Soulmatic: Time Machine

Time Machine is a one-hour, multi-generational performance that explores Black American Freestyle Dance as a living archive of memory, rhythm, and resilience. Created and performed by Rashaad Hasani Pearson and his daughters Ayanna Mahal and Malaya Iman, the production is rooted in family, culture, and the inherited power of movement and voice.

This work is more than performance — it is ritual, storytelling, and reclamation. Through styles like Hip Hop, Popping, Locking, Strutting, Stepping, and even contemporary influences such as TikTok, Time Machine moves fluidly across eras. Each gesture becomes a vessel of the past, a mark of the present, and a dream toward the future. Together, the trio transforms personal experience into communal offering, showing how dance and rhythm are passed down, reimagined, and embodied through generations.

The piece is inspired by the rhythms of real life: long drives together, conversations in the car, family meals, laughter with grandparents and siblings, old photographs, and dances practiced both in tradition and as creative exploration. These everyday moments, woven together, become the framework of a time machine — not made of metal or gears, but of rhythm, memory, and love.

At the heart of the work is the idea that rhythm is the time machine itself. It is innate, ancestral, and alive. The performers are not simply moving through choreography; they are moving through time — honoring the freedom dreams of their ancestors while building a future rooted in self-expression and cultural pride.

Vocals, song, and poetry also play key roles. The sisters’ development as singers has been shaped by their mother’s deep musicality, which continues to influence the work. Their voices — both literal and metaphorical — create emotional bridges between scenes, grounding the performance in the fullness of who they are as artists and as young women growing into their power.

Time Machine is deeply influenced by Afro-Futurism — not just aesthetically, but philosophically. It asks: What does it mean to be free? How do we carry the past with us while dreaming forward? How can movement, music, and family become technologies for healing and becoming?

This is a story of lineage and liberation. It is a love letter to Black creativity, family, and the power of showing up for each other with consistency and care. It is rhythm as inheritance. Movement as memory. Family as future.

Through Time Machine, the performers offer the audience an invitation — not just to watch, but to remember, to feel, and to imagine.

Runtime: 1 hour

Ages: All Ages

Content Advisory: mild swearing

Soulmatic is a creative studio and cultural hub rooted in the traditions, innovation, and storytelling of Black American street and club dance. Founded by artist and educator Rashaad Hasani, Soulmatic brings together a family-led team dedicated to dance, film, photography, education, and cultural preservation. Based in the DMV and expanding into New York City, Soulmatic works across mediums to explore healing, music empathy, and creative freedom through a distinctly soulful lens.

Our work lives at the intersection of tradition and imagination—drawing from funk, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, house, and more to honor the past while building new futures. Through workshops, media, performances, and collaborative residencies, Soulmatic develops projects that range from intimate family photo essays to global tutorial series, short films, and stage shows. We believe dance is both personal and political: a space of resistance, belonging, joy, and transformation.

We operate as a research and development studio, media house, and education platform. Soulmatic also supports independent artists through our Anthology Collective (a multicultural creative team) and MBRSHP (a Black American-led movement philosophy collective). Together, we build infrastructure that uplifts not only dancers but stylists, editors, photographers, archivists, and administrators who keep culture alive.

Soulmatic isn’t just about performance—it’s about people. As a family business, every member brings something vital: choreography, design, storytelling, organization, or youth perspective. We tour globally, teach locally, and stay deeply connected to community. Our mission is to turn our creative ecosystem into a sustainable livelihood—one rooted in legacy, driven by music, and powered by love.

Welcome to Soulmatic.