HIP HOP
DANCE ALMANAC
About
The Hip Hop Dance Almanac is a media platform, committed to commissioning and archiving the stories and voices of Hip Hop dance in the UK and internationally.
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We present primary accounts of people who are active and an integral part of the broad diaspora of the Hip Hop dance community.
We started interviewing people in 2018; these have been transcribed and published to ensure original Hip Hop voices are documented for current and future generations. Volumes 1-5 are released annually until 2023 and these will focus on the contributions made by people living in the UK.
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In 2021 we started commissioning and publishing original features and long form writing on Hip Hop dance under the Ink Cypher imprint; we want to address the imbalance and misrepresentation of the culture in MSM as well as offering a platform to publish personal, thoughtful and critical responses.
"The site is a wonderful model for preserving oral histories...these kinds of resources are incredibly important and necessary to the development of studies of Hip Hop dance."
Dr Imani Kai Johnson, University of California
"This is an excellent resource for the increasing number of students who are researching Hip Hop histories and practices."
Dr Martin Hargreaves, London Contemporary Dance School
As someone who writes about dance and works with artists as both programmer and producer it was a privilege seeing over 1000 performances, battles, competitions and jams across the world in the past 15 years; I've been commissioner, supporter, audience member and participant in those spaces and in receipt of a wealth of generosity via the output of 100s of artists.
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In the past decade the UK has seen an emergence of a third wave (people in their 20s and 30s) of Hip Hop pioneers who have been creating a rich field of performances, events, battles, research and programmes deepening and challenging their connection to the culture, whilst building on the learning from previous generations and recognising the social responsibility that we have. It's within this context that the Hip Hop Dance Almanac was created.