Degrees Held

  • MFA, Dance & New Media, NYU TISCH School of the Arts

  • BA, Culture & Media, Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts

Previous Courses Taught

  • Hip Hop / Street Dance

  • Hip Hop Composition

  • Dance as Protest

  • Interdisciplinary Arts

  • Vernacular Jazz

Appointments Held

  • CalArts

  • Wesleyan University

  • Glendale Community College

  • Debbie Allen Dance Academy / Middle School

  • LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts)

  • Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Arts In Education

As hip hop dance continues to become more influential amongst today's youth it is imperative that academic and commercial institutions set the codified standard by breaking down the form’s most essential foundation: freestyling. As opposed to solely memorizing a combination, I empower my students to learn vocabulary before choreography, old school party dances before social media trends, the internalization of the bounce, rock and groove before external poses, scatting the rhythm before cueing the music, and imitation before innovation. Through this, my students are able to develop a dynamic movement palette, which increases their ability to freestyle, and in turn strengthens their artistic and choreographic voice.

In addition to grooming the next generation of hip hop dance practitioners one must understand both the ‘deep-rooted’ and ‘surface’ structures. The ‘deep-rooted structure’ encompasses the behavior characteristics and cultural, social, political, economic, and environmental contexts of the dance. By growing up in and around hip hop dance at parks, parades, block parties, skating rinks, clubs, cyphers and battles within the African American community in Miami and New York I’ve learned in retrospect how significant this “training” is to freestyle. The ‘surface structure’ on the other hand involves understanding innovators, pioneers, time periods, as well as terminology, vocabulary, anatomic, rhythmic, musical, and spatial components. With the surface structure adhering to a more intellectual ideation of hip hop dance, my awareness through mentoring relationships, anatomical, historical and choreographic research, music theory, and western dance ideologies has given me a unique vantage point. 

Research Interests

  • Hip Hop

  • Hip Hop Composition

  • Storytelling Through Dance

  • Movement for Actors

  • Dance Performance on Film

 

Contact — hello@ernestfeltonbaker.com