Hiplet Is Our Current Dance Obsession

December 17, 2016

What happens when you combine pointe shoes, classical ballet technique, high-energy hip hop moves and some seriously stunning clothes? This amazing Refinery29 feature on Hiplet, which is a fusion of hip hop and ballet, and an all-around amazing style of moving. It’s been around since 1994, when Homer Hans Bryant, founder of the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center, asked his dancers to perform a hip hop routine on pointe. In 2005, hiplet was trademarked and has been all over social media since. Refinery29 interviewed Hiplet dancers Camryn Hutchinson, Nia Lyons, and Nia Parker, and as Parker explained:

We all start in ballet. The way we approach Hiplet is that we don’t let just anybody do it, because you have to have strength training in your ankles, or else you’re going to hurt yourself, guaranteed. In traditional ballet, you’re very lifted; your center of gravity is higher off the ground. With Hiplet, you learn to dance towards the floor more, so you kind of reverse your center of gravity from what you’ve been originally taught. But, you still have some classical elements in it as well.

 

Obsessed? We thought so. Check out the Hiplet’s website here, and watch the dazzling R29 video below:


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