International symposium

Since the emergence of hip-hop in the Bronx in the 1970s, references to “knowledge” have been at the heart of the movement. For hip-hop dancers, the quest for “information”, has been characterized by difficulties in accessing images of dance, relatively few opportunities to meet with pioneers, and by the transmission of dance practices outside of studios and academic contexts. These conditions have shaped the construction and acquisition of knowledge along various modalities and in various contexts, as hip-hop dances offer unique perspectives to interrogate how knowledge is “made”.

The conference invites a wide range of perspectives. It invites us to decenter our narratives and to consider post-colonial and post-migratory perspectives, cultural hybridization, as well as multi-vocal and poly-spatial narratives. It highlights the importance of practice-based research and invites us to reflect on the place of participation, co-constructions and shared authority within dance research.

Paying attention to hip-hop bodies and souls revivifies oral transmission initiatives, as well as public history, documentation and notation by hip-hop dancers. This conference is moreover connected to the history of hip-hop in France, especially the Rencontres nationales de danse urbaine in La Villette in 1996, the creation of the “Juste Debout” contest in 2003 and its subsequent international fame, to the inclusion of breakdance in the 2024 Paris Olympics.