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 Yung Phil and his crew Turf Feinz hop on the train to dance in exchange for donations, it’s likely that most passengers underestimate the artists in front of them. Few realize they’re watching a live performance by professionals. A new short film, Turf Nation by director Jun Bae, explores that dichotomy by chronicling Turf […]

By now, these formulas aren’t anything new: Choreographers are increasingly recruiting pop stars to create scores. And Broadway producers have long followed the time-honored (not to mention moneymaking) tradition of building shows from an artist’s hit catalog (see: the currently running Cher Show and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and the Broadway-bound Jagged Little Pill […]

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 […]

What do Fred Astaire, Pina Bausch and Misty Copeland have in common? They are all part of one of the most prestigious groups in dance: the Dance Magazine Award recipients. A tradition that dates back to 1954, the Dance Magazine Awards celebrate the living legends who have made a lasting impact on our field. Today, […]

Dance Magazine reached out to us with the questions: Over the years, how has increased acceptance and visibility on concert-dance stages affected hip hop and its artists? And how has hip hop influenced concert dance? Our response? Whoa! Acceptance? Visibility? Immediately we knew that any conscientious attempt to unpack these questions would easily exceed the […]