|
|
 |
Performing
Arts SATURDAY,
OCTOBER 25, 11 AM
$12($6 WALKER MEMBERS) |
| EACH
ONE TEACH ONE: EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY EVENTS ARTIST TALKS THE HISTORY OF HIP-HOP DANCE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1 PM, FREE, AUDITORIUM Hip-hop/funk dance originators/pioneers Don Campbell, Boogaloo Sam, and Rennie Harris engage in a lively discussion about the social history of this vibrant and still-evolving form. THE MUSIC AND VOICES OF FACING MEKKA THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 7 PM, FREE, AUDITORIUM Global musicians and performers from Facing Mekka share their processes, experiences, sounds, and inspirations with this groundbreaking new work. Invited artists include cellist/vocalist Grisha Coleman (Hotmouth), beat boxer Kenny Muhammad, vocalist Philip Hamilton, and tabla player/percussionist Lenny Seidman. MASTER CLASSES POPMASTER FABEL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 11 AM, $12 ($6 WALKER MEMBERS), BARBARA BARKER CENTER FOR DANCE, 501 21ST AVENUE SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS  Master Class with Popmaster Fabel, June 2003 photo: Cameron Wittig Popmaster Fabel (Beat Street, Rock Steady Crew) teaches the foundations of popping and hip-hop choreography. Limited to 30 participants ages 13 and up; some dance experience required. ELECTRIC BOOGALOOS MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 5:30 PM, $12 ($6 WALKER MEMBERS), PATRICK'S CABARET, 3010 MINNEHAHA AVENUE SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS  Master Class with Skeeter Rabbit, June 2003 photo: Cameron Wittig Skeeter Rabbit of the Electric Boogaloos, legendary creators of many of the key styles of hip-hop dance, explores the fine art of boogaloo and popping. Limited to 30 participants ages 13 and up; some dance experience required. THE UNTOUCHABLES MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 7:30 PM, $12 ($6 WALKER MEMBERS), PATRICK'S CABARET, 3010 MINNEHAHA AVENUE SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS Rodney Hill of the Untouchables, a young Philadelphia-based company that is quickly gaining a national reputation, teaches various forms of breaking. Limited to 30 participants ages 13 and up; some dance experience required. |
STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE:
RESIDENCY EXPLORES HIP-HOP HISTORY BY CONNECTING ARTISTS
"Just as I had to pay respect in dance history class to greats like Alvin Ailey and Merce Cunningham, I would like generations of dancers to pay homage to Don Campbell and the Electric Boogaloos and understand the source, the history of the creators, and the social realities of hip-hop and funk dance." --dancer/curator/choreographer Leah Nelson
Despite its worldwide reach and overwhelming impact on popular culture, hip-hop is a relatively young artistic movement. Still, as it evolves, the roots of its founding in the Bronx in the early 1970s remain virtually hidden to many of its young practitioners--the countless DJs, MCs, dancers, choreographers, and poets who are carrying on hip-hop's spirit today. This month's Hip-Hop Moves Festival and Rennie Harris' 2003 Walker artist residency enlighten this history by connecting legends of hip-hop with a new generation of artists. As area dancer/choreographer Leah Nelson says, the residency afforded Twin Cities hip-hop artists the rare opportunity to learn their art form's lineage "straight from the source."
Harris' extended residency has included a series of meetings, workshops, and performances designed to celebrate the legacy of hip-hop nationally, while empowering the Twin Cities community to unearth its own hip-hop histories. Through the coordination of the Walker, Nelson, and Nubia, the Minneapolis-based collective of hip-hop dance teaching artists, some 300 area artists and community members had the opportunity this June to work hands-on with innovators of hip-hop dance and choreography, including Rennie Harris, Popmaster Fabel, and Skeeter Rabbit of the Electric Boogaloos. Classes offered this month provide new opportunities to learn from these artists as well as Boogaloo Sam, Don Campbell, the Untouchables, and others.
Building on the Walker's recent hip-hop presentations--from the 2002 exhibition One Planet under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art and last year's performance by the Hip Hop Theater All-Stars to the recent Below the Belt teen battles sponsored by the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council--this project includes the production of a teacher's resource guide to hip-hop dance, organized by Nelson and created in partnership with the Walker and the Perpich Center for Arts Education's Multicultural Voices Initiative. This work-in-progress guide will remain a statewide resource long beyond the life of Harris' residency, offering teachers myriad ways to identify contributions of hip-hop performers and choreographers and explore cultural, social, and historical connections within hip-hop dance.
"The Rennie Harris residency is a great opportunity to galvanize an art form that currently operates at two extremes--grassroots with a social message or commercial with ill intent," says Nelson, referencing the vast gulf between hip-hop's origins and its often mass-marketed manifestations today. "We are all a part of a cipher whose responsibility is to hear truth according to the originators and then make sure the word gets spread correctly."
For more information about the teacher's resource guide, contact Barbara Hackett Cox, Partnering Resources Coordinator, Perpich Center for Arts Education, at 763.591.4762 or e-mail barbara.cox@pcae.k12.mn.us.