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steve sucato  |  April 13, 2025

Classic Literature Meets Hip Hop in Raphael Xavier’s Brilliant ‘Skiff’ [REVIEW]

Raphael Xavier – SkiffThe John P. Murphy Foundation TheatreCuyahoga Community College (Tri-C)Cleveland, OHApril 13, 2025 By Steve Sucato Our eternal battle with Father Time was brilliantly explored in Philadelphia-based hip hop dancer/choreographer Raphael Xavier’s new work Skiff, this past Sunday at Tri-C Metro Campus’s John P. Murphy Foundation Theatre. Presented by DANCECleveland and Tri-C, Skiff was a hip hop dance theater contextualization of Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novella, “The Old Man And The Sea” that also drew inspiration from Winslow Homer’s 19th-century painting, “The Gulf Stream,” depicting a Black man in a small fishing boat on a restless sea. The hourlong multimedia production was one of the award-winning choreographer’s finest works and one of this dance season’s very best. A familiar presence in DANCECleveland’s offerings of the past several years, Xavier began choreographing the work during a 2024 Dancing Lab residency at the National Center for Choreography in Akron. The production tells the story... Read On