The international hip-hop culture and dance festival Urban Essentials begins today. The festival will open with HIT 7AYT (That’s Why the Wall) by Moroccan company Cie Chara, choreographed by Frieda Frost, a breaking judge at the Paris Olympic Games, and Yassine Alaoui Ismaili. Running until Sunday, this vibrant celebration of hip-hop culture invites dance lovers and cultural enthusiasts to come together and take part in dance battles, workshops, a symposium and dance performances by artists from Morocco, France and Spain.
Renowned international names among the dance battle judges
The festival will welcome a large number of guests from around the world. Kimbo from Italy, Lindsay and Jikay from France will travel to Lithuania to judge the dance battles. They will be joined by world-renowned dancer Poe One and Lithuanian representative Eugenius BB. On November 14–15, the judges will evaluate dancers competing in hip-hop, breaking, house and funk styles. Dancers will compete for a €4,000 prize fund, as well as numerous gifts from festival partners.
Also arriving in Vilnius are audience favourites DJ Renegade from the United Kingdom, DJ Lucas Benjamin from the Netherlands, DJ Plash from Poland, two-time Emmy Award winner Toki Wright from the United States, MC Beep and others.
Urban dance aesthetics on stage
This year, Urban Essentials presents hip-hop theatre and dance performances from Morocco, France and Spain, bringing together elements of street dance battles with artistic expression and form, concepts and context.
The festival will open with Moroccan company Cie Chara’s performance HIT 7AYT (That’s Why the Wall), inviting audiences to discover an embodied vision of contemporary Casablanca. On November 13, audiences can experience an evening featuring two performances. Cie Chara will present SELAM, a work combining elements of urban dance with Moroccan culture. The same evening, French company AS Compagnie will perform QUATRE TROIS – the first professional stage work in Lithuania dedicated to the locking style.
Urban Essentials will close on November 16 with Marina Pravkina’s performance The Grooves Experience, inviting audiences into a collective experience – a house dance and music party exploring club culture as a contemporary ritual.
Hip-hop as a multicultural and diverse culture
On November 13, the symposium Crossfade: From Knowledge to Creation in Hip-Hop Studies will take place at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) campus, inviting participants to deepen their understanding of hip-hop as a multicultural and diverse form of movement expression. Speakers will include Jonzi D, associate artist at London’s Sadler’s Wells and director of Breakin’ Convention; Toki Wright, two-time Emmy Award winner and Head of the Professional Music Division at Berklee College of Music in Boston; and DJ Lucas Benjamin from the Netherlands.
The event will be moderated by Airida Gudaitė and Laurynas Žakevičius, co-founders of Vilnius City Dance Theatre Low Air. The event is free of charge and will be held in English.
The festival is organised by Vilnius City Dance Theatre Low Air.
The festival programme is partially funded by the Vilnius City Municipality, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Embassies of Germany and Spain, and the British Council. The information partner is LRT Plius.