Choreographer Kenrick “H2O” Sandy and composer-producer Michael “Mikey J” Asante met at school in East London when they were 12, bonding over hip hop. After performing in local street-dance battles, they founded the hip-hop dance theater company Boy Blue in 2001, wowing audiences with precision choreography and explosive energy. Their show Pied Piper won an […]

It’s impossible to chart the rise of hip hop without coming across Ana “Rokafella” Garcia and Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio.

Paris-based Tamil dancer and choreographer Usha Jey took the world by storm when her #HybridBharatham series went viral on social media. Featuring duets and trios in which dancers switch between hip hop and the Indian classical dance style bharatanatyam, the videos are set to tracks by rappers such as Lil Wayne, Jack Harlow and DaBaby.

Dancers’ interest in mixing contemporary ideas has given rise to the growth of a new fused style: Native American hip hop.   

The culture is born of struggle and oppression, resulting directly from the end of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the culmination of the Vietnam War.

There’s something about Sean Bankhead‘s choreography that moves you to your feet. Through intricate footwork, a twerk moment or a groove typical to Atlanta dance styles, he makes the lyrics, the melody and every instrument playing come alive. “He wants you to feel the music exactly how he hears it in his head,” says JaQuel […]

In Washington Heights, if Usnavi is to be believed, the streets are made of music. In the opening moments of the film version of In the Heights, the lead character, played by Anthony Ramos, lightly drums a clave beat. The rhythm is taken over by a pair of keys, a gate, a hose, before scratch—Usnavi […]

Recognizing the importance of questions such as “Who teaches what? And for who?,” many degree programs have recently been starting to alter their curriculums. Yet this approach has always been central to the University of East London’s BA Dance: Urban Practice, which has used alternative approaches to teach popular urban dances since 2007. Students in […]