His Body is His Voice | Street Dancer Melvin AC Howell

Melvin AC Howell traces his obsession with hip-hop street dance as early as 9 years old. His parents couldn’t relate to it, nor could anyone in his hometown of Morganton, NC. But when he found himself living out of his car not all that long ago, Howell said he climbed his way out through dance. Now living in Asheville, Howell is about to stage new work through a residency with Trillium Arts in Mars Hill. We talk about his instinctive, improvisational approach to movement, building self-confidence without feeling support from anyone around him and finding refuge in Western North Carolina during and after his bouts of homelessness.