L2R Dance Presents BLOCK PARTY in March

L2R Dance presents Block Party uniting Melbourne's electric hip-hop culture on Saturday, 12 March 2022.

Block Party will showcase a range of roaring local dance crews across street and social dance styles, including Breakin', Vogue, House, Hip Hop, Dance Hall, Popping and Locking.

On grassy green lawns of Footscray Community Arts, friends and families can enjoy a BBQ lunch (even with vegan sausages) or order up at the food trucks while being entertained by the hip hop jams and battles as well as DJs and live-music featuring POOKIE, Bilalli and Urlik.

Jacinda Richards, L2R Dance founder, CEO and Artistic Director, welcomes everyone to Block Party, "Dance is an empowering exchange - it breaks down social barriers, embraces meaningful connections and brings us all together."

"We want to show how dance plays an important role in the lives of our young dancers including our current Igniting Legends who are passionate leaders committed within their cultural communities," said Richards.

Over the past year, L2R Dance offered a 12-month paid internship to build the artistic skills and career pathways for three emerging artists as part of the Igniting Legends program, including Yolande Arinda, Urlik Mageza and Stephanie Dixon.

Efren Pamilacan, L2R Dance's Youth Arts Coordinator, facilitates the Igniting Legends program and says "Our emerging artists have partnered with mentors across Australia and attended festivals such as Yirramboi, NGV Triennial and City Sessions."

Yolande Arinda is 19 years old, was born in Uganda and moved to Australia in 2015. Following the Igniting Legends program, she will work at L2R Dance as artist liaison for street dance events while completing her Bachelor of Arts at Deakin University.

Urlik Mageza is 19 years old and an actor, model, dancer and singer from Uganda. At Block Party he will perform some of his songs from his first music EP, which will be released later this year.

Stephanie Dixon is 19 years old and Australian born with Thai heritage. She is the first L2R Dance emerging artist to pursue dance in higher education and is currently studying at the University of Melbourne under a VCA scholarship.

Responding to young people's ideas, needs and concerns, L2R Dance facilitates commercial opportunities for emerging artists and also offers a range of free weekly hip hop dance workshops for young people in Melbourne's West and beyond.