SBMA
Choreographic Works
Snack Break Movement Arts weaves street and club dance, performance, character work, and choreo-activism into living vessels of cultural memory and empathy. Rooted in Hip Hop theater, their practice draws from cultural diplomacy, auto-ethnography, and Africanist storytelling traditions, moving as much through reflection and shared presence as through form. SBMA’s interdisciplinary work honors process over product—treating creation as a communal ritual of transformation, dialogue, and socio-political becoming, rather than a destination to be reached.
where the maps unfold (currently touring)
Choreographed and performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2025)
Street Dance Theater
Evening Length Show
This work is a layered duet exploring identity, memory, and
shared experience through street dance-inspired movement.
Through embodied storytelling, performers trace a geography
of presence where personal and political truths converge,
resist, and transform. Each gesture maps terrain shaped by
gender, race, and belonging, offering dance as a site of
relational inquiry and feminist praxis.
Speak. بول دو. (currently touring)
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2024)
Street Dance Theater
Developed for The University of Iowa’s annual collaboration
between the International Writers Program and the Dance
Department, this work was inspired by the poems of Sabyn
Javeri. This piece employs Hip Hop Theater to investigate the
embodied consequences of colonialism.
Pulse of the Reckoning
Choreographed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2025)
Choreographic Residency at Southern Illinois University
Street Dance Theater
Inspired by Kamau Brathwaite’s Tidalectic Un/Mapping and imagery from
The Matrix, this work uses the Breakin’ vernacular and Hip Hop grooves to interweave fractured identities, refusing failing systems while
mapping new embodied possibilities beyond fixed structures.
Rock, Paper...
Choreographed by Joshua Culbreath in collaboration with Emily Culbreath (2019)
Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts
Street Dance Theater
Winner of Summer Dance Forever's Theater Forever Competition Duo Category (2022), this 9-minute duet utilizes the depiction and practice of popular American childhood games as a means to explore and incite new understandings of human relationships through metaphor. The piece implores dancers and audiences to consider the consequences of choice and identity politics through the lens of street dance choreography.
The Space Between--Stories of Tension and Transformation
Directed by Emily Culbreath (2025)
A Snack Break Movement Arts Production
Interdisciplinary Performance Work
Evening Length Show
Set in a club atmosphere, this work emphasizes the uncertain
and cyclical nature of transformation as a central theme,
ultimately engaging auto-ethnographic performance, Black
vernacular dance techniques, and values of African Diasporic
storytelling in the artistic process— creating a theoretical
framework for performance and pedagogy called the “In-Between,” which generates contexts informed by Hip Hop ontologies that challenge Western ideologies of dichotomous opposition.
Ghetto Knowing
Directed by Joshua Culbreath (2025)
A Snack Break Movement Arts Production
Interdisciplinary Performance Work
Evening Length Show
Ghetto Knowing moves through character, voice, and memory to honor the “Ghettos” that birthed Hip Hop and Breaking. Stories spoken and embodied guide the performer through shifting identities, tracing the humor, struggle, and brilliance of the communities that shaped the culture. In the cypher of this work, movement becomes testimony—an echo of lived histories that refuse to fade.
The Weight of Opened Hands
Choreographed by Emily Culbreath (2025)
Interdisciplinary Performance Work
This work utilizes auto-ethnographic storytelling inspired by the
stories of six dancers. Through the intersection of Hip Hop,
Dimestop techniques, and spoken text, this work depicts an
interdisciplinary tale of collective surrender.
Deceptions on E Davenport St.
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2024)
Street Dance Theater
Inspired by imagery derived from American Film-Noir and Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, this proscenium work investigates intersections of gender performance, cohabitation, and Black vernacular dance forms that emphasize quick footwork and complex
polyrhythms.
HAUL
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2024)
Street Dance Theater
Using sourced text from YouTube "try-on hauls," this work uses street dance and improvisational theater to ask the question,
"How is the ocean feeling, concerning fast-fashion's
massive contribution to pollution and carbon emissions?"
Shimmer, Pop!
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2024)
Directed and conceptualized by Dan Fine, Dana Keeton, and Jennifer Kayle
Interdisciplinary Performance Work
This immersive and interdisciplinary work invites audiences
into an enchanted world brought to life by projection mapping, street
dance, and bubbles!
SET
Choreographed by Joshua Culbreath (2024)
Street Dance Theater
SET is an entry point for audiences and performers into the cultural phenomenon known as Breakin'. Student-performers get a first hand experience with the improvisational complexities that inform the dance.
Plan A: Stories of Embodied Frontiers
Directed by Emily Culbreath (2024)
Street Dance Theater
An American College Dance Association National Conference Selection (2025).
Plan A is choreo-activist street dance theater work created with six dance artists who boldly explore their intersectional experiences through street dance, voice, text, physical theater, and personal storytelling. Rooted in embodied research, the piece confronts urgent questions surrounding contraception, abortion, and family planning—placing the body at the center of political, cultural, and personal decision-making.
Plan A (screendance)
Directed by Emily Culbreath (2024)
A Snack Break Movement Arts Production
Created as a dance cinema adaptation of a concert dance
proscenium work, this piece utilizes green screen technology,
spoken word, various news clips, and vernacular dance to tell the collective story of characters informed by various forms of female birth control.
W8
Choreographed and Performed by Joshua Culbreath (2023)
Street Dance Theater
Calling upon themes derived from personal experiences as an African American male and character work inspired by Greek mythology, this solo performance asks audiences to consider the weight of it all.
#turnitoff
Choreographed and Performed by Emily Culbreath (2023)
Auto-Ethnographic Performance Work
This ten minute solo work is a socio-political call to action aimed at white women in the United States. The work intersects
auto-ethnographic performance, digital media, spoken text,
and contemporary dance forms to investigate and reflect the
archetypes that white women have been socialized to embody
in order to maintain a perceived sense of power while
colluding with their own oppressors.
A Moment (screendance)
Directed, Filmed, and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2023)
Street Dance Cinema
Utilizing spoken word by Raphael Xavier, the film
aims to shift the audience's perspective away from spectacle
and exhibition, and towards the nuance and artistry of
Breakin.'
Secret Code
Choreographed by Joshua Culbreath (2023)
Street Dance Theater
Inspired by the unspoken & universal language of the Fibinocci Spiral, a secret code lies embedded in the structure of this work and is revealed through the Breakin' vernacular.
JACKed: An Experiment in Liberation Practices
Choreographed by Emily Culbreath (2023)
Interdisciplinary Performance Work
Throught the intersections of live music, spoken text, and house dance, this performance ritual asks performer-participants to explore
and excavate their individuality in real-time. Centralizing the
foundational groove of house dance (the jack) as a tool for
critical investigation, it asks how conversance with joy and
personal identity infuses power into the experience of the
collective.
Tell Me I Belong
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2023)
Street Dance Theater
Inspired by poetry written by Yemeni artist-scholar Saba Hamzah, this work follows the journey of a woman's experiences with anticipation, heartbreak, and finally, reclamation.
Captain's Log
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2023)
Street Dance Theater
Evening Length Show
Inspired by the popular TV series The Twilight Zone, two
performers utilize elements of theater, text, and dance to invite
audiences into different worlds requiring further investigation.
To Myself, Ten Years Ago
Choreographed by Emily Culbreath (2023)
Street Dance Theater
Inspired by a poem by novelist Lang Leav, this work weaves singing, spoken word, and street and club dance forms to tell the choreographer’s personal story of navigating the transformations shaped by womanhood.
Truth or Dare
Choreographed and Performed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2022)
Street Dance Theater
Evening Length Show
Truth or Dare is a Hip Hop theater work and evening-length
duet that reconsiders an old game while challenging the social
binaries that are implicit in the performer’s mutual stage
presence. With playful text and audience participation, the
show asks performers and audience members to consider the
revealing nature of vulnerability, the visceral nature of
involvement, and the consequences that come along with
choosing a path.
Mozart's Concerto No. 4 (on the floor!)
Choreographed by Emily Culbreath (2021)
Street Dance Theater
Set on the Georgian Court University Dance Company as part
of a choreographic residency, this work utilizes an original
music score by Sk8tz that intersects “4 on the floor” BPM and Mozart’s
Concerto works. Audiences follow a female dancer's character
embodiment of Mozart, who is journeying to discover his truth
through embracing club culture.
The Framework
Choreographed by Snack Break Movement Arts (2021)
Street Dance Theater
This work was developed during an artist residency at Franklin
& Marshall College. Set on the students of the dance
department, this work utilizes street dance and the personal
stories of the dancers to create a framework for performance
that builds upon itself.
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Chained to a Dream
Choreographed and Performed by Joshua Culbreath (2019)
Street Dance Theater
As a part of a series, this work delves into the dreamscape of the artist-performer's mind, where success lies on the other side of awakening. This piece asks audiences to consider the sacrifices of choosing a path to follow one's passion.
I didn't say those things for nothing.
Choreographed and Performed by Emily Culbreath (2019)
Street Dance Theater
This solo premiered as a part of Koresh Dance’s Come
Together Festival. Utilizing spoken word and street dance, this solo performance follows an arc of contemplation
on identity, intersectionality, and overcoming shame.
Submission
Choreographed by Joshua Culbreath (2018)
Street Dance Theater
This duet chronologically follows Depression (2017). Premiered at New York Live Arts, it explores the relationship between two African American male break dancers as they navigate acceptance and resilience.
Depression
Choreographed by Joshua Culbreath (2017)
Street Dance Theater
This duet depicts two African-American male break dancers bound in solidarity, gradually succumbing to the mounting demands placed before them.