Federal Way woman returns to city with Valentine’s Day show

A former Federal Way resident is returning to her hometown to put on a theater production for Valentine's Day.

A former Federal Way resident is returning to her hometown to put on a theater production for Valentine’s Day.

Christina McKie’s show is called “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” It is love-themed and shows the many sides of love, featuring performances in belly dance, modern dance and hip hop. The show starts at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Knutzen Family Theater.

“When considering locations for this year’s run, I decided that with this year’s ‘Crazy Love’ show, we would bring what we do back to my roots,” McKie said. “So, in a way, it’s a homecoming story.”

McKie attended Federal Way High School and has worked for the Federal Way Library for 17 years. She moved to West Seattle five years ago to build a dance theater company.

McKie said she was too shy to participate in dance or theater in high school.

“To be honest, if anyone would have told me then that I would be a performer and the founder and creative director of a production company, I would have laughed and then blushed,” McKie sad. “It’s crazy how things change.”

McKie has been producing and promoting off and on over the past five years.

“I co-founded and co-produced a show in West Seattle at the Skylark Cafe called ‘Alauda,’ which was a monthly free-form belly dance show,” McKie said. “It was geared toward all audiences and featured performers of all levels in all styles of belly dance.”

Before that, McKie also co-produced the dance portion of an industrial show called “Mechanisms,” which was also a monthly show held at The ReBar and at The Highline in Seattle and that show featured industrial music and art.

“I booked the dancers and performed there off and on for three years until I stepped away from it to have my little girl,” McKie said. “After doing that for a while, I decided I wanted to try my hand at doing something on a grander scale. I was itching to do something bigger and more theatrical.”

In 2010, McKie wrote, directed and produced her first dance theater production called “Wonderland — A Belly Dance Play.”

“We did three successful runs of that show and, well, I fell in love with the process and knew I wanted more,” she said. “I loved writing the story, casting the parts, directing the dancers and playing with lighting and music and seeing the whole thing come alive in the end. So, I decided I should probably put something more formal together and created Rebel Belly Productions with a few of my closest friends and fellow dancers.”

Since 2010, Rebel Belly Productions has had two runs of “Crazy Love,” a show about icons of history called “Time Warp,” a Halloween show called “Nevermore” and “Circadia” — a tale of life, death and rebirth as told through the changing of the seasons.

“Most of the productions are either created around a piece of music that inspires a show’s theme, or a specific act I’d like to perform that I then build a show around,” McKie explained. “In the case of ‘Crazy Love,’ it was a combination of being inspired by a specific act I had in mind that I’d wanted to create for several years that had a love theme to it and the fact that Valentine’s Day was around the corner.”

The Federal Way showing of “Crazy Love” is for all-ages.

“In the past, this show has been performed at The Columbia City Theater and was more adult-themed,” McKie said. “The show is love-themed, and may be a little sophisticated and nuanced for the younger kids to really understand conceptually, but the dancing itself should still be entertaining, even if they have no idea what the dancers are trying to say with their pieces.”

To purchase tickets for the Federal Way show, visit crazylove3.brownpapertickets.com.