Stomps, claps, and shouts echoed through Robsham Theater on Friday night as Sexual Chocolate took to the stage for its sold out show titled Journey to Timberland.
UPrising Dance Crew opened the show with a guest performance. The group performed a hip-hop set from its recent show Waves V. The audience cheered enthusiastically for the dancers’ synchronized movements, as UPrising ended its set to the bass beats of Lil Nas X’s “Montero.”
The crowd’s energy swelled once more as the lights went down and Sexual Chocolate took the stage. After a rousing step routine to open the show, the dancers assumed characters to begin the story of Journey to Timberland.
Sexual Chocolate told the story of a group of high school students desperately trying to pass an exam so that their teacher would allow them to go to prom. Through a combination of live and pre-recorded scenes, the audience followed a group of three students as they attempted to steal the “ansir” key to the exam while two of their peers tried to stop their antics.
In a recorded scene, one student found a mysterious board game called “Journey to Timberland.” After a fight ensued between the five students, the board game went soaring into the air in slow-motion, and the students were magically transported into the game.
Back on stage and dressed in safari attire, game narrator Rass D. Safarian led the five students through Timberland in order to complete three objectives and exit the game in time for prom. Comical projections—including a Minecraft world with a Timberland boot as the sun—heightened the hilarity of the story and made the audience laugh out loud.
Throughout the show, Sexual Chocolate interspersed step dance numbers that furthered the plot. In one instance, the five students joined fearsome creatures of the jungle—called “CSOM students”—in order to defeat the lumberjacks who wanted to destroy the jungle. After an intense step dance number, the lumberjacks fell to the floor in defeat, allowing the students to move on to the last location of their quest: the Timberland dungeon.
One final step dance number ensued in the dungeon as the students fought off the dungeon master’s henchmen in order to complete their quest. Dancing in three parallel lines, the entire Sexual Chocolate team came to the stage to perform the climax of the story.
The five students succeeded once again in fending off the enemy, and after picking the right Timberland boot, they were able to leave the game. Before they left, Rass D. Safarian, revealed to have been the dungeon master, left them with one piece of advice.
“In this game we call life, the only way to succeed is to listen to one another,” Rass D. Safarian said.
Back on video, the five students awoke from what turned out to be just a crazy dream. Taking Rass D. Safarian’s lesson with them, the students ran off to make it to prom.
To end the show, Sexual Chocolate performed one last number separate from the story of Journey To Timberland. Joined by members of Presenting Africa To U (PATU), Sexual Chocolate dancers sensually removed shirt after shirt until their tank tops were ripped off.
As the lights went down one final time, the audience took its feet in applause as Sexual Chocolate huddled together on the stage, celebrating an entertaining journey for its audience.
Featured Image by Leo Wang / Heights Staff
You must be logged in to post a comment.