HIP HOP – A LEADER FOR DANCE
Hip-hop culture is spreading across the country. The 5th Solothurn Dance Days welcomed choreographer Muhammed Kaltuk on 7 December, while the crème de la crème of the Swiss and international hip-hop scene will be guests at the upcoming Existe festival in Monthey in April 2025.
Hip-hop culture emerged in the late 1960s in the black and Latino ghettos of the Bronx in New York and includes freestyle dance, breakdancing, rap, DJing (musical compositions created by chaining several pieces of music together on a mixing console), beatboxing (imitating instruments, especially percussion instruments, with the mouth) and graffiti. The hip-hop movement arrived in Europe in the early 1980s, first in France. It quickly spread to Switzerland. In the 2000s, contemporary hip-hop dance developed and gained a rightful place on dance stages and festivals. The roots of hip hop culture lie in the streets, and the diversity of this culture today inspires numerous choreographers such as Kader Attou, Eric Mezino, Chaouki Saı̈d, Mourad Merzouki and Muhammed Kaltuk. The latter is a young Swiss artist who is already celebrating his first successes.
David Gross (alias Cooper) from the hip-hop duo Cooper&Voldo – founders of the Existe festival in Monthey – is pleased to see dance evolving within a movement that has been around for over 50 years and is now gaining traction globally among people of all ages. In Switzerland, hip-hop culture is really taking off in Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich. In Valais, the duo Cooper&Voldo received the Monthey Culture Prize for their spectacular work and are committed to bringing the biggest talents of the Swiss and international hip-hop dance scene to Monthey. The duo was recently selected to present their piece "Altroïsme" at the dance evening, Short Cuts, as part of Tanz in Olten at which the audience was enthusiastic.
The aim is to bring this culture with its authenticity, its languages and its means of expression to the stages and institutional spaces, as is the case in Solothurn and Monthey. Mamadou Kalombo, alias Mams, a dancer and choreographer from Vevey who is well-known in French-speaking Switzerland, wants to go even further and dreams of a state-recognized training course in urban dance that is equivalent to courses in classical and contemporary dance. (Editor's note: The first higher vocational school for contemporary and urban stage dance started in Zurich in summer 2013. Unfortunately, the course will be discontinued in 2025 for financial reasons).
In France, a proposal is under consideration that would require individuals seeking to teach hip-hop dance to possess a state-issued diploma.
For Cooper, this is an interesting approach, but he fears that it will close the doors to spontaneity.
"In this culture, everyone is accepted for who they are. There are no prescribed requirements. That is its richness."
The organization of the third edition of the Existe festival, which will take place over two days in April 2025, reinforces his desire to make hip-hop dance better known.
"We need to showcase this culture, which deserves a place on stages and in institutions. It arouses real enthusiasm, especially among young audiences, but theater managers in Switzerland haven`t yet programmed it so easily."
Unfortunately, hip hop is still far from being institutionally recognized”, complains Lorenzo Malaguerra, director of the Théâtre du Crochetan in Monthey, where the Existe festival takes place. David Gross believes that both sides, hip-hop performers and theater institutions, need to do more to meet one another.
"There may also be a lack of research and proposals on our side, but our goal is clearly to bring this dance to the stage. There should be performances and it should be publicized throughout the country so that this art and dance form can live on outside the battle scene."
Further information: