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Ink Cypher

Ink Cypher is the home of our commissioned writing; it's where you'll find exclusive, original features and long form writing on Hip Hop dance from a suite of international voices.


Published in August 2024, Ink Cypher - In Print is an exquisitely designed, limited edition, Hip Hop dance newspaper featuring all of the commissioned texts from rounds one, two and three, alongside a host of new features.Buy it here.

A cypher is a space of dialogue and a place to build energy; so for round two and three we wanted people to read the essays that we'd published and write something that answered, responded to or challenged what had been written from one (or more) of the previous rounds authors. This is an Ink Cypher.

Some of the people in Ink Cypher are established writers, some are writing in English for the first time and for others this is the first time they've been commissioned.

In round one there's 26 works from people based in Taiwan, Canada, Ghana, Scotland, Singapore, France, Greece, Dubai, USA, England, Germany, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey.

In round two there's 15 works from people based in Nigeria, Argentina, Australia, England, Ghana, USA, Spain, Brazil, Cuba, Ireland and France.

In round three there's 14 works from people based in Colombia, Botswana, England, Sweden, Argentina, Cuba, Spain, USA, Germany and Ghana.

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All of the commissioned essays will remain free to access via the Hip Hop Dance Almanac, however, there are very real costs attached to commissioning, editing and publishing these works.

If you value the work we're doing and are able to contribute, then please donate. Ink Cypher is our publishing imprint, a platform to present thoughtful and critical responses.

The order in which you read information can affect the interpretation of what comes after it; if you want a route through these texts here's Reading Route 1 and Route 2

Round 2
Published May 2022
Round 1
Published November 2021

DANCING GODDESSES: African American Women Hip Hop Dancers - Cultural Contributors

Ariyan Johnson

This Dance Is Not Our Own
Brian Toh

How Dislocated Minorities in Turkey turn to Hip Hop to Build Community and Resist Marginalisation

Danielle V. Schoon and Funda Oral

Derogatory Dancing: Heteronormative Inscriptions on Female Hip-Hop Dancers in Breaking and Commercial Spheres

Deanne Kearney

The Woo Dance vs Kete: Tradition Recycled or Coincidence?

Dodzi Aveh

Where is Disability in Hip Hop Dance?

Emily Tisshaw

How Do You Make a Solo?

Emma Ready

Dancing Giving A Voice: the power of voguing in Colombia protest

Evelyn Ramirez

Self Teaching In Street Dance
Fabrice Pika Taraud

“Make Some Noise for the Ladies…” Sexism in European Hip-Hop Dance Battles
Francesca Miles

Dance As Hard As A Man: how female Hip Hop dancers have had to man up to try to get a place in the hip-hop scene
Godlive Lawani

The chance encounter as the fifth element of Hip Hop

Iain Bleakley

The Commodification of Trauma in Hip Hop Theatre

Isaac Ouro-Gnao

Club and Street Dances: An Art of Remembrance

Larissa Clement Belhacel

Jackanory meets Diversity: Hip Hop culture - when dance becomes theatre

Lucy Crowe

Implications of Hip-Hop-izing Western Institutional Spaces:
A reflection on how hip-hop dancers transform “unlikely hip-hop spaces”

Maïko Le Lay

Letter to an OG
Marcus Marzipan

Episodes of a Hip Hop Memory
Michael Joseph

Cisfemininities as bodies-without-organs in hip hop, street and urban dance styles

Natalia Koutsougera

Our Aging Elders: The Vanishing of Our Living Libraries & The Erasure of Cultural & Intellectual Hip Hop/Street Dance Codes

Natasha Jean-Bart, aka Tash

From Localities to TikTok: Hip-Hop Dance in Indonesia

Nia Agustina

Cairo Calling: A Profile of Layla Ghaleb

Samia Qayium

The Recognition of Streetdance in Germany

Takao Baba

FROM SCARIFICATION TO KRUMP - How body adornment has transformed dance across the diaspora

Temitayo Ince

A Story of B-Boying in South Africa
Tseliso Monaheng

The Social Impact of Monday School and Battle Jam - Les Petites Choses Production

YingLv Wang

Alongside commissioned writings we also present in depth interviews and primary accounts of people who are active and an integral part of the broad diaspora of the UK Hip Hop dance community.

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