Move to the rhythm of underground funk at the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival
By Abbas Hussain, December 2 2024—
The third annual Calgary Hip Hop & Street Dance Festival took place from Nov. 21 to 24 with a wide variety of events and a roster of amazing guests coming in to participate in the festival. Despite the relatively newer nature of this festival here in Calgary, there are some incredible performances to be expected. The festival’s artistic director, Tara Wilson, shared her excitement over the artists that will be a part of this festival, as well as the events that have been planned.
“We have grown it every year that we have done it [and] have support from Calgary arts development, funding from them, to bring in some amazing artists and scholarship to university dance majors,” Wilson said.
Wilson explained where the inspiration came from the festival. She said that she had been involved for many years in the hip-hop scene. COVID put everything on hold. After visiting the Vancouver Street Dance Festival, she met up with her mentor and legendary dancer Ken Swift. With his help, they devised this project with young dancers and went from there. Wilson then called one of the directors of the Vancouver Festival, and with his insights, started this festival and called it the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival.
“The purpose of the festival is to bring communities together […]. I’m hoping that it’ll be a space where [we can] promote hip-hop and street dance culture, educate people around it, promote the history and beauty of this culture, [along with] the empowerment and healing with it,” Wilson said.
Another aim of the festival is to put Calgary on the map. She explained that people might not know what’s happening here, but with this kind of festival bringing in people from Canada and the United States, we can put Calgary on the map.
In terms of what’s new this year, Wilson said, “This year is incredible, we have this dancer named Princess Lockeroo, [who is] an incredible artist, she’s on television, travels the world. […] Another artist by the name of Jackson Fryer […] he and his partner were the finalists on Canada’s Got Talent. [This year] we have more dance styles [including] locking, breaking […] popping, waacking, as well as a youth and kids battle.”
In addition to all the dancing, Wilson also said that an organisation called Secret Shop will be there. They’re a fashion youth clothing market with a bunch of cool different artists. In addition, we have a barber and someone who does tooth gems.
When asked on what she is looking forward to the most, Wilson said, “Experiencing the vibe […] just to experience the joy that this festival in the past has facilitated, to see all the youth that will be there, along with all the legendary people […] each of the events are totally different and it’s a lot of work […]. Just looking forward to it because we don’t get to do it very often.”
The atmosphere at the festival was mesmerisingly electric and the sense of community was abundantly obvious. Everyone knew everyone in some way including Wilson and it was amazing to see that here in Calgary, the whole community brought together in one space, brought together by many different mediums of art, from film to dance.
The first event of the night was the film screening. It’s always a treat to see young filmmakers come out and bring their films to the world, as the process of filmmaking is strenuous and demanding, yet incredibly rewarding at the same time.
The next event was the Secret Shop, where audiences could see some incredibly unique items that are not easily found. It was fascinating to see all the variety and all the unique things on sale, from PS2s to sneakers.
Finally and by far the best event of the night was certainly the dance battle. A group of sixteen dancers, ten of them from beforehand and six “wild cards” which means they were drawn out a hat, were selected.
This was easily the highlight of the night. Just being able to witness the talent was spectacular, but also the respect and sense of community shared between them.
More about the Calgary Hip-Hop and Street Dance Festival can be found on their website.