Rennie Harris PureMovement @ Cain Park
Don’t Call it a “Breakdance”
Rennie Harris was just a kid in “4th or 5th grade” when he first saw the Campbell Lockers on TV and was inspired to work on Hip-Hop performances of his own. “We entered a church talent show and won it,” Harris recalls. “I had on green pin-striped pants with colored suspenders, white gloves and a bow tie. I thought I was hot shit.”
From winning talent shows Harris went on to found and lead a series of Hip-Hop and b-boy ensembles in his native North Philadelphia including Step Masters and Scanner Boys until in 1992 he disbanded Scanner Boys to form Rennie Harris PureMovement, which performed and toured on a much higher level. (See current promo reel here.)
Cleveland dance audiences may remember some of RHPM’s performances in Cleveland, some notable for their spectacular acrobatics and some that looked back to Legends of Hip-Hop. (Click here.) Others may recall Harris’ take on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Rome and Jewels, which played here in February of 2002. A deeply felt, intricately wrought meditation on urban violence, Rome and Jewels has toured nationally and internationally and won three Bessie Awards, two Black Theater Alvin Ailey Awards, a Herb Alpert Award and a nomination for a Lawrence Olivier Award (UK).
So, what will RHPM bring to Cain Park on Friday? To find out, we interviewed Company Manager Rodney Hill, mostly remembering to avoid the term “breakdance,” which Harris and company consider a “misnomer.”
CoolCleveland: What about the future of Hip-Hop?
Rodney Hill: Hip-hop will always have a future because Hip-Hop changes every day. Hip-hop is a culture, a community, and a style. Hip-hop is still a baby in that it’s continually growing.
What about b-boying? Will it continue to be a part of Hip-Hop or is b-boying a relic?
There was a time in the late ’80s and early ’90s when people weren’t b-boying as much, but that was when people in Europe were starting to hire a lot of the legendary b-boys — Crazy Legs, Kwikstep, and Pop Master Fabel, to name a few. (See Kwikstep and Pop Master Fabel on YouTube.) They started to lecture, choreograph, and teach in Europe, and what I saw happening then was that energy coming back to the US and in the late ’90s we had a resurgence of interest, huge battles with corporate sponsorship on both sides of the Atlantic. This was before So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew. And that interest continues today. There’s probably a battle going on right now as we speak.
Meanwhile, a person known as Dr. Rennie Harris started PureMovement. Touring here and abroad he showed a lot of people how you can take Hip-Hop to another level as art, as concert dance. Now you see b-boys and b-girls dancing on marley.
Before Dr. Harris, b-boys and Hip-Hop dancers didn’t know anything about cues or hitting their mark. I was the same way at first, and everywhere I went, every time I looked up there was Rennie Harris PureMovement on a bigger billboard than the artist I was touring with.
Your PR materials include bios on 12 of your dancers, eight men and four women. Any of them you’d like to tell our readers about?
Crystal Frazier was an original company member and she’s still going strong. In addition to her dancing, she founded PureMovement Kids, training kids through our Illadelph Festival. (Hip-hop’s longest-running festival is in Miami this year, 7/31 – 8/7/11. Go to http://RHPM.org for more info.)
We see the program at Cain Park will include old and new repertory. Run it down for us, please.
For the Cain Park concert we start off with a new work by Dr. Harris, Something To Do With Love. It’s basically a suite that looks back at the social scene in North Philadelphia, especially old school social dances — the Pattie Duke, the Steve Martin, the Cabbage Patch, the Prep. People like the music for Something To Do With Love which includes music by Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone, among others.
We knew some of those dances. They will resonate with people. What’s next?
Next on the program is P-Funk with music by Parliament Funkadelik. P-Funk is always a killer. This piece has been in the company rep since the beginning and people love it because it recreates the social life of a neighborhood on the stage. In North Philadelphia where Dr. Harris grew up, you’d always see people sitting outside with their families having a good time. They’d be playing cards, shooting dice, and you’d see girls down the street jumping rope. And you’d also see people dancing, doing the social dances of the time.
What’s the story behind March of the Antmen (1992)?
Original music for March of the Antmen is by Dru Minyard, who returned home from military service to find that he was still in a war zone, that people in the urban community were endangered by guns, violence, gang culture, and drive-by shootings. The movement for March of the Antmen is slow-motion popping. The music is base and drums, nothing like what you hear on top 40 radio.
Our closing number at Cain Park will be Students of the Asphalt Jungle (1995), which pays homage to all of our African ancestors. Dr. Harris recently received a grant so that he could revive this piece and bring it back into our repertory.
What will be in the Kids Matinee?
That’s a Hip-Hop lecture demonstration where we run down the timeline. People will leave that with a new respect for Hip-Hop.
And make sure you tell people we’re on Facebook. Type in Rennie Harris PureMovement and you’re automatically accepted.
Rennie Harris PureMovement @ Cain Park Evans Amphitheater, 8PM on Fri 6/24/11. Advance $25 reserved, $20 lawn. Day of show $28, $23. Kids Matinee 1PM on Fri 6/24/11. $4 child. $7 adult. For tickets go to http://CainPark.com and click on tickets or phone 216-371-3000. [Photo by William Heberts.]
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.
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One Response to “Rennie Harris PureMovement @ Cain Park: Don’t Call it a “Breakdance””
Greg Bishop
B-boy and Hip-Hop dancers were hitting the mark before Dr. Harris. There were hip hop dance companies touring and traveling throughout the world, not just Dr. Harris. There were companies who put hip-hop in the theatre and did big things with it before Dr. Harris. The resurgence of interest was before the late 90s. Europeans were doing the big battles before the late 90s. Try early 90s. Summit, Rocksteady Crew Anniversary, Zulu were holding events and b-boys were holding it down. Speak the truth here!