The international hip-hop dance and culture festival Urban Essentials will take place in Vilnius on 11–15 November. The five-day programme features street and club dance performances, dance battles, a symposium, and workshops led by international dancers and choreographers. The festival invites audiences to discover hip-hop not only as a dance practice, but also as a distinctive form of creativity, community and cultural expression.
Street Dance and Hip-Hop Culture as Safe Spaces
Laurynas Žakevičius, festival organiser and co-founder of Vilnius City Dance Theatre Low Air, recalls how the idea for the festival first emerged:
“The idea of organising the Urban Essentials festival came about in 2012, when I was working at the Special Education and Psychology Centre. At the time, I increasingly found myself asking what the most effective form of prevention really was. How could we approach it not through problems, risks or restrictions, but through positive, proactive activities?
Hip-hop culture, which itself emerged in challenging social circumstances, was a living example for me of how a community can naturally create a safer environment, becoming a space for self-expression, collaboration and discovering the world. For many young people, it can even become a kind of lifeline.
That is what inspired the idea of creating a street dance festival where prevention would not be a separate programme. The festival itself, its activities, encounters and community connections could serve as a form of prevention. We wanted not only to bring together people from different dance styles, schools and countries, giving them opportunities to connect, create, compete and grow, but also to show the wider public the value these communities bring.
Street dance and hip-hop culture are much more than entertainment or a leisure activity. They are environments in which people develop their relationship with themselves, with others and with the world around them.”
„Urban Essentials“ 2025, Dmitrij Matvejev
Street Dance Takes to the Theatre Stage
For the second year running, Urban Essentials is presenting international street and club dance performances as part of its programme. This year, audiences can look forward to four works across three performance evenings.
Festival organiser and Low Air co-founder Airida Gudaitė explains:
“We grew up in street dance battles and community circles ourselves, but we felt that one minute on the battle floor was not always enough to express everything we wanted to say through movement. Naturally, we began exploring other forms of expression, and theatre became a space where street dance could reveal itself in new ways, through personal questions, artistic exploration and broader reflection.
Street dance does not end with battles, but at the same time, it is important to remember that its artistic value does not begin only when it reaches the theatre stage.
I think we are still learning how to look at street dance, understand its artistic language and recognise its different creative strategies. We do not necessarily have to evaluate it according to the conventions established by contemporary dance. Urban dance has its own history, aesthetics and principles of artistic expression, and its conceptual depth does not always lie in narrative or symbolism. Sometimes it emerges through movement technique itself, mastery, the relationship with music or the energy of the body.
In a dance culture that has grown out of battles, communities and freedom of expression, virtuosity can be more than a technical achievement. It can be an artistic statement, a declaration of identity or a form of resistance.
That is why, for us, the aim is not so much to transfer street dance into the theatre as to open up more spaces for its distinctive artistic language to unfold, develop and be understood, without losing touch with its roots.”
Spektaklis LOOP, Siegrid Cain nuotrauka
On 11 November, the festival opens with a double bill. Italian waacking star Suzanne Degennaro presents LIMBO, a personal solo work exploring what it means to exist “in between”, the search for identity and liberation. Meanwhile, Emma Houston (UK), in WHERE IS THE LINE?, explores inner contradictions and the freedom to choose neither side.
On 12 November, Austrian company Potpourri Dance presents LOOP, in which four house dancers explore collective movement, rhythm and human connection. The work is choreographed by Olivia Mitterhuemer, co-founder of the international Flavourama festival.
The festival closes on 15 November with GROOVE, a performance by Germany-based choreographer Jonas Frey exploring our relationship with music, individual movement rhythms and the innate human desire to dance.
Urban Dance as a Space for Relationships and Exchange
On 12 November, the festival moves from dance floors and battle circles into an academic setting: the Balcony Theatre at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA). It will host the symposium Urban Dance Practices: Encounters and Transformations.
“The symposium is an equally important part of the festival. In hip-hop culture, knowledge is considered the fifth element, yet sometimes it feels as though our community lacks space for precisely that: knowledge, deeper conversations and critical reflection. That is why we are deliberately stepping into the academic environment of LMTA, seeking to create a dialogue between street dancers, artists and researchers.
It is not always an easy encounter. Different communities do not necessarily speak the same language or ask the same questions. But that is exactly why I believe this dialogue matters. We want to talk not only about how we dance, but also ask why we dance, what kind of world we do it in and what values we communicate through our movement.
Does hip-hop still retain its critical voice today? Are we able not only to represent the culture, but also to question it, nurture it and create together?” says symposium curator Airida Gudaitė.
The symposium will be held in English. Dancers, choreographers, educators, researchers and anyone interested in urban dance culture are welcome to attend. Registration is available here.
Hip hop simpoziumas 2025, Tito Falkausko nuotrauka
From Hip-Hop to Funk Styles
Urban Essentials will also bring together an international dance community. On 13–14 November, participants will compete in dance battles across four styles: Hip-Hop, Breaking, House and Funk Styles (Waacking, Popping and Locking). A €4,000 prize pool and gifts from festival partners await the winners. Registration is open until 12 November.
Festival guests Suzanne Degennaro, Farah Deen, Olivia Mitterhuemer, Sounsy and Shortbread will also lead workshops at the Low Air Dance School, covering House, Waacking, Breaking and Hip-Hop.
„Urban Essentials“ 2025, Manto Repečkos nuotrauka
Events will take place at Lukiškės Prison 2.0, the Balcony Theatre of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Low Air Dance School and Menų spaustuvė.
Full festival programme: www.urbanessentials.lt
Tickets are available through Bilietai.lt.
The festival programme is partially funded by Vilnius City Municipality, the Lithuanian Council for Culture, the French Institute in Lithuania, the Embassy of Austria in Lithuania and Brite. Media partners: LRT and 370 magazine.