Teaching through breakdancing

One Bermudian young man has taken his love for hip-hop dance and turned it into an educational show, inspiring kids all across America.

Mark Wong, known as ‘Metal’, is the co-founder of Hip Hop Fundamentals, a dance company he started in 2004 with partner Steve Luger.

The 31-year-old was born and raised in Bermuda but left the island when he was 16 to attend boarding school, then university.

He has lived in the Philadelphia area since graduation.

Mr Wong learned how to breakdance in Philadelphia and enjoys teaching kids through dance.

He has taught mini workshops in Bermuda with Suzette Harvey of United Dance Productions and the National Dance Foundation.

Since its inception, Hip Hop Fundamentals has performed at more than 1,200 assemblies across the US, reaching more than 250,000 students. It is the only assembly programme in the world run and operated by world-class professional breakdancers.

“The whole east coast has a large underground hip-hop scene. I have been involved in that for more than seven years,” he said.

“Steve and I were both working for dance theatre companies and we started dance assembly shows at schools.

“Once we found out how much they liked it, we came up with Hip Hop Fundamentals.

“It uses breakdancing to teach academic content and core moral values to the kids.”

Mr Wong said the shows are fun and interactive.

“We try to show the history and the appreciation for hip-hop dance, at the same time, we’re showing them about cultural diversity and respect.

“If you look at the history of hip-hop, coming up in New York in the 1970s, there were a lot of kids coming together in the communities to have parties and rallies and that is alignedwith the civil rights movement.”

He continued: “One programme is teaching the history of Martin Luther King Jr but looking at it thought the eyes of dance.

“The kids in the 1960s were doing the same thing that led to the creation of hip-hop.

“Youth empowerment is one of the main goals.”

Mr Wong said there are about a dozen dancers in the team who perform at the shows. They are coached and trained on the education aspects.

“It’s fun. It’s the most fun job in the world”, he added.

 The company recently participated in a fundraiser in Philadelphia to fund ten schools with shows for free.

Mr Wong said the school districts in Philadelphia are predominately African-American.

Where there are financial difficulties, the first programme that gets cut is the arts.

“We figured it was important. We wanted to use the form of hip-hop to teach something we thought was relevant in this community, in particular.”

Asked what is the future of Hip Hop Fundamentals, Mr Wong said: “We have some big plans. We’re hoping to grow to the point that we can have multiple teams of young people going and doing shows on their own.

“Philadelphia has some really talented young people, world class dancers who can’t get jobs.

“We are hoping to create a niche for these young people to get jobs.” 

For more information, visit www.hiphopfundmentals.com