Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 15, 2007 For more information, please call:

Sarah Crowell 510-597-1619 ext 102

Youth Performers ignite the stage with thought provoking movement/theater production unconditional

A singer belts out a haunting rendition of Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child while a dancer sways and shudders to the sounds. A young girl frantically calls 911 on her cell phone to report the murder of a friend, while a martial artist reenacts the death in wild sharp movements. A group of actors paint a picture of the love, the challenge, and the comedy of being part of their own unique families and then go into a rousing old school hip hop dance, while a huge video screen shows life size family photos.

These are just a few of the powerful images from the vignettes in unconditional, the new movement/theater piece created by the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, in collaboration with a cadre of local professional artists. The production uses hip-hop, modern and aerial dance, theater, rap, song, martial arts and spoken word, to speak about issues from family and identity to gun violence and global warming. The piece explores all of these issues while searching for, and finding, unconditional love in surprising places. The piece is at once thought provoking and entertaining, and leaves the audience thinking and feeling deeply about what is real and urgent for young people today.

unconditional will be performed on two weekends: Friday, March 23rd and Saturday, March 24th at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, March 25th at 3pm; Friday, March 30th and Saturday, March 31stt at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, April 1st at 3pm. All performances will take place at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts at 1428 Alice Street in downtown Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20 sliding scale for adults and $6 for youth under 18. Group rates are available. The theater is wheelchair accessible and shows on March 31st & April 1stwill be interpreted for the deaf.

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company is a program of Oakland’s Destiny Arts Center, a community organization that, for 18 years, has provided after-school, weekend and summer programs in dance, marital arts, youth leadership, and violence prevention to youth ages 3-18. The Company’s talented, multicultural youth speak and move from a vision of peace and hope. Join them and be inspired.

For more information, tickets, or directions, call Destiny Arts Center at 510-597-1619, or visit the website at http://www.destinyarts.org.

# # # #

Company directors and youth members are available for interviews.
Other individual and group photos are available digitally.