steve sucato  |  April 13, 2025

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

Raphael Xavier – Skiff
The John P. Murphy Foundation Theatre
Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C)
Cleveland, OH
April 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 of “Skiff,” an aging fisherman portrayed by Xavier, who is coming to terms with the changes in his body that time has brought, while also exploring topics of race, privilege, and power.

Skiff’s name references the category of small open boats and possibly the slang term for someone who believes they are more than they actually are. His story is told through poetic spoken word monologues written and delivered live by Xavier, which draw parallels between the fisherman’s search in Hemingway’s novella and his own journey to build a dance career.

(l-r) Raphael Xavier, Zhané Jackson, Samuel McIntosh, Cho Knight, and Patrick Wright in “Skiff.” Photo by Mark Horning.

Largely a solo work for Xavier mixing contemporary dance with breaking, it also incorporated, in sections, seven additional dancers, including Cleveland’s Zhané Jackson, Patrick Wright, and 10K Movement’s Founder and Executive Director, Samuel McIntosh, and Rehearsal Director Cho Knight who opened the work in a clustered formation that side-stepped across the stage and engaged in unison arm and hand movements.

On a stage backed by a large video screen and a fabric set piece depicting a small white boat, Xavier announced out into the audience that the work was “a rhyme on a crimson wave.” Xavier then rode that wave throughout, executing smooth, wonderfully crafted choreographic movement that blended hip-hop dance styles.

Raphael Xavier in “Skiff.” Photo by Mark Horning.

Projected AI-generated video images of everything from human embryos, Greek gods, the ocean, to Xavier on a beach or in a boat, added to the work’s storytelling. Skiff expertly balanced those visuals and Madeleine Steineck and Chris Hudacs’ ambient lighting design with a mood-setting soundtrack of nautical and nature sound effects along with songs from The O’Jays, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Mars Volta, and more.

“How do you keep your faith when you are always falling?” Xavier mused out loud to begin another scene in the work. The open-ended question, seemingly directed to the universe, pondered the inequities of privilege and power in video clips depicting slave ships, and Skiff’s contention that his many journeys in search of something more always ended up with him back in the same place they began.

A sophisticated production with a plethora of great moments, Skiff’s very best moments came in sections directly related to narrative elements from Hemingway’s novella, which served as a metaphor for Xavier’s life and career.

(l-r) Micah Spader and Raphael Xavier in “Skiff.” Photo by Mark Horning.

Like the novella, the dance work depicts Skiff attempting to catch a large fish that escapes. This is played out in a dance battle between Xavier and dancer Micah Spader as the fish, in which Xavier moves through a sequence of breaking moves that are matched and surpassed by the younger, more athletic Spader. While perhaps no longer comfortable executing break dance’s flashiest power moves, Xavier, as Skiff, was no slouch in battling the fish.

(center) Tatiana Desardouin in “Skiff.” Photo by Mark Horning.

Next, Skiff’s call to a seabird is answered in the form of dancer Tatiana Desardouin as the bird. The Haitian-born director and choreographer of Passion Fruit Dance Company wowed in a directed freestyle solo. Her stylish, silky dance moves, with beautifully articulated limbs, twisted and swirled about the stage like a milkweed seed carried by a gentle breeze. It was mesmerizing.

(front) Husain Abdul Zahir in “Skiff.” Photo by Mark Horning.

Skiff’s tipping point in realizing that he cannot recapture his past and should be content with where he is in life came after scenes of him reflecting on his younger self’s athletic prowess and another encounter with the fish. The former, featuring dancer Husain Abdul Zahir as the younger Skiff, pulled out all the stops in a bravura display of breaking that included head and shoulder stands and balance strength moves.

While Skiff ultimately leaves us with a hopeful message of being content with where we are in life, an underlying, universal lament haunts the work. One that is seen in the misty eyes and heard in the catches of the voices of those of a certain age reflecting on their lost youth.

DANCECleveland’s new 2025-2026 season lineup has been announced and includes Cleveland icon Dianne McIntyre’s new production, “In the Same Tongue.” For more information and tickets, visit dancecleveland.org.