A long version of Génération hip-hop ou le Mouv' des ZUP, this film is structured around a constant to-and-fro movement between the inner cities where the hip hop movement grew up and its current recognition by the cultural institution. Or how to fabricate integration by encouraging the expression of what is now commonly called the “urban cultures”. 

Leaving more place to actual dance than in Génération hip-hop, Jean-Pierre Thorn concentrates on showing the evolution of a dance tamed on the concrete of inner cities, apt for demonstration and challenge. Dancers, choreographers and musicians now concern themselves with all the elements forming the dramaturgy of live entertainment. 

Theme or message, settings, characters, the switch from solitary virtuosity to group movements, lighting, use of musics sometimes totally unconnected to hip hop: such are the new parameters to be taken into account by Accrorap, Street Boy'z, Aktuel Force, Traction Avant, ABDT and Azanie, the companies now performing in national dance festivals and theatres.

Source : Fabienne Arvers

Supported by the State and local authorities, the Centres chorégraphiques nationaux (CCN) promote the development of dance, both through the creative impulse of their directors-choreographers, but also by supporting choreographic artists of various styles, by presenting works and by raising public awareness of the art of dance.

Today there are 19 Centres chorégraphiques nationaux. The CCN de Créteil is one of the first to have been created, by Maguy Marin. Three of them are now run by hip-hop choreographers, in Créteil (Mourad Merzouki), La Rochelle (Kader Attou) and Rennes (FAIR-E collective).

Mourad Merzouki has been at the head of the Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne / Compagnie Käfig since 2009. He is developing an artistic project that is both open to the world and rooted in the territory, transcending aesthetic, cultural and social boundaries. Tours, workshops, residencies, the Kalypso festival : there are many opportunities to discover and celebrate hip-hop dance, an art form that has become, in over 30 years, a strong marker of the cultural identity of our heritage.