Micaya's annual show, 'Mission in the Mix'

Stavroula Arabatgis of SoulForce Dance. Photo: Blake Tucker

Micaya's annual show, 'Mission in the Mix':

For decades, the irrepressible Micaya has championed hip-hop, and this weekend her annual "Mission in the Mix" show at Dance Mission Theater brings a diversity of Bay Area dance to the stage.

In addition to four new pieces for her own SoulForce Dance Company, which appears every night, "Mission in the Mix" will also play host to a dozen other local dance and music performers, including Ava Apple's salsa dancers Latin Symbolics, the Eight-Count hip-hop dance ministry team from Great Exchange Covenant Church in Sunnyvale, and Platinum, an all-women troupe from the NewStyle Motherlode studios.

"Platinum is a group of older women, moms of kids studying hip-hop who saw what they were doing and said, 'I want to do that,' " says Micaya. "So they put their own company together, and they are just so fierce."

Highlighting the local dance community, as well as showcasing her own dancers, says Micaya, is what drives her program. SoulForce Dance Company will dance side-by-side with dancers from Micaya's student workshops, whose members range in age from 13 to 74 years old.

"I love Mission in the Mix," says Micaya, "As much as I love the hip-hop festival, this is really my heart and soul. It's about my own DNA and creativity and playing my own dancers, doing what inspires me and nurturing students and the community. I feed off of that, I love it."