“[The Wooden Floor] proves at REDCAT that there’s more to young dancers than the overdone Christmas staple (Nutcracker)…it’s nice to know that some young dancers in our midst are having their skills and perceptions shaped by contemporary work.” – Los Angeles Times

The Wooden Floor promises a rare experience as three of the nation’s most interesting experimental choreographers create new work in partnership with 73 low income youth at REDCAT, The CalArts center for innovative visual, performing and media arts in the Walt Disney Hall complex.

The youth of The Wooden Floor emerge as riveting performers through an artistic lens that extracts the duality of their newness and the wisdom of lives seemingly long lived.  This work is original, inventive, unapologetic and idiosyncratic. Through its assumption that youth are not to be condescended to, the performances break down ethnic, gender and age stereotypes about who can inspire, create, perform and contribute to the evolution of the genre of contemporary dance. 

Although sentimental it is not, do expect to be moved by Nami Yamamoto’s Flying With My Shooting Stars as she strikes with searing, compassionate images.   Yamamoto invites puppeteer Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith and the enigmatic puppet Tony to collaborate in the dance. It’s a revealing combination of uncanny depth and warmth with silences that speak loudly. Mark Haim revives his first commission for The Wooden Floor, titled Los Angelitos. Intricate and galvanizing, in Los Angelitos dancers write their names with their heads as they communicate in another language.  They bond through adversity with gentle touches that last. Melanie Rios Glaser presents a world premiere in which she deconstructs and re-assembles the nuances in the lives of these fascinating teenagers teasing out how pop culture has influenced their talk, their walk and their song.