Ashton Lites (Stiggity Stackz) — Stackin’ Stylez
Reviewed by Chenoa Baker

“Movement is the connection and that’s yours. The connection is to the people before,” Stiggity Stackz, whose mission is to reunite generations through dance, revive freelance dance culture in Boston, and clarify the lack of historical context for Black dance, says. Three dance performances flow between salsa, krumping, house, and pop lock. All in the name of transcribing the beat with the body or doubling it for co-driven percussion. There was a DJ setup, groups of dancers, and a responsive vibrating patterned screen with animations and a camera capturing and abstracting the dancer's bodies. Reminds me of the infamous iDog (2005-2009) and how the movement mimicked the beat as circular lights pulsated. But the installation accomplished an effect of its analog combined with technology — opening up new worlds of possibility through creative freestyle through movement.

The dancers worked on musicality, timing, sensitivity, and weaving in and out of styles. Now, how do they weave? Body geometry as Stiggity Stackz calls it. At first, a dancer took turns with solos in the middle of a circle — the quintessential dance circle at school dances and the club that I know well — they flowed between styles by creating punctuated geometric shapes through footwork then moving into the fluidity of the house. Next, they all danced collectively yet freestyle which allowed movement to be the great connector.