Awarded a Works & Process residency in January 2021, LOHH dance collective began an iterative process building dance works exploring the lived cultural experiences of Black girlhood, Black womanhood and the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, and politics through the lens of Hip-Hop culture.

The Black Dancing Bodies Project is an ongoing photo documentary of Black women in Hip-Hop dance. Through a series of sessions, the project aims to tell their stories through photography and interviews. Our ultimate goal is to create a book spotlighting and preserving the beauty, strength, and lived experiences of Black women in street dance.

This project was created to capture the beauty and power of Black female street dancers. The exposure for Black bodies in dance is a very exclusive lens that overwhelmingly focuses on Black dancers that perform eurocentric dance aesthetics (modern, contemporary and Ballet, etc..). Black women in Hip-Hop dance don't often get covers of dance magazines. While often undervalued and rarely celebrated, Black women have been holding this country down since its formation and continue to lead across industries often with less visibility than their white counterparts, and with little to no accolades. So, when Black women are invited or featured with their white counterparts; it is overwhelming through the white lens.

With the success of the first session of The Black Dancing Bodies Project, we are eager to highlight the stories of more women. Documentation is a crucial component in the preservation of Hip-Hop and we hope to continue documenting the importance, power, and presence of Black women in Hip-Hop dance.