Seneca plaza buzzes with people mingling, sharing free snacks and drinks, and awaiting a show. CO- Show 14 features new works from Miss Texas 1988, Cameo, sush + free, Amanda Morgan, and Miguel Almario. Framed by the unique architecture of Freeway Park, each artist creates a tiny world influenced by their own creative lineage and surroundings.
The show begins with drag artist Miss Texas 1988 perched at the top of a brutalist landscape overlooking the plaza. She emerges dressed in a flowing brown skirt, antlers made from branches, and a costume decorated in foliage and fur. They begin navigating and hopping through the terrain like it’s an apocalyptic mountain. Arms float side to side creating a horizontal “S”. Kiki Rockwell’s “Faery Queen” plays as Miss Texas concocts a potion, putting petals and twigs into a gold chalice, circling the edge with her finger like a singing bowl. They pour the red liquid from atop the structure, mirroring the waterfall behind them. Climbing to a lower level, she begins rocking back and forth towards the audience with open arms like she is about to pounce over the ledge. Bagpipes and drums kick and she begins frolicing chaotically through the plaza. They weave through the crowd skipping with speed, she twirls in the plaza letting the skirt catch the air, and even swirls around a tree like a maypole, tethered by a colorful suspended piece of fabric. The greenery and distinct architecture of the space allows Miss Texas’s character work to shine in this piece. The work is whimsical, mischievous, and delightfully eerie.
Across the way we find Cameo rocking evenly in a blazer. Limbs fall into place then echo with reverberation. She begins to retrograde her movement. Hands placed into pockets then unfold out with soft and clear direction. She rotates around the low structure, gradually climbing towards the crowd. Movement echoes in her body to a rhythmic pulse. The ribs slide and fingers follow, moving gesturally with precision. A sharp head turn cuts off the softness and clarifies the beat. Swirling around with palms placed over the face, she removes the mask made from her hands and looks to the crowd gently. Despite being in sneakers on concrete, she floats evenly like she’s standing on a turntable. Revolving around the strange square structure, she creates a map of the space with her pivoting turns, spinning like an ever relocating roomba. A slow climb brings her to the top of the structure, arms fly, swinging open. Hands swirl quicker around the body in all configurations. With extended arms, her gaze tilts up towards the trees and tall buildings above, a reminder of our shared urban and natural environment.
Sush sits curled up on one side on a sleek black mat back in the plaza. Sliding side to side across her back she floats on the stage, sequentially adding complex bridges and arches, twisting like a slinky. Watching from one of the concrete pillars above is collaborator Alfredo “Free” Vergara. Free climbs down and breaks out into a series of grooves with an electric and lively energy engaging the crowd. Free springs to the floor and back with ease, with knees you would believe are secretly on a trampoline rather than concrete. The two meet and swirl into a little Latin hustle, before engaging in a mini breaking battle. Audience plants hop in to help the two out, wooing the crowd with leaps over one another in freezes and power moves like The Cricket. The four come together at the end and break into a unison phrase of intricate footwork, go downs, and a final freeze.
Towering over the crowd, we spot Amanda Morgan atop of the structure. Sporting a ponytail, matching red shorts and baseball cap, and a whistle around her neck, she loosely resembles a lifeguard. “Morena linda” by Tomás Aguino de León and Maria Isabel Trinidad begins playing over the speaker as Morgan begins to shimmy and muscle her arms back and forth. The movement is lively, elongated, and bouncy. Playing around the concrete towers above the audience, Morgan falls to her back and does balletic bourrées with her feet in the air, opening legs to splay wide sporadically. She stands tall at the height of the structure, and raises one arm and strikes a pose with flare. The music cuts and she blows the whistle around her neck dramatically. She begins pulsing and rocking to a new beat, gradually moving down the stairs towards the waterfall. Morgan lets her hair down and flips it vertically in the air to the beat, as if to dry it. Using the height of the structure and pool below, Morgan constructs a playful and abstracted lifeguard tower, then goes for a bubbly swim through the space.
Back in the plaza, Miguel Almario stands on a low ledge and addresses the audience with a microphone. Almario vulnerably expresses a “deep need to be heard and understood” through performance, and tells the audience what to “expect and feel.” This is achieved by introducing two clapping rhythms for the crowd to try on. Almario begins dancing to a pulsing track mimicking the rhythms he recently taught. He moves back and forth across the long ledge bouncing, stepping, and balancing like it’s a tightrope. He cues DJ Dark Wiley to cut the track and stops dancing, now with an unsatiated look on his face. The whole is not being understood, he speaks into the mic and expresses “I told you what I wanted you to hear.” He makes a second attempt, now dancing on the ground floor of the plaza. The movement is textually rich, Almario moves through loose legs, waving arms, chest grooves, and flowing slow moves that melt to the floor. He stops again. Returning to the mic with clarity, Almario expresses that what’s missing is the exchange.
To feel heard and understood requires a sharing of movement, rather than stagnant viewership. There needs to be a response from the recipient of the information. Encouraging the audience to join in, he demonstrates house steps like a chase and awaits the crowd’s echo. As the hype builds, he calls upon others in the crowd to offer moves for the collective game of call and response, reflecting the communal exchanges that often happen within battles and cyphers. With everyone on the floor now moving together, the evening flows into a seamless dance party.
The CO- production performance parties are known for fostering collaboration and connection across a diverse range of dance communities, making for an engaging show in unique spaces. What stuck out to me about Show-14 was the care that coincided with the cross discipline connections. It was delightful to watch different dance communities come together and converse, celebrating a shared love of movement. Throughout the show I additionally noticed people passing through in the park stop to enjoy the show with curiosity. With performances ranging from house, contemporary, breaking, drag, hustle, ballet, and more, no matter what you are into, you will find something for you at a CO- show. With open arms, CO- invites you to come eat, come groove, and come see dance.
Co- Show 14 occurred July 18, 2026 at Freeway Park. More information about the artists can be found HERE. Featured photo by Lexi Dysart.
