The Experience
A Rennie Harris Puremovement performance is guaranteed to take your breath away. The dancers (mostly men) burn up the stage with upside-down head spins, skidding shoulder stands and their skilled vernacular of hip-hop, which includes various techniques of B-boy, house dancing, stepping and other styles that have emerged from the urban and inner city.
Rennie Harris’ large vision of hip-hop’s artistic potential has led him to stage a full-length version of Romeo and Juliet — his acclaimed Rome & Jewels — and Rennie Harris’ Facing Mekka, which will explore hip-hop dance as a creative and spiritual force. Rennie Harris Puremovement has toured nationally and around the world, filling houses from Paris to Helsinki and leaving critics reaching for superlatives.
History
Rennie Harris began dancing at age eight, formed his own dance group at 14, and had toured and appeared on TV and in music videos by the time he formed Rennie Harris Puremovement as a way to expand the expressive reach of street dance idioms. Many of his dancers — Rodney Mason, Clyde Evans and Raphael Xavier among them — have grown into creating their own dance-theater work.