Home > Faculty > Hip-Hop > Rennie
Harris
Rennie Harris
(Artistic Director, Choreographer and Director) is well versed in the vernacular
of hip-hop which includes the various techniques of B-boy (misnomer "break
dancing"), house dancing, stepping and other styles that have emerged spontaneously
from the urban, inner cities of America like the North Philadelphia community
in which he was raised. He has brought these "social" dances to the "concert" stage,
creating a cohesive dance style that finds a cogent voice in the theater. He
is a powerful spokesperson for the significance of "street" origins
in any dance style. Intrigued by the universality of hip-hop, he seeks inspiration
from other forms and performance art.
Since the age of 15, he has taught workshops
and classes at many schools and universities including University of the
Arts, UCLA, Columbia College and Bates College. He is a
1996 recipient of the Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography
and has received awards from the Pennsylvania Council on
the Arts, a Pew Repertory Development Initiative grant, the
City of Philadelphia Cultural Fund and 1996 Philadelphia
Dance Projects commission. Harris was voted one of the most
influential people in the last one hundred years of Philadelphia
history and has been compared to twentieth-century dance
legend Alvin Ailey and Bob Fosse. He was also nominated for
the Laurence Olivier Award and has been recently awarded
the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. His group of dancers and
their infectious brand of movement have toured around the
globe. At 40, Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris
is atop the hip-hop heap - its leading ambassador. |
