This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post: The Best Dance Performances of 2017; Critical Round-Up
By Juan Michael Porter II, Contributor, Arts & Culture Writer

NICOLE TINTLE
Cameron McKinney and students at The Ailey School as part of the New Directions Choreogaphy Lab

November 2017. Cameron McKinney at The Ailey School.

Sylvia Waters, Charmaine Warren, Christine Dakin, Sarita Allen, Melanie Person, Lakey Evans-Peña, and David Parsons were all in the room to witness Cameron McKinney’s first showing of his work for Robert Battle’s New Directions Choreography Lab. Breaking away from his usual style – “Japanese culture through a hip-hop lens” – McKinney unveiled a party of concert house dancers celebrating across the globe from the favelas of Rio to the Boulevard Saint-Germain. It was radical, joyful, unpredictable, and- technically not something I should be writing about since this was a private showing. But it was also one of the best performances of 2017 so I’ll say it: Somebody somewhere should commission McKinney to codify and set this piece on their company.

CAMERON MCKINNEY, Middlebury College ’14 AND HIS COMPANY KIZUNA DANCE WILL BE IN RESIDENCE AT MIIS MARCH 6-10!
Bring your students or consider hosting an event!

• Tuesday, March 6 Performance of full repertory at the Chautauqua Hall in Pacific Grove 7-8:30 p.m. Co-sponsored by the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce.
• Thursday, March 8: Dances born from Revolution: How Japanese Butoh Ideologies Can Influence Streetdance, lecture-demonstration. 7-8:30 p.m. Irvine Auditorium, 499 Pierce Street, Monterey.
• Friday, March 9: Movement workshop. 11 a.m – 12:15 p.m. at Carmel Barre, 465 Pacific Street ($12 fee for non-Institute participants)
• Saturday, March 10: Berkeley performance and Middlebury alumni events, 8:00 p.m. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705. Tickets: $15/$12. Limited seating: reserve here: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/14336

STAY TUNED!
Learn more about Cameron’s work here