Dance Masters: Rennie Harris

This month, we would like to put a spotlight on the current American choreographer Rennie Harris.

We also would like to acknowledge that this is our first hip-hop choreographer that we are spotlighting, and while most of the Dance Masters series has featured choreographers from Euro-Centric genres like ballet, contemporary, and musical theater, we are actively making an effort to diversify those who are featured on our blogs.

Born in 1964 in a majority-black community in Northern Philadelphia, Rennie Harris was inspired to dance from watching Soul Train as a kid. As he grew, he danced socially, and formed a small hip-hop crew at the age of 12. Later, he went on to perform with the founding members of the hip hop genre, such as Afrika Bambaataa, Salt-n-Peppa, Grandmaster Flash, and more.

In 1992, he founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, a hip-hop dance theater company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture.

“Harris is considered a pioneer of bring street and social dances to the concert stage.”

He’s also broken new ground numerous times by being the first hip hop choreographer to be commissioned from prestigious, non-hip hop companies, such as: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Philadelphia Dance Company, Giordano Dance Chicago, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater of which he is not only the first Street Dance choreographer to set work on Alvin Ailey but also the first in the history of Alvin Ailey to set an hour work on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater entitled "Lazarus" (2018).

The first evening length work Harris choreographed for Puremovement was titled “Rome and Jewels” - a street dance take on the classic Romeo and Juliet. To date Rome & Jewels is the longest touring hip hop dance theater work in American history with three Bessie Awards, two Black Theater Alvin Ailey Awards, a Herb Alpert award and a nomination for a Lawrence Olivier Award (UK). You can watch an excerpt of this groundbreaking work below.