CANADIAN STREET DANCE

Dance to express! Not to impress.

Founded in 2004 by dancer-choreographer Crazy Smooth, Bboyizm is Canada’s premier street dance company. Their mandate is to promote and preserve the foundation, authenticity, and essence of all street dances. Their ethos is centred on the premise that authentic self-expression enables an individual – and by extension, a community – to realize its full potential. Bboyizm’s full-length theatre productions have toured Canada to critical acclaim. In addition to performances, the company provides a complete street dance experience that includes outreach and street dance programs in schools and community-based organizations.

It is said that the bravest thing a dancer can do is grow old — for a b-boy/b-girl, the experience is approaching heroic.

“Audience members who think that Bboyizm’s In My Body is going to be an evening devoted only to dazzling hip-hop dance tricks are in for a surprise... At the heart of the choreographic intent is the question of aging in an art form that we associate with the young.” — Paula Citron, Senior Dance Writer, Globe and Mail

In My Body features an intergenerational group of nine dancers and an international creative team including original music by DJ Shash’U. In My Body explores the multi-generational dynamic and the hardship and heroism of aging in street dancing. In keeping with hip-hop culture, b-boys/b-girls present a façade of confidence and invincibility as they engage in battles to prove their value and establish their dominance.

The resulting vocabulary is one of the most physically demanding and visually impressive of the dance genres and leaves no room for the expression of vulnerability.

In this layered investigation of street dancers' perseverance in the battle against time, In My Body goes deep into the culture of hip-hop through the eyes, minds and bodies of the multi-generational company. Writer Alejanrdo Rodriguez provides a powerful backdrop of personal stories of survival, triumph, and defeat drawn from interviews that he conducted with the dancers, including DKC Freeze, the oldest dancer in the company (57, born 1965), and Tash (51, born in 1971).