and forth through time, landing between the antebellum South of the mid-1800s to an unknown place at an unknown date in a foreseen future.

OBROH KSO Promo from Meghan Abadoo on Vimeo.

Following sold out performances of its premier at The Clarice in 2015, an excerpt from the work won the Audience Choice Award at the Maryland/Virginia/Washington DC’s 33rd Annual Choreographer’s Showcase in 2016, and featured as a top pick for the best dance performances of 2017 in the DC area, OBROH has been praised for its use of community and audience engagement, inviting the entire audience on stage for the first act of the performance. The piece will feature VCU Dance students and Abadoo’s Richmond partners/collaborators from local organizations that advance the progress of African American women and girls.

The VCU iCubed Racial Equity, Arts and Culture Transdisciplinary Core fosters critical dialogue about and develops mechanisms for advancing the fair treatment of people of all races in and through arts and culture. The team’s work includes fairness in opportunities (e.g., educational, financial, professional, etc.) among artists and cultural producers and organizations, and fairness in opportunities for the public to engage in arts and cultural activities that they have reason to value and/or that has potential to create social change.

MK Abadoo’s Octavia’s Brood: Riding the Ox Home is the sixth event of the VCU Dance 2017-2018 Season. The presenting program of VCU Dance is committed to building and engaging dance audiences in the University and Richmond community while providing opportunities for artists to present and create work.

Funding for the 2017-2018 season is graciously provided in part by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Recognized by professional dancers and choreographers as “a place where things are happening,” Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Dance and Choreography offers a vibrant and stimulating atmosphere where students prepare for careers in dance.

To learn more about our VCU Dance 2017-2018 Season, please visit: arts.vcu.edu/dance

To learn more about The Grace Street Theater's upcoming events schedule, please visit: arts.vcu.edu/gracestreet

For ticket inquiries or questions, please call our Grace Street Theater Box Office during business hours from 12:00pm-4:00pm/EST Monday-Friday. Online ticket sales will close March 23rd, 2018 at 6:00pm/EST.