Dragon Productions Theatre And Hip Hop Congress To Co-Produce The Bay Area Urban Arts Festival In June 2019

The Bay Area Urban Arts Festival that we're producing in Redwood City is a partnership with Dragon Productions Theater Company, Hip Hop Congress, The Strutter's Room, Arch Films, Community Street Jam, and Templo Records to host "The Day Before Hip Hop Tour" in Redwood City. "The Day Before Hip Hop" represents a missing link of dance history, Black History, and Bay Area history that continues to shape the world of human expression. The goal is to highlight and document the untold stories of the Bay Area's historical inner-city dance culture from the 1960's-70's.

These movements styles were adopted into the Hip Hop dance scene in the 1980's but were an established culture in California for more than a decade before New York's influence was felt on the West Coast. A great example of this occurs in Boogaloo moves such as Michael Jackson's iconic "Moonwalk" is a misnomer of the "backslide" that originated out of Oakland, CA in the early to mid-1960's. Inspired by The Black Panthers, Boogaloo dance groups in the 70's brought notoriety and style with names like The Black Resurgents and The Black Messengers. Groups were recognized for their debonair style of white gloves and signature hats in addition to their choreography. To be recognized as a "Boogaloo" was a status symbol in the 1970's suggesting the ability dominate any dance floor. This challenged the neighboring communities of Richmond and San Francisco to develop enhancements of the Boogaloo style called Robottin (Richmond) and Struttin (San Francisco). Collectively, these styles can be referred to as B-R-S.

This June's event is the culmination of Hip Hop Congress' "Day Before Hip Hop Tour" featuring Lonnie Green, The Strutter's Room, and the BRS Alliance. With the return of one of the Fillmore's most beloved public figures, A-list Strutter and international dance icon Lonnie "The Fillmore Kid" Green a.k.a. PopTart- Community Street Jam, Arch Films, and 501c3 nonprofits Hip Hop Congress and Dragon Productions Theatre have teamed up with The Strutter's Room to bring you The Bay Area Urban Arts Festival featuring The Day Before Hip Hop Tour, a full day of knowledge including dance workshops, film premieres, dance cyphers, battles, and a live concert you won't want to miss as your personal introduction to the cultural legacy of the Bay Area as it continues to revive itself and make history in 2019. The tour began in February to honor Black History month, and has held workshops each month around the Bay Are to culminate in the Annual Strutter's Room Master Camp at the Dragon this June. Arch Films will record the festival to complete a planned documentary about the tour and the art form.

The companies are planning to make this an annual event to showcase various Bay Area dancers and musicians who don't typically have a platform like the Dragon Theatre to use to feature their immense talents.

Dragon's goal in hosting this event is two-fold: First to open our theatrical umbrella to include storytelling of all sorts. Second, we're striving to become a full-fledged community arts center and supportive resource for artists of all kinds on the. Ultimately, theatre is about connection, storytelling, and empathy and bringing this event under our umbrella offers Redwood City a place to experience a new type of local culture and broaden their artistic and cultural horizons.

The festival runs June 22nd from 1p - 10p, at the Dragon Theatre facility in downtown Redwood City. An outdoor performance area will be set up outside of the Dragon Theatre to showcase street dancing for the general community, with affordable events all day long.

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THE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

FILM PREMIERE & PANEL Q&A: 1p - 3p for $20

Be the first to witness the premiere documentary of "The Day Before Hip Hop" which takes you on the journey of the 2019 Day Before Hip Hop Tour. Panel discussion with original dancers from the 1970's will follow immediately at 2:10pm.

STRUTTER'S ROOM DANCE WORKSHOP: 3:30p - 5p for $20

Teach your body how to move like a mechanical magician of funk with this hands-on experience and dance workshop taught by The Fillmore Kid and special guests.

OPEN DANCE CYPHER/DINNER BREAK: 5p-6p for FREE

We will take a one-hour break for you to try some of downtown Redwood City's most popular cuisine while those who choose to participate can get down in our Open Dance Cypher.

EXTREME POPPING DANCE BATTLE: 6p-7:30p for $10

Anyone can spectate or enter our $500 Extreme Popping Dance Battle judged by the Panel of Twelve to see who has what it takes when it comes to head-to-head competition!

THE STRUTTER'S ROOM LIVE CONCERT: 8p - 10p

We will cap the evening off with a Live Concert featuring The Strutter's Room Funk Band and performances by the Mechanical Magicians, Poets w/ Minds, and local artists from our Enter the Dragon Local Talent Night series!