Shabba-Doo, aka Adolfo Quinones, “The King of Crenshaw”
Exclusive Northwest lecture & hip hop demo
Monday, November 7, 7:30 p.m.
Wheelock Rotunda
University of Puget Sound
Tickets: $8, at tickets.pugetsound.edu, from Thursday, Nov. 2
Contact: Serni Solidarios; ssolidarios@pugetsound.edu
Hailed as the “Bob Fosse of the Streets,” and “Hip Hop’s First Matinee Idol,” famed choreographer Shaba-Doo, aka Adolfo Quinones, “The King of Crenshaw”, presents an exclusive northwest lecture and demonstration at University of Puget Sound’s Wheelock Rotunda, Monday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m.
Shabba-Doo emerged as a screen star from his starring role in the 80’s dance film “Breakin’.” To many, the film means “boom box-toting, shiny-clothes-and-Kangol-hat-wearing dudes who do the robot and spin on their heads.” Okay, during the 1980’s , one might’ve stumbled over a couple of boom box blasters making your way to public transportation or have seen a shimmery track jacket or two at your local neighborhood dance-off, but Breakin’ has gone on to become far more than its iconic trappings. It’s about athleticism, and grace, and the streets, and street smarts, and retro-chic, and unspoken communication, and dirty funk, and beats, and rhymes, and life. It’s about how Shabba-Doo became the King of Crenshaw, hip-hop’s spiritual father and modern dance’s bad-boy cousin.
Shabba-Doo’s ‘The King of Crenshaw’ is an oftentimes harrowing, oftentimes inspirational, and oftentimes poignant life journey that will take those in attendance from the mean streets of Chicago’s infamous project homes to the back lots of Hollywood, from L.A.’s gang-laden Crenshaw Boulevard to the Soul Train dance line, to a founding member of The Lockers, and to his eventual directing-fellow tenure at the prestigious, American Film Institute. Street-dance and hip-hop’s life story will be woven into Shabba-Doo’s gripping personal life journey told over the course of 90 riveting minutes, which is the only way it can be done, as one wouldn’t have flourished without the other. Says Madonna, who he has served as a choreographer, “Shaba-Doo is the best —king Dancer.” He also choreographed for Three Six Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” performance for the Academy Awards.
Hip-hop is a vital, albeit far too often unrecognized force in contemporary entertainment; it’s no exaggeration to say that the movement Shabba-Doo helped to create and has lead for the past 45-plus years, has a resonant, singular imprint on today’s music, fashion, film, and television. He is a recent inductee into the Hip Hop Hall of Fame. This event is presented by ASUPS Performing Arts.
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unity outreach has allowed him to venture where few entertainers can go.