Rennie Harris Bridges the Past and Future
Fusing street-dance movement vocabulary with original music and writing, Rennie Harris has developed narrative-driven pieces exploring racism, sexism and other cultural issues.
Fusing street-dance movement vocabulary with original music and writing, Rennie Harris has developed narrative-driven pieces exploring racism, sexism and other cultural issues.
When Rennie Harris first heard that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater had tapped him to create a new hour-long work, and to become the company’s first artist in residence, he laughed. “I’m a street dance choreographer. I do street dance on street dancers,” he says. “I’ve never set an hour-long piece on any other company […]
The grand master of transforming street dance for the stage (and 2017 Dance Magazine Award recipient), Rennie Harris returns to the New Victory Theater with the multimedia Funkedified. This world premiere, with dancers of Rennie Harris Puremovement as well as guest artists from The Hood Lockers, looks back on African-American culture of the 1970s. A […]
It makes sense that Dance Magazine long ago dubbed Rennie (Lorenzo) Harris the “high priest of hip hop.” When the often shy, Philadelphia-born choreographer founded his company Rennie Harris Puremovement in 1992, he planted a prodigious seed in the dance world. Then and now, Harris’ mission has been to examine, preserve and share the culture […]
Dinita Clark holds nothing back in her work with Rennie Harris Puremovement. She’s fast, with a knife-edged clarity in her shapes. The slippery bounce in Harris’ house moves keeps her skittering along the floor. But you also see her modern dance training when a move sequences lushly through her body from her head to her […]
Rennie Harris’ “Legends of Hip Hop” REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA November 3–7, 2004 Reviewed by Victoria Looseleaf Rennie Harris wants the world to know about hip hop—that it’s not just street dance but also a culture, a way of life, with a history that’s longer than one might realize. […]
Here are the latest promotions, appointments, and departures, as well as notable awards and accomplishments, from August 2024. Plus, a newly available funding opportunities for dance artists.
The spring performance season is moving full steam ahead with literary-inspired ballets, a queer reimagining of Carmen, and premieres drawing from everything from the upcoming solar eclipse to contemporary American politics. Here’s what’s grabbing our attention.