Dahlak Brathwaite’s 

Try/Step/Trip

February 20, 21 & 22, 2020

Dance Mission Theater

San Francisco, California

“You don’t want to miss out on this powerful performance”

 - Water Tower Arts

Writer/composer Dahlak Brathwaite and director Roberta Uno’s immersive theatre experience, Try/Step/Trip makes it’s Bay Area debut February 20-22, 2020 at San Francisco’s Dance Mission Theater. Try/Step/Trip is a spoken word, multi-character musical that uses the language and tradition of step dance to captivate audiences. The piece features principal choreography by Toran X. Moore and Freddy Ramsey Jr. with additional choreography by Delina Patrice Brooks with compositions by Brathwaite himself, in collaboration with GRAMMY nominated producer Teak Underdue.  

Try/Step/Trip emerges from the belief that the subjugation of Black people is an American ritual; that the criminal justice system now functions as a normalized rite of passage for too many young Black males. Try/Step/Trip offers an alternative ritual; a rite of passage orchestrated to save one of the justice system’s newest inductees from the ultimate plight of criminalization: to be remade in the image of its judgment.  The story follows the journey of an anonymous narrator as he re-imagines his experience in a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program. Inspired by Brathwaite’s own history, Try/Step/Trip layers characters, poetic verse, and dialogue over music to create a theatrical piece that blurs the lines between hip-hop and dramatic performance. World views are delivered within musical numbers, ancestors are conjured through step, and archetypes are sampled from pop culture and folklore, all to guide a familiar young Black man in his unique search for redemption and self-definition.

Try/Step/Trip

February 20th, 8pm, February 21st, 8pm, February 22nd, 8pm

$10 Youth under 21 + Seniors 

$25 Adults

Dance Mission Theater 

3316 24th Street, San Francisco CA