Summer Break Hip-Hop Dance Intensive, Artifactory, Iowa City, Mon-Thu, Aug 12-15 at 9:30 a.m., $20-$250
As a Midwesterner, a unique point of pride is when the region attracts top-level artists and practitioners from around the world. When we get auteurs like David Lynch drawn to transcendental meditation in Fairfield, or a growing list of Writers’ Workshop alum who end up staying in Iowa City. Of particular note, to me, are the artists that are big in their respective fields, but might not be as well known to the general public. This could be the case with Joshua and Emily Culbreath. The two are are a dance power couple pursuing their MFA’s at The University of Iowa Department of Dance. The seemingly mild-mannered duo may slip past the general public but I can’t help but geek out over their hip-hop dance bona fides. The pair have close ties to Rennie Harris and his Puremovement Dance Company. Harris being one of the key figures in the ongoing integration of street-dance forms to the concert stage. As a B-boy, Joshua’s reputation precedes him, as he has appeared in top level Breaking competitions, the likes of which were used as templates for Breaking’s upcoming debut in the Paris Olympic games.
So when Emily and Josh, or Lady Em and Supa Josh as the dance world knows them, told me about a four-day dance intensive they are holding at the Artifactory, which happened to fall the week after the aforementioned Olympic Breaking debut, I used the synchronicity as one big opportunity to chat with the two.
Little Village spoke with Emily and Joshua Culbreath about their dance journey, what one can expect from a hip hop dance intensive and the complex stance Breakers can hold toward their dance form’s inclusion in the 2024 Olympic Games.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
First off, could you introduce yourselves and the various ways you hold space as dancers?
Joshua: I’m Joshua Culbreath, aka B-boy Supa Josh. I’ve been dancing for about 30 years now. My dance specialty will be Breaking. I have an affinity for House and other footwork, vernacular street dance forms like Detroit Jit, Chicago Footwork, Litefeet out of New York, and then just other, more classical forms, like jazz and tap. I am an Assistant Artistic Director of Rennie Harris Puremovement. I co-founded Retro Flow Crew out of Philadelphia and New Jersey. I’ve been a Red Bull Finalist for nationals several times. I am the co-founder of Snack Break Movement arts.
Emily: I’m Emily Culbreath, also known as Lady Em. I’m also a co-founder of Snack Break Movement Arts. I am the Rehearsal Director for Rennie Harris Puremovement. I participate mostly in Popping and House forms, but all of my movement is inspired by other forms as well, such as Locking, Breaking, Whacking, all these forms that I entered through performing for Rennie Harris. It was required of us to learn the foundations of all of these styles. I’ll just say a quick thing about Snack Break Movement Arts and its mission, which is, we founded it with the purpose of cultivating a creative space for street dance performance artists as well as redefine and refocus the lenses through which audiences consume street dance and street dance performance art.
It felt like I could yell stories from my bones. I could tell stories in a way that felt really good to me and it gave me an avenue to be creative through my movement in a way that classical forms didn’t.
Emily Culbreath
Speaking of that. How did you first get into dance? What started your journey to identifying as a dancer?
Emily: I grew up in the Midwest and I grew up in a, traditional is the wrong word, but like a typical studio. I did ballet five times a week. We did the Nutcracker. Then in college, I pursued my BFA at the University of Colorado, at Boulder, and that’s where I met Rennie Harris, who is a resident teaching artist for them every fall. And then another teacher, Larry Love, introduced me to funk styles, so—Popping and Locking.
I was really drawn to Popping as a form of expression, just because of the way it felt in my body. It felt like I could yell stories from my bones. I could tell stories in a way that felt really good to me and it gave me an avenue to be creative through my movement in a way that classical forms didn’t. Rennie showed me that, if I gave credit where credit was due, remained humble, remained a student and worked my ass off there could be a path to pursue movement artistry as a career and an ongoing practice. That really helped me understand myself and how dance culture is continually teaching me about, self, culture, identity and how to be a better person.
Josh: My first affinity with dance comes from my mother. She was a local dancer and rollerblader. I got into dance when I was around five. I used to love watching people like Michael Jackson and James Brown perform, and then like the Nicholas Brothers and stuff like that. Then I saw Breaking in Beat Street one night. It randomly came on the television. I woke up and jumped out of bed to see what was going on and try some of those cool moves that they were doing.
I was always an active kid. I did a lot of sports, so I was always pushing this competitive role. And dance was a new place for me, because Breaking always has this conversation. This big you—versus—somebody thing. But as I kept doing some more work, it wasn’t a you—versus—your opponent, it was you—versus—you.
It was a discovery of like, what you want to be moving forward and how it gets you past the social shackles that goes on in society. That’s why I gravitated towards it. It was more of rebellion over the norms that were going on, like redlining and where you went to school, what jobs you can get and pursue in academia.
Could you describe what brought you to Iowa City and your subsequent relationship with academia?
Emily: We were on tour with Rennie Harris Puremovement, doing his re-staging of his renowned work, Rome and Jewels. And we were lucky enough to work with the original RHPM company, which includes a man by the name of Duane Lee Holland Jr, amazing artist, amazing practitioner. He approached us while we were on tour, and he was like, “Hey, what do you guys think about getting your Master’s degree? Is that something that you’d be interested in?” That opportunity wasn’t presenting itself in Philadelphia. So we were like, let’s give it a shot. And then fast forward nine months later and we’re in Iowa. It’s interesting, I think we both have different ways of receiving and understanding our positionality in the Dance Department in Iowa and in the Iowa City community. To remain true to what we do, to ourselves as artists and build our own brand while trying to have integrity in other roles. It’s a lot. We’re learning a lot about ourselves. We’re learning a lot about our roles within all of these different responsibilities that are very important to us.
Josh: Growing up, I watched the impact of hip hop, but also realized that it’s still very, very misunderstood from multiple standpoints. There’s not a lot of people that know how to teach it or where to start. From a societal standpoint, nobody knows how to incorporate it. What’s the values? They just see it as, you know, moves from a rebellious group of kids that want to act out and not conform. Or it has something to do with violence and gang culture. It gets tied into so many different stereotypes. But what I’ve realized is, for the youth, it brings people together. It shows a community. When you watch it, it has this tribe-like feel to it. This very grassroots, folklore feel that comes from the people that inhabit it. So I thought that’s an aspect that schools need.
[Hip-hop dance] needs to be something that’s embedded into the curriculum of every school that has a dance program, because they’re going to utilize these movements at some point in time, and every form has a different way of teaching certain things, and they’re all needed.
Joshua Culbreath
One of my missions after high school was to ask, “How can we educate people on the values of hip hop? Hip hop as a subculture and then all the subcultures that live inside of hip hop, like Breaking, Popping and Locking.” Because there’s a lot more to it than just the history of how it was created, but it’s also every style has a subculture inside of it. So how can we touch on these smaller things? And it’s hard, because I feel as though a lot of places don’t understand that subculture part. They look at it as a whole, like, hip hop is hip hop. Most people only understand hip hop as rap music and what they see in music videos, not all the other cultural values that actually come with it.
But for me, I think it’s a space of self learning and self discovery and expression, the true meaning of freedom of expression. And that’s how I hope academia will play around with it. It needs to be something that’s embedded into the curriculum of every school that has a dance program, because they’re going to utilize these movements at some point in time, and every form has a different way of teaching certain things, and they’re all needed.
Emily: Something that Josh and I talk about a lot is this idea of contemporary and what it means to be contemporary, and from what we see in the performance art world and as professional touring artists, is that street dance culture, club dance culture, black vernacular dance permeates so much of contemporary dance now. And we’re seeing people do that on a spectrum that goes from responsible to less responsible, right? Even in the competition dance world as well. We’re viewing our role as people who can facilitate pathways to do that in a more responsible way, and ones that don’t serve to erase black culture and erase the integrity of these forms.
If someone is a complete beginner to hip-hop dance forms, what can they expect if they were to take an intensive like the one you’re holding next week?
Emily: So the intensive is four days long. We are teaching the foundations of four different kinds of vernacular dance, otherwise known as street dance. Josh is teaching Breaking. We’re both teaching house, which is a club dance. I’ll be teaching some anatomical foundations of Popping. And then both of us will be teaching hip-hop social dance from the 90s, the 80s and more current social dances. It’s important that we teach from a place of accessibility. So whether you are a seasoned mover or you’re brand new to movements of any kind, it’s important to us that you feel challenged, but also that things are fun and accessible, and that you’re learning in environments where different individuals can help each other build.
Was there thought on how one would progress through the intensive? The point of entry for something like Breaking can be so intimidating.
Josh: I always talk about Breaking as not being a beginner level dance style, I say that it starts off immediately. And most of the time you’re coming into Breaking with no other prior experience to any other hip-hop form. You’re not going to have the same technical powers or weight shifting ability that you might with another style. So we thought about putting Breaking and Popping closer towards the end because of how much focus every movement takes, and everything becomes more like drills. So then you can make informed decisions as we move along, and hopefully, by the end of the week, you feel more capable of attempting some stuff, versus being like, “Well, I’ve never done a handstand.” I don’t want to start off the class doing a handstand, but maybe we’ll do a push up. You can do a push up. You can do a plank. It’s more getting your body familiar with these things, a lot of different weight distributions and stuff like that. So we love putting stuff like Breaking and Popping towards the end, and more hip hop/social dance forms to get your body ready and ramped up for these more physically demanding and mentally focused categories of dance.
Shifting gears, I can’t help but ask about Breaking being in the Olympics for the first time this summer. For those on the outside, they might assume Breakers think it’s a total plus but there’s been lots of discourse in the community. What are your thoughts?
Josh: I’m excited because I looked at Breaking when I was younger, like, “Oh my God. This is amazing. These people are superheroes to me.” I’m a self taught gymnast, in a way, so I understood the dedication it takes to do gymnastics and stuff like that. So I thought at a young age, “One day, maybe one day. It gives me Floor Competition vibes, one day.” But also from a cultural and business standpoint, I’m not fully [onboard] yet. I’m excited. I’m extremely excited. It’s going to have new faces, kids that have never seen it, or only know it from a very specific standpoint, seeing it on this big stage.
So now that you’re talking about any kid who can hire a coach and spend thousands of dollars will now be considered the best in the world … It starts to come down to a place of class, race and marketability. And this cyclical exploitation of black culture.
Joshua Culbreath
There’s the positives and negatives, Breaking as a culture and subculture of hip hop still has a long way to go as an art form. The Olympics is a great platform, but with that comes other avenues of exploitation. Breaking doesn’t play by the same rules as everything else. So I can see how some people don’t like it being in the Olympics, from both sides. Now you have to talk about it vastly differently than just culture. In the Olympics culture doesn’t matter.
Everybody loved when skateboarding got in, but they already had their infrastructure sound. Just the way in which society views Breaking and how we identify who is a good breaker. With the Olympics, it redefines what we believe this to be, which does push it more in a sports element versus a dance element. Dance is freedom of expression. It was meant to be a push-back, a rebellion of resources and stuff like that. So now that you’re talking about any kid who can hire a coach and spend thousands of dollars will now be considered the best in the world, then we’re now back into creating another underground scene that’s going to be another subculture. It starts to come down to a place of class, race and marketability. And this cyclical exploitation of black culture.
It’s kind of like how we talk about the fashion industry, everything goes around in a circle. What’s here today, maybe going tomorrow. So Breaking is popular right now. We saw this happen in the 80s, and then the media got to it, and then it disappeared and went underground, came back right before the 2000s hit, and we had, You Got Served, Step Up. Then Red Bull got attached to it. Then other people started investing more money into it. It’s become more corporate. We watched the stages get bigger, but not so much the people in the communities get richer. I’m hoping that the people who are behind it, run it correctly, so it’s prosperous for not just the people who are participating, but the lives that are involved in hip hop as a culture, not just in Breaking.
With such a large platform there will be so many people new to this dance tuning in to watch. Do you have any advice for those people unfamiliar with Breaking? Any insights for things they could keep in mind while watching?
Josh: First understand that the dance consists of power, top rock, footwork, individuality. And to parents to think about back in the time when you first saw it, maybe in the streets with cardboard boxes. Then look at where it’s at now, and the evolution of where it’s come to now. So you’ll have a better respect for it and the physical abilities that these people have. To just notice that it grew. You can have a little back and forth with your kids, “Oh, you know, when mommy and daddy was growing up we used to see people doing this on cardboard on the side of the road.” So it gives you a connection to it, of where it used to be. And if (the commentators) are not going to give you a constant history lesson, then the best thing you can do is remember that point in time when you first got introduced to it, and try to make that connection with the youth that’s in the room. Because it’s not so much for the adults, it’s for the kids. It’s always going to be for the kids. It was always made by poor kids. These kids just grew up to be bigger kids. You gotta put yourself back into that place until you actually know what’s behind it.
Emily: Breaking is a language. It’s a movement language born of a specific people at a specific time. So when you learn a language, first you start with the letters, then you start with the conjugations and the syllables, then you learn the entire word, then you learn sentences, then you learn how to speak to someone. Then once that becomes comfortable, you start to get more creative with your language. Then maybe you can start to create poetry. Then maybe you start comparing your poetry to somebody else’s. So there are levels to this thing. Find yourself on the spectrum of understanding Breaking as a movement language. Where are you, and then how do you view it according to where you are at.
Josh: Also understand that for some people, this is their way of expressing something that they can’t express in regular life. There’s, sometimes, a lot of trauma with dancers. This is their safe haven. It’s a safe haven, but it’s also a reflection of what’s going on in that person’s personal life. I talk about it as a place of self discovery. It’s a constant place of self discovery, but you have to do all the inward work to express it outwardly. I think everybody should tune in. Watch, have fun. I’m watching. But just remember, like Emily said, there’s levels to it, and to come at it from the level you’re at. Enjoy what you’re looking at, because tomorrow it might be people in flying saucers doing this [laughs].
