Hip-Hop Legend Rennie Harris to Return to The Joyce
Performances will run from November 11–16.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Oct. 22, 2025
The Joyce Theater Foundation will present the New York premiere of American Street Dancer from Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater.
Hip-hop pioneer Rennie Harris returns to The Joyce Theater with the New York premiere of American Street Dancer, a new work that honors the roots, rhythm, and evolution of street dance across the United States. The piece traces the lineage of street dance through regional styles—from Detroit’s Jitting and Chicago’s Footwork to Philadelphia’s GQ and the percussive syncopations of tap.
Featuring a live hip-hop orchestra of bucket drummers, beatboxers, and DJ Razor Ramon, American Street Dancer transforms the stage into a living cipher where form, community, and history collide. Harris unites an exceptional group of artists—including Ayodele Casel, House of Jit, Creation Global, Akim Funk Buddha, and the dancers of Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater—in a sweeping celebration of movement as language, memory, and legacy.
ABOUT Rennie Harris PUREMOVEMENT AMERICAN STREET DANCE THEATER
Founded by choreographer, dancer, and cultural ambassador Rennie Harris in 1992, Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater is widely regarded as the preeminent street dance theater company in the United States. The company is dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop aesthetics and street dance culture through performances, workshops, lectures, residencies, and educational outreach around the globe. With his roots in the inner city of North Philadelphia, Harris has elevated street dance to the concert stage, transforming it into a theatrical language that reflects the honesty, humility, and spiritual depth of hip-hop. Harris’s work embodies the rich traditions of the African diaspora while forging new pathways in contemporary dance. His choreography addresses universal themes of identity, healing, and social change, redefining street dance as both a powerful storytelling form and a vital expression of community. The company’s most celebrated work, Rome & Jewels, remains the longest touring hip-hop dance theater production in American history and has earned multiple Bessie Awards, Alvin Ailey Black Choreographers Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. Through groundbreaking productions such as Facing Mekka, Luv: American Style, Funkedified, and Nuttin’ But a Word, Harris continues to expand the vocabulary of street dance with rigor, musicality, and purpose. His commitment to education and cultural exchange has taken Puremovement to more than 30 countries across six continents, where the company has represented the United States as a cultural envoy under President Obama’s DanceMotion USA program.
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