Back for a third year, presented in partnership with the City of Alameda, the popular, roving art event brings a new chapter of Alameda history to life through music, dance, theater, and storytelling.
Saturday and Sunday, May 21 & 22, 2022
Four performances each day at 10am, 11:45am, 1:30pm, and 3:15pm
ASL Interpretation provided at all Sunday shows.
Island City Waterways: Uprooted is the 3rd in a series of site-specific performances of dance, theater and music that celebrate the history of Alameda’s unique waterfront. Uprooted will tell the story of Alameda Point, from the rise of civilian flight, to a Naval Air Station that staged four wars, to land being repurposed to fill the promise of a community’s future.
A cast of 35 actors, dancers, and musicians including ODC/Dance, 13th Floor, Akira Tana Trio, and Maze Daiko, will lead audiences on an easy stroll around Alameda Point’s, West Mall Square for a 75-minute immersive performance that will take them on a journey from the wings of peace to the wings of war and from boot camp to WWII internment camp.
Along the way audiences will be invited to attend a 1930’s air race of pilots from the early days of aviation, participate in a swing dance lesson and experience a finale, with the full cast of performers including 9 taiko drummers, that honors the resilience of the human spirit.
At the core of Island City Waterways: Uprooted are extraordinary human actions: acts of honor and heroism, and the resilience of the human spirit facing injustice. Uprooted, refers to the young draftees, itinerant military families, and workers who pulled up roots to follow the industry of war, and those who suffered the fallout of fear and political targeting.
Island City Waterways is a partnership between Rhythmix Cultural Works and the City of Alameda Community Development Department in conjunction with artistic partner, ODC/Dance and community partners: Alameda Unified School District, Alameda Point Collaborative, the Downtown Business Association, West Alameda Business Association (WABA) and local developer, srmErnst.
About the Partners/Artists
Brenda Way is Founder and Artistic Director of ODC/Dance. She has choreographed more than 100 pieces over the last 45 years. Commissions include: Unintended Consequences; Equal Justice Society; On a Train Heading South; Remnants of Song, Stanford Live Arts; Scissors Paper Stone, Alvin Ailey; Ghosts of an Old Ceremony, Walker Art Center. Investigating Grace was named an NEA American Masterpiece in 2011. She has received a Guggenheim and a Resident of the Arts at the American Academy in Rome.
ODC/Dance Choreographer/School Director Kimi Okada is a founding member of ODC Dance. In addition to more than 30 ODC works, her collaborations include Bill Irwin, Geoff Hoyle, Julie Taymor, and Robin Williams. She has choreographed for ACT/San Francisco, Yale Repertory Theater, Theatre for a New Audience in New York, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the LA Music Center Opera. Okada was nominated for a Tony Award® for the Broadway production of Largely New York, co-choreographed with Bill Irwin.
Featuring an ensemble of highly skilled performers adept at acting, dance, and acrobatics, 13th Floor Theater represents the next generation of high-end traveling interactive theater. Founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Jenny McAllister, their fantastical stories tumble off the stage to inhabit any environment from swimming pools to bars, ballrooms, and Victorian mansions.
Veteran actor and director Ed Holmes has been heralded as “a local treasure” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Holmes wrote the script and performed as the narrator of Island City Waterways 2016 and 2018. As part of the Tony Award® winning San Francisco Mime Troupe, he wrote, directed and performed free outdoor public theater in parks throughout the Bay Area for 28-years. Holmes has also collaborated with Theater RAB in Germany and PETA (Philippine Education Theater Association) in Manila.
Janet Koike was creative director of Island City Waterways in 2016 and 2018. As a composer/musician she trained with SF Taiko Dojo and toured extensively with San Jose Taiko and First Voice and is artistic director of Maze Daiko ensemble. As the founder of Rhythmix Cultural Works, Janet is an advocate of the arts, receiving leadership awards from Alameda County and Girls Inc. Janet has an arts education background working with the Wolf Trap Institute, the Oakland Museum of California and Cal Performances.
Tina “bean” Blaine has served as executive director of Rhythmix Cultural Works since 2010, establishing it as the arts hub of Alameda. She holds a Master’s of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon, where she taught for 6 years. Tina co-founded the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference and served as co-artistic director at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music in Amsterdam. She created interactive exhibits for the EMP Museum in Seattle and the Children’s Creativity Museum in SF.
Disclaimer: This performance requires audience members to walk or stand for 75 minutes without shade. While most areas are ADA accessible on street surfaces, one short portion travels over uneven ground. Please bring appropriate dress for windy or sunny weather and bottled water. If you think you will not be able to walk. or stand for 75 minutes, please bring a wheelchair, folding walking chair cane, or other walking assistance devices as needed.
Dog Policy: We are asking all guests that they do not bring dogs. Due to large crowds and very loud, banging noises, it will be safer for both doggos and humans that our 4-legged friends stay at home. Thank you for your understanding. (Service animals excluded)
This event is made possible with support from:
Foundations
Presenting Sponsor
Impresario
$5,000
Visionary
$2,500
Innovator
$1500
