Hip Hop to the Top Part 2: Return to the Cypher

Hip-Hop to the Top Part 2: Return to the Cypher* will take a deep dive into the worlds of hip-hop through the lens of the five elements: Knowledge, Deejay (DJ), Emcee (MC), Street Dance, and Graffiti Art.

Each day participants will explore one of these elements and draw a through-line from the early diasporic historical roots of hip hop in America to today’s 21st-century global stage. Each day will begin with a developmental hip-hop warm-up and a “thought of the day” to guide a practice towards embodying each hip-hop element as a vehicle for personal and community expression. Special guest artists will join the course throughout the week and share their artistry to provide additional ideas and extensions for bringing hip hop learning into the classroom. The culminating ‘open jam session’ will fuse the five elements of hip hop together to create a virtual performance to be shared with the dance community and beyond.

*A cypher is an informal gathering of rappers, beatboxers, and/or breakdancers in a circle, in order to jam musically together. The term has also in recent years come to mean the crowd which forms around freestyle battles, consisting of spectators and onlookers.

4 Empire State College credits are available for a separate and additional fee.