Rather than a simple, artistic rendering, Storm has opted for recounting the history of hip-hop in a highly original way, bringing together eight dancers from Paris, Berlin and Perpignan for a collective project: "The Art of Urban Dance" goes back in time to explore the form's different stylistic influences. In a deliberatively didactic mise en scène Storm, from a screen in the background, comments on his lesson and interrogates his dancers. The dancers, in a choreography coupled with a projection directed by Herman Haag, illustrate the origins, inspirations and distinctions between the four best-known urban dance styles: locking, popping, bboying and housedance. All complex modes the dancers have worked on over the last twenty years. A combination of the playful and the educational, this show has been acclaimed around the world. As the members of the collective put it, «The moves, energy, attitude and grace of these styles speak for themselves. Our hope is to communicate something of the magic spark, the fascination we felt when we saw these dances for the first time.»
Source : Press book, Biennale de la Danse 2006

Niels Robitzky, alias Storm, was born in northern Germany. A self-taught hip-hop dancer, he began touring the world with his group Battle Squad, making his stage debut in 1992–95 with another group, Ghettoriginal. Settling in Berlin in 1993, he founded The Storm & Jazzy Project company in 1996 with Nathalie “Jazzy Lee” Robitzky. In the following years their original dance performances were a feature of the European theatre and festival scene. Among Storm's many choreographic works is X-Pos-Yos-Elf, composed for the Expo 2000 opening ceremony in Hanover. He works regularly with directors like Alain Milianti (Le Festin), hip-hop dancers, musicians such as Ray Lema and choreographers from Brazil, Ivory Coast and many other countries. Since 2000, he has been touring and working on international artistic development projects with the Goethe Institute network and France's cultural centres around the world. Thus in 2001 he collaborated with the Brazilian company Discípulos do Rítmo on Ta Limpo, which toured in Argentina and Europe. It was in the same year that he decided to take a look at himself, the result being "Solo For Two" at the Suresnes Cités Danse festival, just outside Paris. Since then the piece has been presented in various European countries as well as in Latin America, Asia, Australia and North America. In 2003 he joined forces with Pyro, a company that includes his French partners Kane-Wüng and Nasty, to create "Slippin' & Slidin'", a combination of hypertechnical dance and video. In 2003 he directed eight dancers from three European countries in the collectively devised Art of Urban Dance, a mix of virtuosity and the instructive that has already been seen in Holland, Germany, and France, and has toured in Vietnam, Egypt and the Near East. After the new work Virtuelevation, Storm will be back with Discípulos do Rítmo in São Paulo for Geometronomics, scheduled to tour in Germany and Holland in March–April 2006. In 2010 he starred in the dance movie "Berlin dance Battle 3d" and played himself.

Sources : Biennale de la Danse pres file ; Stormdance 's website

More information

stormdance.de