Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris was born in 1964 and grew up in North Philadelphia where he became well-versed in the vernacular of hip-hop, including various techniques of b-boy, house dancing, and stepping. He founded his company in 1992 in order to preserve and disseminate hip hop culture through workshops, performances, and a variety of other activities. He made his Pillow debut as part of the Jazz Tap/Hip Hop Festival in 1997, and has returned several times since to both perform and teach. His Rome and Jewels is a recasting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, translated into today’s vernacular, while P-Funk has been described as “a paean to the redemptive power of movement joined to rhythm.” The energetic all-male sequence seen here is part of a dance that closed the celebratory “Hip Hop Across the Pillow” program, a performance that opened with Ladies of Hip Hop.
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