“O’Neal synthesizes complex themes with a cohesive, penetrating aesthetic. Her latest work transcends disciplines and boundaries. It is a bridge between worlds, a translator for opposing points of view, a force for good.”
| LEAH BALTUS, CITY ARTS MAGAZINE (2014)
“O’Neal used Black social dance practices and contemporary dance to question our perception of gender as linked to movement and race…..There’s an availability each of these artists (performers) have, all willing to go where the work takes them and just research the gestures, the gender tropes together. That’s what makes it interesting, and O’Neal facilitates it well…”
|CELINE KINER, LA DANCE CHRONICLE (2021)
“With Opposing Forces, Amy O’Neal takes the form one step farther, turning hip-hop into nuanced, haunting, beautiful concert art.”
|ALICE KADERLAN, THE SEATTLE TIMES (2014)
“I’m listening to Gifted Gab’s version of “Backseat Freestyle” (in Opposing Forces) and trying not to laugh at the incongruity of it all. This is the moment that convinces me that Amy O’Neal is a genius. The absurdity is fabulous. It’s also pointed. Ms. O’Neal knows what she is doing. She’s enough of an historian to know that women existed in hip hop culture from the beginning, before somewhere along the line, their voices drowned out the chorus of this kind of machismo present in Kendrick Lamar’s music and the music of thousands of others. Her choice of song is perfect context for the exploration of the submerged feminine voice in hip hop.”
|OMAR WILEY, SEATTLE STAR (2014)
“The contrast between the men’s power moves and their soft partnering is instructive in a more visceral way, bringing unexamined preconceptions to the fore: that freestyling is a rutting contest, that breaking is eye candy and not a storytelling art, that hip-hop’s province is entertainment rather than philosophy. In “Opposing Forces,” the art form encompasses all those and more.”
|CLAUDIA BAUER, SF CHRONICLE (2017)
“Opposing Forces is a damned important work “
|VIVIAN HUA, REDEFINE MAGAZINE (2016)
“An astounding Hip Hop dancer, Amy O’Neal, so creatively magnetic on her feet that for a few minutes, she manages to steal the focus away from Mr. Reggie Watts.”
|THE NEW YORK TIMES (2007)
“Amy O’Neal detonates across the stage.”
|WENDY PERRON, DANCE MAGAZINE (2012)
“With mind-blowing skill, O’Neal captured the full gamut of dance. She moved seamlessly between balletic effervescence and technical jazz — Broadway hallmarks. She even presented a subtle encapsulation of post-modern and flowed right into isolation, hip-hop and breaking.”
|RANDOM LENGTH NEWS LA (2016)
“The Most” Innovative is an embodied live thing and an intellectual map. It’s vulnerable and a manifesto. It’s cocky, feminist, and questioning. O’Neal’s hit a stage when she’s strong enough to be personal and topical and aesthetic and even entertaining, all at the same time. Now go already.”
| JEN GRAVES, THE STRANGER (2012)
“Amy O kicks it with style, grace, and a whole lotta bass.”
|SEATTLE DANCES (2011)
“We were astounded. Audience members bounced out of their seats for a standing ovation and Amy O’Neal had shown to all of us what it is like to truly step through fear.”
|ON THE BOARDS BLOG (2010)
A few months ago I saw a one night only dance performance at the Moore Theater by locust, the dance group led by choreographer/dancer Amy O’Neal and musician/composer Zeke Keeble. The work, entitled crushed, was breathtakingly brilliant. Its intensely physical movement left me at a loss for words, but I left the theater convinced that I had witnessed a profoundly accurate representation of the overwhelming pressures of contemporary life. The degree of tension escalated and drew me in as the dance gained momentum over the course of the performance. However abstract it was, it embodied something I could recognize but not readily explain. -
|JIM DEMETRE, ART DISH FORUM (2009)
“…full of hip hop’s signature aggression and larger than life personas yet always feminine, her moves are infectious, energizing stuff; dance that sucks you in and makes you want to get off your ass and join in (or at least try).”
|WILLAMETTE WEEKLY (2009)
“Aside from being technically impressive and downright humorous and a hell of a show, too was also emotionally affecting.”
|MATHEW KORFHAGE, WILLAMETTE WEEKLY (2009)
“Confident stances, whipsaw turns, cosmic bewilderment, and the living dead are all miraculously woven together with loose chords, tight beats, and many laughs.”
| JIM DEMETRE, ART DISH FORUM (2006)
“While zombies are used metaphorically and realistically within the many narrative themes woven throughout Mockumentary–including the line between horror and comedy, fear of losing control of one’s own body, and the desire to be accepted and loved even when you are very different from everyone else–one truism was predominantly clear: if you fail to comprehend that hip-hop and funk can and should co-exist with traditional modern dance onstage, you are rapidly becoming a zombie of the dance world.” –
| SEATTLEST (2006)
“Mockumentary’s choreography made us laugh, shake in our seat and bob our heads, gasp openly, and drop our jaw in amazement. O’Neal’s use of carefully defined space, gestural repetition, dramatic timing, and exquisite partnering created mesmerizing, powerful images that continue to replay in our head.”
|SEATTLEST (2006)
“…one of the few modern dance companies (locust music/dance/video) situated to make direct social commentary with their work.”
|NY Magazine (2005)
“…they crammed so much inventiveness, wittiness, and youthful energy into their hour-long dance-music-video show, convenience, that we can’t wait to see them back in New York soon.”
|GUS SOLOMONS JR., GAY CITY NEWS (2005)
“Her (‘O’Neal) work can be visually arresting as well as physically challenging – she can sweep across the stage with equal parts disdain and drive.”
|SANDRA KURTZ, SEATTLE WEEKLY (2003)
“As always, O’Neal’s choreography embodies tremendous physicality and fierce precision, but also a clear understanding that small, everyday gestures can have the most impact (a curled hand; a pointed finger).”
| BRANGIEN DAVIS, THE SEATTLE TIMES (2003)
“O’Neal’s choreography comes out of a rock culture, a new-music culture- you could refer to it as downtown.”
|THE STRANGER (2003)
'“reflect/defect was hot! The music was off the Richtor Scale!”
— RENNIE HARRIS, CHOREOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR OF PUREMOVEMENT (2004)
“A beautiful hypnotic pleasure”
|BRENDAN KILEY, THE STRANGER (2001)