US Hip Hop Meets Rio Funk
Solar Meninos de Luz welcomed Brian “Footwork” Green, a teacher, choreographer and dancer at the Hip Hop Loves Foundation, which helps social projects through workshops about Hip Hop culture. The visit took place on the morning of Monday, the 23rd of January. He came from the United States to Brazil to teach a master class about Hip Hop and its variations at Espaço Triartis, in Botafogo, and took the opportunity to participate in a Solar workshop with H2BK.
When he found out about H2BK, the Hip Hop workshop that high school student Ronaldo Marinho has held at Solar since November 2011, Brian was impressed and wanted to see the place where this dance style is taught and practiced by such young and talented people.
More than twenty people, among Hip Hop students and teachers at Solar, residents of the community and members of Triartis, took part in the class. During the workshop, Brian and the Solar Hip Hop teacher, Danilo D’Alma, taught unique and complex sequences and steps, which can be a base for or complement any Hip Hop, House, Break, or Krump choreographies, or other styles. “You dance with the heart. Keep it up, with joy and creativity. We love what we do!” Brian told those present.
Teacher Danilo D’Alma was very happy about Brian’s meeting with the young people from Solar and the community. “Brian Footwork Green is one of the most respected people in this environment, he is an inspiration. He’s a religious guy and spreads peace around the world through dance,” he said. According to Danilo, he made a point of coming because of the children.
The Solar students came to the workshop and were thrilled with the precision of Brian’s movements. “He is a great dancer, an example. He has also lived in a place like ours and was able to succeed through dance,” said Ronaldo Marinho.
“Brian has been tap-dancing since he was a kid. His teacher taught him to copy the sounds of instruments with his body and he did that day and night. Nowadays, he assimilates the beats of House, tap-dancing, Popping etc and transmits all of it with his body. That’s really difficult. I found it spectacular!” declared Lucas Alves, Solar student and HWBK member.
All the young people who took part in the Hip Hop workshop and also in Ronaldo’s project are in love with this form of physical expression and value all the opportunities linked to this art. At the end, Brian said “Now I’m the student”, and the young people taught him Hip Hop and Funk steps, closing the meeting in style!
See the video on youtube: http://youtu.be/g2mJ2coUNpc
