B-ROOTED CELEBRATES THE 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Nationwide & Midwest Rooted All-Female crew, VENUS FLY, and THE ALL-STYLES PHENOMENON.

From Grassroots to New Branches, this hip hop dance festival explores the widening landscape of gender expression in the underground street dance.

Friday, April 3 & Saturday, April 4 | FREE Admission
The Dance Center, Columbia College

All events are FREE and open to the public

Come VIBE OUT, BATTLE, AND EXPRESS YOUR STYLE
All are welcome…dancers, community and practitioners!

This series will culminate with an All STYLES JAM

FULL SCHEDULE
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FRIDAY – APRIL 3

1PM I Workshops to be announced…

4PM – 6:30 PM | Venus Fly Composition Workshop
Room 300

Members of Venus Fly crew will co-lead a workshop that engages participants in understanding and embodying technical foundations behind several different street dance forms (including: popping, breaking, locking, waacking, house, and robot), and employing these in the creative process of composition (choreography). Students will learn set phrases, and then be guided through steps to develop original phrasing (choreography) using the same foundational techniques and vocabularies, as well as elements from their own dance/movement backgrounds.

7:30PM – 9:30 PM | Cypher-Style “Panel” Discussion
Room 300

Members of Venus Fly will situate their 10-year history as a crew within the shifting landscape of the underground street dance scene and its wider sociopolitical context. They will be joined by additional members of the hip hop and contemporary modern dance communities who will lead both small and large-group verbal cyphers (discussions) around the impact of social, cultural and political factors on the landscape of dance in America. How the are the values and directions in our dance communities being affected by the politics around gender and race, and the popularity of dance in competitive reality TV shows and Hollywood films? What opportunities and concerns are we grappling with as dancers are more compelled and expected to train across a myriad of styles and forms? Should we keep going wider, or dig deeper? Is it possible to do both? How do we want to shape the next decade?
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SATURDAY – APRIL 4

1:00PM – 2:00PM | SOLE SEARCHING: A “Verbal Cypher & Build Session” around Gender Expression and Relationships in the Underground Street Dance Scene

Venus Fly members have been battling, performing, organizing and educating within the male-dominated street dance community for around 15 years each, and 10 years as crew. VF along with other “senior” members of the scene will provide an opportunity to build with the younger generation and anyone who is interested in joining the discussion. This session is open to all gender identities. More details coming soon . . .

2:00PM – 3:00PM | Popping Workshop/Master Classes
Details coming soon . . .

3:00PM – 9:00PM | B-ROOTED All-Styles Jam

B-Rooted will transform the Dance Center’s incredible theater space into an underground dance party extravaganza, including dance battles, cyphers, performances, and more! All are also welcome to throw down in the cyphers and battles. You are also invited to enjoy the theater seating at this event, as long as you come willing to head-bob, sway and cheer from in your seat!

1V1 OPEN STYLES BATTLE – $200 cash prize

2V2 ROCK THE FUNK BATTLE – $300 cash prize
(To enter this battle you must be rooted in a style that can get OFF to FUNK-based music: popping, breaking, locking, waacking . . .)

BREAKIN’ CYPHER ASSASIN $100 cash prize

Judges: will be announced soon! Stay tuned!

DJs: Fast$Mike & Vilas Park Sniper (NINJACHURCH)

Hosts: Agent Mos (NINJACHURCH) & El La Katrina (NINJACURCH/Goddistas)
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B-ROOTED is Presented by the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, in collaboration with local and national hip hop dance artists of Venus Fly & NINJACHURCH

The festival is co-curated by Bgirl El La Katrina, co-director of Breakin’ The Law: International Festival of Urban Movement and part of NINJACHURCH Crew and Goddistas, and Kelsa Robinson, lecturer at The Dance Center and member of Venus Fly. B-Rooted welcomes everyone from veteran street dancers who have won international titles to those who have never set foot inside “the scene.” We invite you to come learn, share and get down!

More information and Event Details: https://www.facebook.com/BHipHopSeries?ref=br_tf

All events are free and open to the public. Call 312-869-8330 for more information.

Established in 2005, VENUS FLY is the first female all-styles crew of the U.S. underground street dance community. VF specializes in dance styles that were born within U.S. urban communities of color between the 1960s and 1980s, including popping, locking, breaking, house, waacking and hip hop. VF features seven highly accomplished street dancers, including: “B-Girl Teena Marie” Custer, “B-Girl Vanicia” Flores-Messick, Jocelyn “Evillynn” Eckhout, Kelsa Robinson, Marie “Pandora” Medina, Amber “Pringlz” Rowlett and Tracy “Ti-en-T” Yang. VF members are also teaching artists, community organizers, academics, contemporary and hip hop dance theatre choreographers and multimedia artists who have each spent 15-plus years training, ciphering, battling and building within the underground hip hop, house and street-dance communities. They have performed and taught classes across the country and around the world. Along with numerous commercial achievements, including television, film, video and concert performances with major music artists, their dedication remains firmly rooted in community. Members of Venus Fly specialize in community-based art forms, born within rich social and cultural environments. Their mission is to root themselves and others in the histories and contexts of these dance styles, pay homage to the lineage of dancers who came before them and give back through education, mentorship, community-building and artist expression.

NINJACHURCH is an all-elements, international hip hop crew, based in Chicago, that began as a collective of friends who shared a love for hip hop culture, creative innovation and the ability to construct well-organized art experiences for the community that elevate the soul. B-Rooted features DJ Fast$Mike and DJ VilasParkSniper, two internationally known breaks, all styles and funk soundsmiths who are also the resident DJs for Numb3r Runners, a growing dance party experience in the Chicago club scene. Additionally, the B-Rooted Masters of Ceremony are NINJACHURCH MCs AMS-King of Nerds, a South Side Chicago lyrical and comedic phenom, and Bgirl El La Katrina, a Chicana hip hop superhero and tradition bearer in movement and message.