Hip-Hop dance and the Institution:
Who Shapes its Future?

Rossana Di Vincenzo

Since its arrival in France in the 1980s, the hip-hop movement has largely developed on the fringes of cultural institutions. Today, as an integral part of popular culture and contemporary arts, hip-hop dance is attracting an ever-growing number of practitioners. Practices that were once transmitted informally are becoming increasingly structured, reshaping the trajectories of dancers. In this context, how do teachers navigate the tension between the desire for recognition and the fear of mainstream appropriation?

“Hip-hop is this highly adaptable culture that manages to slip in and make itself indispensable everywhere. Looking back at the 2024 Olympic Games, I’m glad to have seen so much hip-hop, both in the competitions and the intermission shows, with so many different styles and genres represented. If you take the opening ceremony and remove the dance, what’s left?”

When asked about the importance of hip-hop dance in the French cultural landscape, Bouzid Aït Atmane, choreographer and co-director at the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) of Rennes and Brittany, alongside Saïdo Lehlouh, Iffra Dia, and Linda Hayford, all members of the FAIR-E Collective, does not hide his enthusiasm. At 38, this locker who discovered dance through American rap videos in the 1990s admits that urban dance has never been as popular as it is now, in 2025. But where do these dancers come from? What training do they have? And above all, how do they find their place in an environment that remains very academic?

Born on the sidewalks of the Bronx in the 1970s, hip-hop and the various dance forms that stem from it arrived in France in the early 1980s, where they were long relegated to “informal spaces.” The wasteland in La Chapelle, the canopy at Les Halles, the forecourt at La Défense, the Globo nightclub, and the MJC at Grange aux Belles are just a few of the historic spots in the Paris region where, for more than thirty years, breakers and other fans of street dances (new style, locking, popping, waacking, etc.) had to be resourceful in order to practice and refine their style. During that time, hip-hop dance remained confined to municipal social budgets and was completely absent from conservatory curricula.

Practitioners were self-taught, or trained under the guidance of a mentor or crew—a model that is no longer the norm today. Today, hip-hop dance is present almost everywhere in France: with classes offered in nearly all of the country’s 36,000 municipalities; three of the nineteen CCNs directed by artists from the same scene (Collectif FAIR-E in Rennes, Moncef Zebiri and Le Block in Rillieux-la-Pape, and Fouad Boussouf at Le Phare in Le Havre); and seven specialized professional training programs (Adage and Rêvolution in Bordeaux, La Manufacture in Aurillac, Impact School Danse Urbaine in Châlon-sur-Saône, Epsedanse in Montpellier, Juste Debout School and Kim Kan in Paris). On top of this, dedicated curricula within the Ministries of National Education and Culture—through the Resource Centers for Artistic and Cultural Education—have helped hip-hop dance firmly establish itself over the past fifteen years.

As training becomes increasingly institutionalized, teachers strive to pass on the founding values and history of the movement, while emphasizing the importance of practitioners’ own experiences, explains Iffra Dia, 57, a pioneering dancer, former member of the Black Blanc Beur company, and member of the collective FAIR-E. “In ballet or jazz, the teaching I experienced at the beginning was very academic. It left little room for individuality. It’s a different pedagogical model: the teacher passes on their technique and that’s it. In hip-hop, the emphasis is on sharing, peer-to-peer transmission, and a family spirit. Being part of a group is very important.”

Whether in masterclasses or workshops as part of arts and cultural educational programs, Dia, like many of his peers, prioritizes “the uniqueness of each student” as a way to help them “really get into it.” “These values are inherent to the practice: respect, empathy, kindness, a sense of commitment and initiative; fostering cooperation, transmission, physical expression, self-esteem, and respect for others. Our aim is to develop each person’s creative potential by building a language that begins with each student and extends beyond the technical field.”

Originating from diverse social backgrounds, countries and training paths (informal, academic, or hybrid), this new generation of hip-hop dancers trained in France embodies a culture that is now everywhere: music, dance, cinema, television, and streaming series. They are asserting their style, in institutional settings—companies, conservatories, theaters, schools—and in more underground circles, such as training sessions, circles, parties, jams, and shows. Whereas battles were a rite of passage in one’s career thirty years ago, today’s artists pursue multifaceted careers, as noted by Philippe “Physs” Almeida, a renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher and co-founder of the “Passeur Culturel en danses urbaines” (Cultural Mediator in Urban Dance) program alongside Camille Thomas at the Cergy Dance Training Center: “A cultural mediator is at once a competitor, a choreographer, an organizer, a big brother or big sister, and a lover of this culture. It is this openness that we offer our trainees.”

Despite unprecedented popularity and a growing number of practitioners, everyone agrees that the relationship with the institution remains complex. The need for structure and appropriation (as demonstrated by the controversies surrounding the state diploma and the inclusion of breakdancing in the Paris Olympics), teaching, training, retraining: many questions still surround the recognition of hip-hop dance as an art form in its own right.

“Dance is one of the arts that receives the least amount of consideration from institutions: there are 19 National Choreographic Centers (CCNs), which is great, but that’s half as many as there are for theater. And in this context, mistrust of hip-hop persists. We still lack the means to show what dance can do in terms of utility, interest, and as a vehicle for passion, mental health, and empowerment. With FAIR-E, our goal is to promote these marginalized dances. We prefer to speak of a culture that is invisibilized within the institution. At least this formulation raises very clear questions and opens a dialogue,” says Aït Atmane.

Almeida goes even further: “There is a real need for structure in France, because resourcefulness has always been part of our landscape. Today, this institutional interest is akin to a kind of appropriation for some in the community. We must not impose things from above, but rather adapt to what already exists. And it is up to us, the actors in our community, to do so. We have to showcase our skills, our knowledge, and our way of life.”

Rossana Di Vincenzo is a freelance journalist and critic who writes about humor and hip-hop dance, she works for Télérama among others.

International Conference: a/c/knowledge: Hip-hop dances as fields of research and intervention 
From 4 to 6 December 
at La Villette 

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