2016 Guggenheim Fellow Raphael Xavier presents POINT OF INTEREST

As part of THE AMERICAN ROOTS FESTIVAL, the Autorino Center for the Arts presents award-winning POINT OF INTEREST by Guggenheim, PEW Fellow and USA Artist Fellow Raphael Xavier, with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts. The performance will be in the Hoffman Auditorium, located on the University's main campus at 1678 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford, Ct, at 7:30pm Friday and Saturday, February 24th and 25th, with doors to open at 7pm. Ticket prices are $25 for general, $20 for seniors.

Raphael Xavier was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a USA Artist Fellowship for choreography in 2016, along with his Pew Fellowsihp from 2013, Xavier has been a breaking practitioner since 1983. An active alumnus of the world-renowned hip-hop Dance Company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Xavier has gone on to forge an exceptional approach to improvisation, creating new ways to expand the vocabulary of the dance form. In his newest work, Point of Interest, Xavier tackles the natural, humorous and at times painful change of the maturing Breaker dancer.

Director of the Autorino Center for the Arts, Steven Raider-Ginsburg said, "I love watching Raph impress and relate to the older and the younger generations. He's an elder in the breaking community and is teaching hip-hop to seniors and youth alike. His work is masterful and there couldn't be a better fit for dance in our American Roots Festival."

Lauded by The Boston Globe as one of the "top 10 in the year of dance," Point of Interest crackles with Xavier's signature "bravado dance style" (Dance Magazine) and high-energy physicality as it follows a standard of traditional Breaking aesthetics and pushes the boundaries of this young culture and form. Sharing the stage with a multigenerational cast, performing a series of solos, duets and quintets, the leading hip-hop artist shines a light on the natural, humorous and at times painful change of the maturing breakdancer. Xavier's goal is to open doors of possibility for hip hop dance and dancers, and to ambitiously continue to sustain his movement practice in the form.

The American Roots Festival at the University of Saint Joseph runs now through April 21st and features 7 acts of music, dance and theater, which cover a vast breadth and depth of uniquely American performative arts.