Street dance moves into the mainstream

What do hip-hop dance moves and kung fu have in common? More than many people may think. Both demand rigorous training, reward improvisation, and celebrate physical mastery. These common threads will take to the stage on July 24 at New York City's Lincoln Center, where Chinese performers will blend the two art forms during Chinese Arts Week, part of the Lincoln Center's Summer for the City program.

Chinese dancers will weave together breaking, popping and martial arts, offering audiences more than a display of technical virtuosity. For the artists behind the production, the performance is intended as a statement about how Chinese street dance has evolved from an imported youth culture into a distinctly Chinese artistic language.

"We hope to present a more multidimensional, open and confident image of Chinese street dance," says Xia Rui, one of the performance's principal organizers. "Chinese street dance is not simply a copy of Western street culture, nor is it just youth entertainment centered on technical display. After years of development, it has become a contemporary artistic language through which young Chinese people express themselves, engage with tradition, and connect with the world."

In addition to the July 24 show, the Chinese street dance delegation will begin its US tour with a performance at the festival's opening reception in New York on July 23 and then travel to Philadelphia for a public performance on July 25. The tour concludes on July 26 with a youth street dance cultural exchange in New York, followed by creative workshops and a series of flash mob performances in the city.

As a major promoter of the dance genre in China, Xia is the deputy director of the China Hip-Hop Union Committee, founded by the China Dancers Association in 2013.