Dance Convo: Women in Hip-Hop

Friday MAY 21, 2021

5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST

Saturday May 22 8:00am in Manila, the Philippines 

REAL TALK. Join us for a public conversation and gathering featuring a stellar mix of international and local guest speakers discussing their support of women dance artists in Hip-Hop and how they created different platforms to share their work. 

Co-hosted by Vancouver Street Dance Festival 

curated by Dr. Jane Gabriels with support from Char Loro and Roselle Pineda

Moderated by Kathleen Adams, co-founder of Momma's Hip-Hop Kitchen (The Bronx, NY)

article: https://www.createastir.ca/articles/women-in-hip-hop-made-in-bc

Speakers:

Michele Byrd-McPhee, Executive Director

Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival  (NYC) 

Natasha Gorrie 

Diamonds in the Rough (Vancouver)

Alex Spicey Landé

Alex established and ran Bust a Move Festival (2005-2015), a major street dance event, and then she began her own dance company, Ebnflōh  (Montréal)

Mycs Villoso 

Street Styles Summit, the biggest gathering of hip-hop dance in the Philippines.

ARTIST BIOS

Kathleen Adams is an activist, feminist, producer, and entrepreneur. Kathleen is the co-founder of Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen: The Soup Kitchen for the Hip Hop Soul (MHHK), a multifaceted hip hop event designed to showcase women artists, especially women of color. MHHK serves as a social justice community-organizing platform that educates and empowers women of color on issues that impact their lives, including HIV/AIDS and reproductive justice.

Kathleen was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio before moving to New York City over 15 years ago. Kathleen is proud of her Midwest upbringing where she honed her impeccable work ethic by watching the elder in her family. Kathleen’s family motto is “TCB”—Take Care of Business, and Kathleen tries to uphold this motto daily through giving back to the community and by working hard.

Kathleen double majored in women’s studies and urban studies with a concentration in architecture and a minor in environmental policy from Fordham University. She also received her Master’s in Urban Studies from Fordham University.

You can find Kathleen wearing many hats, from her impact on the advertising world through her work with strategic planning with global ad agencies (Hill Holliday Health) to co-owning Angel of Harlem, to volunteering in the community with The New York Junior League. Additionally, Kathleen serves as the co-chair of the steering committees for Apollo Young Patrons (The Apollo Theater), and the Harlem School of the Arts Associate Board

Michele Byrd-McPhee: Michele Byrd-McPhee is the founder and Executive Director of Ladies of Hip-Hop. A street dance activist, Michele has been working for many years to re-contextualize spaces and conversation of Hip-Hop culture along gender, sex, cultural and socio-historical and racial lines, along with situating the arts and dance techniques in spaces that honor and acknowledge their roots and the many creative pioneers who have shaped them. This is especially important given the ways in which Black dance (and Hip-Hop especially) has been co-opted into studio appropriation given its community cultural origins.

Michele recently wrapped 16-years of self-producing Ladies of Hip-Hop's annual festival. It is now in (3) cities across the globe and growing: LOHH Los Angeles, LOHH Toronto and the week-long festival in New York City. LOHH LA and LOHH TO are both done in partnership with other female organizers. Michele earned her BS from Temple University & an MS in Nonprofit Arts Management from Drexel University. Michele also worked many years in TV and arts production, working as a production coordinator at Brooklyn Academy of Music and then as a Senior Music Coordinator at Late Night with Seth Meyers. Michele currently serves as a Bessie Award Committee Member along with her ongoing commitment as Executive Director for Ladies of Hip-Hop. Michele has been awarded an Integrated Arts Residency Fellowship grant through University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of the arts and is currently teaching her course: Hip-Hop, Women and the World.

Natasha Gorrie: Natasha is the founder of Diamonds in the Rough crew . Natasha has grown up in the Vancouver hip hop dance scene since a young age. Her first brush with hip hop dance was when her mother taught her how to do the running man in the living room of their home. Natasha’s mother was a self-taught freestyle dancer, with a huge passion for new jack swing. Natasha loves to freestyle and share with her community. She is passionate about traveling and broadening her vocabulary in dance. Dance has given Natasha the chance to travel, teach , perform and live all over the world such as India, Nederland, China, USA and so on. Natasha is the Founder & Director of Higher Ground Dance Company. This company is training based focusing on freestyle in Hip Hop, popping, breaking & locking. Together as a company they go to battles to put that training into action. While being in the freestyle world Natasha also has her hands in the industry world. Recently choreographer for Macy’s back to school commercial, choreographer for CFL’s new Hype Team for the BC Lions as well as the NHL Canucks.

Alex ‘Spicey’ Landé: A leading figure in the Quebec hip-hop scene, Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé has over 20 years of experience, including 10 as a choreographer. She founded, among others, the Bust a Move Festival (2005-2015), a major street dance event in Canada. With her company Ebnflōh, her symbiotic relationship with hip-hop culture becomes the very essence of her artistic signature. She began her choreographic career in 2008 with the presentation of Retrospek at the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), a pioneering work with 9 dancers, that was awarded with the RIDEAU-Entrées en scène Loto Québec in 2009 and presented in 20 venues in Quebec between 2008 and 2010. In 2010, she created her second full-length work, Renézance, presented by Tangente and on several occasions in Montreal. In 2011, she was hired to coach urban dance to the performers of the show Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour by the Cirque du Soleil and appeared in the Radio Canada TV show Ils dansent with Nico Archambault. She taught at the École Nationale de Cirque de Montréal. During that time, she founded the Bust a Move Festival (2005-2015) in Montreal, co-presented by the TOHU, which grew to become the largest street dance competition in Canada. A four-day event, Bust a Move’s annual draw exceeded 2,500 visitors and 300 dancers ages 16-40 years old, with judges from Europe, the United States and all over the world. This event has been a major influence for the emerging generation of dancers. Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé founded the dance company Ebnflōh in 2015, developing a choreographic language inspired by the origins and the current evolution of hip-hop. She presented the company’s first creation at the MAI in 2015, Complexe R, followed in 2019 by In-Ward, a work for 6 performers, created with the support of several major partners (CCOV, Danse Danse, Agora de la Danse, etc.), that premiered at the MAI gallery, January 2019. For this work, Alexandra 'Spicey Landé'/ Ebnflōh" was awarded le "Prix Découverte" au Prix de la danse de Montréal 2019.

Mycs Villoso

A practitioner and teacher, Mycs Villoso is the proponent and director of The Hip-Hop Dance Convention (2016 and 2017), the largest gathering of hip-hop dance in the Philippines, which brings together practitioners from all over the country to converse and practice. As the Artistic Director for more than 15 years of La Salle Dance Company-Street of De La Salle University, Mycs has directed multiple productions, choreographed for competitions, mentored dance teachers and represented the country. Committed to following the progress of the Hip-Hop Dance Convention, Mycs is presently collaborating with different dance community leaders in different islands of the Philippines for community projects, promoting dance education and continued relationship-building towards a stronger dance community. She co-produced Street Styles Summit in Iloilo City (2019 and 2020) to shift the focus of major dance events towards other islands in the country. During this pandemic, Mycs co-created AcadeMycs with the purpose of re-evaluating the state of dance teaching in the Philippines. Mycs is based in Manila.

VANCOUVER STREET DANCE FESTIVAL

For nine consecutive years, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting the Vancouver Street Dance Festival (VSDF), a free outdoor event that celebrates and highlights the city’s diverse street dance culture. Our festival offers the general public a chance to experience street dance firsthand in a way that is entertaining, educational, and interactive for youth and adults alike. Our festival takes place in the heart of downtown (Robson Square) during the busiest long weekend of the summer, and is attended by over 10,000 people each year, including international artists who fly to our city specifically for VSDF.

We have grown to be the largest outdoor street dance festival in the Pacific Northwest through the strength of our programming and a strong organizing team. Our festival incorporates key elements from street dance culture including dance performances, interactive workshops, vendors from our community, a diverse line-up of DJ’s, live music and of course dance battles in six different styles.