Update:
We have sent out the link to the presentation of Moncell’s lecture to all supporters. If you did not receive that email), please contact us đ
Berlin, March 11-12th 2023
INtangible Roots: comprehending the cultural identity and continuum of the Africanist Aesthetics in Black American Social Dances
with Moncell Durden, Raphael Moussa Hillebrand, Daybee Dee and Momo
We want to present you a very special opportunity to educate yourself about Black American Culture and dance. Thanks to the efforts of many awesome people (scroll down read more about it), we are able to invite Moncell Durden to Berlin!
Moncell is not only a dancer and educator, he is also an internationally renowned historian, author and filmmaker. He has dedicated decades to learning dance and researching Black American and Africanist culture and art, specifically but not limited to Jazz, Lindy Hop, Hip Hop and other contemporary Street Dances. Find out more about Moncell Durden here: https://www.moncelldurden.com/
Alongside him, we invited Raphael Moussa Hillebrand, Berlin based street dancer, choreographer, educator and activist. Raphael is one of the leading figures in the Hip Hop community in Berlin and also very politically involved through the party Die Urbane. He is going to moderate the lecture and give it a framework, as well as take part in a panel discussion. Find out more about Raphael Moussa Hillebrand here: https://raphael-hillebrand.com/
We also are very happy that Momo joins us for this event. Based in OsnabrĂźck she is teaching Lindy Hop and organizing events there, as well as doing activism and social work. She is going to teach a workshop on partner dancing, together with Allison, as well as being part in a panel discussion. She also created an exibition about the history of Lindy Hop from different perspectives, which she will show during the event.
Last but not least, we want to welcome the wonderful Daybee Dee to join this event. Self-taught as a trained sportive dancer, she has more than 27 years of professional experiences from performing on stage, choreographing, training dancers and touring with many singers and music bands of numerous musical genres worldwide since 1996. Daybee is going to teach a workshop about the Afro Diaspora Dances and also she is going to DJ the party! FInd out more about Daybee Dee here: https://www.daybeedance.com/
Program & Venue
Flying Steps Academy
Lobeckstr. 30-35
10969 Berlin
close to U8 Moritzplatz
Important: No shoes with high heels and no street shoes are allowed in the venue.
We are so happy that we are able to collaborate with the Flying Steps Academy Located in the center of Kreuzberg, they are a fixture for Hip Hop culture in Berlin since 15 years and they offered to open their space for our event. You should really check out all the classes they offer on a daily basis!
| Saturday | Flying Steps Academy, Lobeckstr. 30-35 (close to U8 Moritzplatz) |
| 16.30 – 17.00 | Check-In: Please arrive early, so we can start on time đ |
| 17.00 – 18.20 | Dance Workshop: The Afro Diaspora DANCES Melting-Pot with Daybee Dee |
| 18.30 – 19:50 | Dance Workshop: Texas Tommy and how Charleston and cake walk changed it to early Lindy with Moncell Durden |
| 20.15 – 21.45 | Lecture: American history of black dance from the ring shout to today with Moncell Durden, Moderation by Raphael Moussa Hillebrand |
| 21.45 – 22.30 | Panel Discussion & FAQ: Topic soon to be announced with Moncell Durden, Raphael Moussa Hillebrand, Daybee Dee & Momo |
| 22.30 – 1.00 | Jam / Party: Street dances are social dances and while we appreciate the learning opportunities that come with dance classes, the real application happens on the dance floor! This is why we are very grateful that DJ DayBee (https://soundcloud.com/daybee-dee) is going to make us dance and sweat with some amazing DJ sets! There might be some Swing too, let’s see đ |
| Sunday | Flying Steps Academy, Lobeckstr. 30-35 (close to U8 Moritzplatz) |
| 10.00-11.20 | Dance Workshop: Get In Touch (with partner dancing) with Allison & Momo |
| 11.30 – 12.50 | Dance Workshop: The Continuum – From Lindy Hop to Hip Hop with Moncell Durden |
| 12.50 – 13.00 | Let’s Celebrate: Let’s get together one last time and just celebrate what we have achieved this weekend. Let’s give gratitude to the African Diaspora, the dances, the cultures, the elders. And let’s not forget ourselves… |
Packages & Prices
We want to be transparent with you: Moncell Durden is an expert in his field. He teaches at several Universities in the United States and is invited internationally to share his knowledge. We want to make sure he earns what he deserves, even though he offers to come for a special community fee. We tried to price the event in a way that makes it realistic for us to finance it and still makes it affordable for you.
We have a few different packages available for you:
From 10 EUR – Online Lecture as replay
Even if you cannot come to the event, we appreciate your contribution. For a minimum of 10 EUR we are going to share with you the recording of the lecture. This will probably happen 1-2 weeks after the event and then you will have access for 3 months to watch it. The lecture is not going to be publicly available.
From 30 EUR – Entrance to the lecture and party
The lecture and party are going to happen on Saturday evening. You are also going to have access to the online lecture.
From 60 EUR – Entrance to the full event: classes, lecture and party
Workshops are going to happen Saturday and Sunday daytime. You are also going to have access to the online lecture.
Please keep in mind that this is the minimum of a sliding scale. Here is what we recommend
- 60 EUR – Social Price: If you are having limited funds, we think 60 EUR is a very fair price for this program
- 90 EUR – Regular Price: We hope this is a price that is realistic for the average of our community, since it is what a smaller sized weekend workshop usually costs
- 120 EUR – Supporter Price: If you are able to give this sum, you are helping to cover the costs for a person that can only afford the social price.
Also, if you want to join the event but cannot contribute enough or anything, please reach out to us, we donât want financial issues to be a barrier.
Sign up and take part
Note: The event is over and sign-up is no longer possible. If you are interested in the replay, pleace send us a message to info@intersectionaldancefloors.org
Some more information about the budget
We are organizing this privately and therefore need your support and trust to make it happen. We are sharing here the budget with you, so you can understand what organizing this this event includes and how we calculated the prices for the different packages. Here is an projection of the budget, as closely as we can estimate it:
- 2000 EUR Moncell Durden
- 350 EUR Raphael Moussa Hillebrand
- 250-350 EUR EUR Momo
- 0-400 EUR Organizers: Allison and Oli
- 0-500 EUR Additional Artists
- 250-500 EUR Travel and accommodation
- 500-1000 EUR for Venue and Party
- Total: 3.500-5.000 EUR
We hope to get an average of 90 EUR per participant. With this calculation we need approximately 40 people to cover the minimum budget. If we are over the minimum, we are going to look into ways to make space for more participants, maybe adding another teacher / panelist.
If we end up having a positive balance after the event, we are going to donate it to a non-profit organization that focuses on BIPoC and is run by BIPoC. It is called Each-One-Teach-One e.V. https://www.eoto-archiv.de/), it is an amazing place that also has a publicly accessible library, check it out!
Our goals for this event and who we would like to reach out to
The main purpose of this event is to create learning opportunities, for us as dancers and as a community, about the cultural backgrounds of the dance and music we engage in. No matter if you dance Lindy Hop, Hip Hop or any other dance with roots in an African or Afro-diasporic community, we hope that this event will give you a broader perspective and more context about the aesthetics, values and contexts of the dance you enjoy.
We want this event to be an opportunity for learning about Black culture and history, but also a space to get to know dancers from different styles, which is why we want to reach out to Lindy Hoppers and other Swing dancers, to Tap dancers, Hip Hop dancers, House dancers, everyone who is involved in a dance form that belongs to the continuum of Black and Africanist culture.
No matter if you are already an experienced dancer or just began your journey, you are very welcome to join: The classes are open level.
Also, we want to invite people that are not yet part of our community but hopefully interested in this event. So we are going to reserve 5-10 spaces for the workshops to give away to community projects in Berlin.
Some more background around the organization
In recent years, the dance community has started to put in more effort in becoming aware of the afro-diasporic roots and the importance of acknowledging Black American Culture as the foundation of many arts we now celebrate globally, such as Lindy Hop, Jazz and Hip Hop.
This movement has been initiated and is still led by well-known Afro-Diasporic dancers worldwide and thanks to them, the dance community in Berlin has now been given the opportunity to host the great Moncell Durden for a workshop and lecture!
We believe that this is an important work we have to do, especially as a European community that has no direct connection to Black American culture and also very few representatives with any direct Africanist cultural knowledge. We want our dance scene to become more diverse and the first step is to acknowledge the history and culture that is not ours, to learn about it and to apply what we have learned to our dancing and our scene. Only then can we start understanding, which steps to take to make the dance scene more welcome to BIPoC.
We also would love it, if the different communities of dances with Africanist roots learn more about each other’s presence and the common history and cultural values, so that we can have more exchange between these dances. Letâs invite each other to dance and learn together and from each other.
Thank You!
We already want to thank you for supporting this project. We think this is a unique opportunity to bring one of the most important contemporary scholars about Black American dance, music and culture to Berlin. You can be a part of making this happen.
If you havenât watched Moncell Durdenâs documentary âEverything Remains Rawâ yet, this is a great way to get in the mood already and prepare yourself for the event – you can watch it right after contributing – as a reward to yourself đ
Also a special thanks to Remy Kouakou Kouame for making this all possible in the first place! He decided to bring Moncell Durden to Europe for a tour and reached out to different scenes to collaborate. If you donât know Remy yet, you are in for a treat:
https://www.instagram.com/remy2kouadjo
Last but not least we want to name a few more dancers and educators that have inspired and taught us to this point and without those this whole process wouldnât be possible. This list is not complete: Angela Andrews, Breai Mason-Campbell, Dee Daniels Locke, Grey Armstrong, Hannah Lane, Helena Kanini Kiruu, Jean-Charles âJoYsSâ Zambo, Josette Wiggins, Karida Griffith, LaTasha Barnes, Marie NâDiaye, Stephen Atamie, Tyedric HillâŚ
Image Credits:
Moncell Durden doing the Charleston in front of a wall: Photo by Jonathan Hsu
Raphael Moussa Hillebrand jumping over wall: Photo by Christoph Leib
Momo sitting on stairs: Photo by Thabo Thindi