Antics is a hip-hop dance theater company based in Los Angeles under the artistic direction of Amy “Catfox” Campion. Antics creates multimedia urban dance performances that incorporate street dance, poetry, theater, and film into provocative and daring performances. Speaking the language of Hip-Hop, Antics tells stories using the movement vocabulary of street dance styles including: bboying/bgirling, krump dance, house dance, locking, popping, waacking, and capoeira. Founded in 2007, Antics dancers represent the best in LA with extensive credits that include major films, TV shows, and music videos. Antics is committed to innovating the realm of hip-hop dance theater as well as uplifting the community through residencies, workshops, and special events.
Antics was founded in 2007 by Artistic Director Amy “Catfox” Campion after graduating from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. Antics’ debut performance was Breaking the Cypher, a collaborative evening of street dance choreography that was the first hip-hop dance ever presented at the Ford Theatres Summer Season in Hollywood. Breaking the Cypher sold out, received a standing ovation, and was praised in reviews. The following year, Antics founded the J.U.i.C.E. Hip Hop Dance Festival at the Ford Theatres to showcase new work from Antics and featured innovative choreography from other hip-hop dance based companies in Southern California.
Antics has performed extensively in and around Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount University, REDCAT, the Music Center, the Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park, the Skirball Cultural Center, the Los Angeles Theater Center, and the Bootleg Theater Dance Festival. Antics has toured throughout California to perform at the San Francisco Hip Hop Dance Fest, the Esalen International Arts Festival, and College of the Sequoias in Visalia as well as nationally to New York, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Our work has been featured on television and online on Ovation TV, Strife TV, Spike TV, BuzzFeed, PBS, KCET, and LA36.
In 2011, Antics incorporated into a 501c(3) non-profit organization and began rehearsing year-round starting with a commission from the Bootleg Theater to create a work-in-progress of Illuminated Manuscript. In 2012, Illuminated Manuscript: a hip-hop Epic of Gilgamesh premiered at the Los Angeles Theater Center and in 2013 it was featured at the Ford Theatres to critical acclaim. In 2015, Antics toured Illuminated Manuscript to two festivals in Brazil: Vivadança in Salvador, Bahia and Encontro de Dança in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte.
In 2015, Antics created Sneaker Suites, a performance collaboration with spoken word poet Mark Gonzales. Sneaker Suites tells the stories of sneakers: of those who make them, those who wear them, and those who dance in them. Sneaker Suites was presented at the Philadelphia International Festival of Arts (PIFA), UC Irvine in Irvine, CA, the Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center in Kent, WA, Cam-Plex in Gillette, WY, and the Ivy Substation in Culver City, CA.
In addition to live performances, Antics has also created and produced two short dance films directed by Amy “Catfox” Campion. Pursuit was created in 2011 for Dances Made to Order and went on to screen at the Dance on Camera film festival at the Lincoln Center, the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and the Dance for Camera Festival at the Phoenix Center for the Arts. In 2012, Amy “Catfox” Campion was invited to a residency at the Sacatar Institute in Brazil where she created the short dance film Street Dance Orixás which screened at VIVADANÇA festival in Brazil, the International Screendance Festival, and the Oklahoma Dance Film Festival.
Antics believes in the power of hip-hop dance to inspire and move audiences across all platforms. We’ve performed and created projects for commercial clients including Zumiez, Maui Jim, Kaiser Permanente, Shaka Wear, Universal Studios, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Ford and choreographed and performed in music videos for artists that include Nayer, the Janoskians, Genevieve Goings, and Open Mike Eagle. Antics street performed in downtown LA for Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative. Antics frequently performs at corporate events at hotels as well as for birthday parties in parks and backyards.
Antics has received awards from the LA County Arts Commission, Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission, American Dance Abroad, the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Durfee Foundation, the Thomas Spiegel Foundation, the Hilton Foundation, the Flourish Foundation, the Durfee Foundation, LA Dance Advance, and currently participates in the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles’ Back Office program.
