Chica Barbosa, Friidom, Tarren Johnson: NOW Festival: Week 3

REDCAT’s NOW Festival Week 3 bill brings together Chica Barbosa, Friidom and Tarren Johnson. The available event information does not specify a musical formation, individual performers, instruments, or the format of the evening, so the billing is the clearest guide to what is on offer. Friidom is the name used by Darrel Dunn, whose contribution comes from a movement-based practice rather than a conventional band setup.

Dunn is a Los Angeles-based Black Indigenous street-dance ambassador, thespian, director and movement composer. He created Epiic, a movement language that joins Krump, street styles and “Movement Futurism,” with work that celebrates community ties within street-dance traditions. His broader practice has placed movement alongside film scores, orchestral music and soundscapes, and his collaborators include NASA JPL, Disney, WACO Theater and Debbie Allen Dance Academy. LA Dance Chronicle called his performance in RENEWAL “a cinematic sensibility that was entrancing to witness.” LA Weekly described Epiic through “raw expressive movements and extreme precision flow,” praising its “beguiling history-based storytelling.”