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“Hip-hop is about the celebration of life.” — Rennie Harris
photos by William Herbert
Puremovement
L
orenzo (Rennie) Harris (Artistic Director, Choreographer) celebrates hip-hop culture on
his own terms, by using some of the world’s most influential forms of movement, music,
and storytelling to revolutionize contemporary concert dance. Born and raised in North
Philadelphia, Harris has been teaching workshops and classes at universities around the
country and is a powerful spokesperson for the significance of “street” origins in any dance
style. The mark of Harris’s career began as a performer and choreographer through performing for crowds
at clubs, parties and within his community with Harris’s first company, the Scanner Boys in the 1980’s (a hiphop performance group of which Harris was a founding member). According to Harris, he didn’t become a
part of the “legitimate” dance community until 1992, when he was invited to participate in the Susan Hess
Choreographer’s Project.
In 1992 Harris founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, a hip-hop dance company dedicated to preserving and
disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, hip-hop history lecture demonstrations, long term
residencies, mentoring programs and public performances.
Harris founded his company based on the belief that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a
new generation. With its roots in the inner-city African-American and Latino communities, hip-hop can be
characterized as a contemporary indigenous form, one that expresses universal themes that extend beyond
racial, religious, and economic boundaries, and one that (because of its pan-racial and transnational popularity)
can help bridge these divisions.
Harris’ work encompasses the diverse and rich African-American traditions of the past, while simultaneously
presenting the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance. Harris is committed
to providing audiences with a sincere view of the essence and spirit of hip-hop rather than the commercially
exploited stereotypes portrayed by the media.
As Harris develops as a choreographer, he continues to profoundly influence the field of contemporary dance.
Harris shows us the integral connections between body movements through the philosophy inherent in the
company’s name, “Puremovement of mind, body, and soul.” Since establishing the company (15) years ago,
Rennie Harris has continually demonstrated his outstanding talent for utilizing his distinctive and compelling
contributions to dance vocabulary based on his personal choreographic vision. At the age of 43 Mr. Harris is
at the top of the hip-hop heap.
Photos by Bob Emmott
TIMELINe
1991 Rennie is commissioned for
2000Rome & Jewels premieres
the first time by Michael Pedretti
of Movement Theater International
this opportunity represents a pivotal
moment in his development as an
artist.
and tours nationally and
internationally.
Bob Emmott
2001Rennie wins 3 Bessie
1992Rennie Harris Puremovement
is adopted as the name of the
company with members: Anisa
Morgan, Kim Wilson, Elizabeth
Jacobs, Doris Humphrey, Clyde
Evans, James Colter, Brandon
Albright and Rennie Harris.
Robert Day
2003 Facing Mekka premieres
and Rennie receives the Herb
Albert Award for Choreography.
1995 Chuck Davis invites Rennie
Harris Puremovement to perform as
part of Dance Africa America, and
gives the company national visibility.
Awards for Rome & Jewels,
receives the Alvin Ailey Award
for Choreography and is
nominated for the Laurence
Olivier award.
Bob Emmott
2004 Rennie receives the key to
the city of South Beach Miami.
2005 Rennie incorporates
1996Rennie receives the Pew
Charitable Trust Choreographer
Initiative Fellowship.
Jon Stark
himself and donates 25%
of income to Rennie Harris
Puremovement’s non-profit
mission to educate the masses
about hip-hop dance and spirit.
1997-98 Illadelph Legends
Festival in Philadelphia offers
classes for the first time to students
from around the world by master
teachers.
1999 Rennie Harris
Puremovement receives nonprofit status; Legends of Hip Hop
makes its premiere.
2005 Rennie worshops “100
Naked Locks” on UCLA students.
2006 Rennie begins researching
and conceptualizing his new work
“Heaven”.
Body of Works
Prince ScareKrow’s Road to the Emerald
City (PSK)
Traces the journey, evolution and development of Rennie Harris the artist,
the man and the teacher. Harris explores his life and the juxtaposition of
how he sees himself to the persona the public has created for and about
him. Though the title may conjure images of the “Wizard of Oz”, the only
correlation is that of personal growth and the ability to move beyond our
limitations. “Prince ScareKrow’s Road to the Emerald City” will also reflect
the dance scene in which Harris matured but yet often feels disconnected.
This piece will examine how hip-hop dance played a major role in Harris’s
youth and the dances that influenced him.
Bob Emmott
Facing Mekka
An evening length work that fills the
landscape of the performance space with
movement, rhythm, sound and image,
and offers a view of dance as a vehicle for
uniting people and cultures. The piece
describes a turn toward enlightenment and
celebrates dance as a spiritually liberating
force. It features 17 performers, video
projection, multiple DJs, and a recorded
original sound score created by Philip
Hamilton, “The Human Orchestra”-Kenny
Muhammad, and HotMouth composer
Grisha Coleman.
“Facing Mekka may arguably be the greatest
tribute to Black womanhood since Alvin Ailey’s
“Cry” in 1971.” —The Los Angeles Times
Bob Emmott
Repertory
This concert of dance truly expresses the
pure joy of hip-hop dance. Pieces include:
Students of the Asphalt Jungle, which is
a vibrant affirmation of Afro-American
heritage through movement, handed down
through spirit and instinct. P-Funk dedicated
to other dancers who have lost their way
or have been slain on the streets. The lost
dancers are “funkdefied” or resurrected
into a dazzling display of jubilation. March
of the Antmen, which is provoked by the
tone and aura of the original music, created
by friend Dru Minyard whose life and death
inspired its creation. Continuum exhibits a
whirl of movement, which seems to have no
beginning or end.
Robert Day
“Hip hop dance to a higher power, in both the mathematical and the
metaphysical senses…” —The Village Voice
Rome & Jewels
The critically acclaimed hip-hop Opera originally inspired by
“Westside Story” and Baz Luhrmann’s film “Romeo & Juliet” is a
daring relocation into the feuding world of rival B-boys and hip-hop
street gangs. Street dance and video, three djs and the spoken word
of the MC/rapper make a magical mix in this radical reworking.
“We are seeing dance theater history being made.”
— Dance Magazine
Bob Emmott
Legends of Hip Hop
Bob Emmott
An all star cast is featured in this explosive non-stop work. This concert features
the works of the Electric Boogaloos, Don Campbell, Crazy Legs, Boogaloo Sam; and
other innovators of the funkstyle/hip-hop movement. As an off-shoot of the Illadelph
Legends of Hip- Hop Festival, the performances are accentuated with documented,
archival film footage and live narration-Creole style-that pushes the envelope of
educating all people about the culture of hip-hop. The next generation of dancers
compliment the hip-hop lore with their own tribute to the legends - “new school
style”- giving the audience a reason to dance in their seats.
Heaven
With a critical assessment of his own mid-career identity, enlarged and refracted, Harris’s newest evening
length work is based on Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and is designed as his largest and most intricate work
of his career. Crafted as a paraphrased interpretation of Stravinsky’s masterpiece, this newest choreographic
incorporates a fresh rethinking of how shared cultural vocabularies in dance and music dominate across
generations and cultural divides. Designed to tour nationally, this collaborative work envisioned through a
white backdrop utilizes Japanese narrative, motif and multimedia anime with innovative lighting instillation
design and live music. “Heaven” moves away from Harris’ usual male dominated ensemble and features 15
women (b-girls) interwoven with 4 men (b-boys) who continue to reflect on the emergence and popularization
of the hip-hop dance form which underlie the work’s evolution and continued status of RHPM as the one of
the world’s most important dance companies.
100 Naked Locks
Is a regionally and nationally significant new work that deconstructs the hip-hop dance movement
considered, by many, as the very first dance form developed under the heading of “hip-hop dance”. Harris
utilizes kinesthetic innovative sets of movement dynamics through the use of the individualism, texture, and
physicality of “locking.” This choreographic work addresses the hip-hop dance movement created in the late
60’s early 70’s by dancer Don Campbell called “locking”. It also addresses the caustic contrast of how hiphop movement is often used in ways that can only be deemed as “stereotypical” behavior through negative
portrayals/perceptions of blacks in entertainment. Through “100 Naked Locks” Harris addresses an often
painful time in American pop culture and presents audiences with varying depictions of cultural figures,
families, and lifestyles. Both a politically and socially significant addition to RHPM’s current repertory works
roster.
Rennie Harris Puremovement is guided by an artistic moral philosophy that every individual is a creative
reservoir waiting to be tapped. Training is merely a tool for enhancing the individual’s ability and for
binding individuals to work together “en masse”. In workshops, he has developed an approach that
makes this style accessible to others.
HIP-HOP MASTERCLASS:
In studio classes include exercises to
develop muscle strength, flexibility
and stamina. The basic movement
and techniques are defined,
practiced, and developed into
combinations. Hip-Hop styles are
explored as sources for inspiration
and vocabulary for choreography.
In addition, the movement is
technically tied to complex and often
driving rhythms. As such hip-hop
is challenging, invigorating, and
uplifting.
“HISTORY OF HIP-HOP”
LECTURE/DEMONSTRATION:
Moderated by senior members of
the company, this lecture introduces
audiences to personalities who
influenced or invented various
techniques or styles that have
contributed to the hip-hop dance
culture. More importantly, this
lecture/demonstration illustrates
how hip-hop has its roots in African
tradition and culture through out
the diaspora– including African
American, Afro-Brazilian, AfroCuban and Puerto Rican cultures
from the early sixties throughout
today.
“…The patterns and the dancers’ physical control
were stunning.” — The New York Times
Photos by William Herbert
CONTACT US
“Harris has become the Basquiat of the US contemporary
dance scene.” — The Sunday Times, London
Rennie Harris Puremovement
Centre Square Building
1500 Market Street
12th Floor East Tower
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-665-5718 - office
215-689-2727 – fax
website: www.rhpm.org
Tour Representation & Booking
Global Talent Associates
Empire State Building
350 Fifth Ave #6719
NY NY 10118
212-921-8500
http://www.globaltalentassoc.com
Bob Emmott
Funding provided by:
Ford Foundation
William Penn Foundation
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
Dance Advance
National Dance Project
Arts International
Altria Group
National Endowment for the Arts
Map Fund
Creative Capital
Independence Foundation
Samuel Fels Foundation
Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour
www.rhpm.org
designed by Claudia Cappelli
[email protected]
Robert Day