Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Philadelphia, Pa.-based hip-hop dance group is bringing its high-energy choreography to Mississippi State Nov. 11.
Since being established 16 years ago, the Rennie Harris Puremovement has challenged contemporary perceptions of the traditionally African-American and Latino dance forms.
The group's 7:30 p.m. performance in Lee Hall auditorium is part of the university's 2008-09 Lyceum Series.
Available at the door, tickets are $15 for adults; $12 for senior citizens (65 and over by request); and $8 for children 3-12. Students will be admitted free with MSU identification cards. All seats purchased at the door are general admission.
Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris, the artistic director and choreographer, has mixed some of the world's most influential forms of movement, music and storytelling to revolutionize contemporary concert dance. A North Philadelphia native, he has taught workshops and classes at universities around the country on the significance of "street" origins in dance style.
He began his career in the 1980s performing at clubs and parties with his first dance company, the Scanner Boys, also a hip-hop performance group. He joined a "legitimate" dance community in 1992, when he was invited to participate in the Susan Hess Choreographer's Projects.
That same year, Harris founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, dedicating his efforts to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, demonstrations, and other forms of communication.
"Puremovement pushes hip-hop as far as it can go, not just in their jaw-dropping coordination, but in the elaboration and reinvention of basic moves," said a British critic with The Guardian newspaper. "This is much, much more than simply dancing to records--just as the live DJ act that accompanies them is much more artful than simply spinning vinyl."
The dancers have performed to sold-out audiences in the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean region.
For more information on this MSU Lyceum Series program, telephone 662-325-4201 or visit www.msstate.edu/dept/lyceum. Information on the dance troupe may be viewed at www.rhpm.org.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.