Rennie Harris Puremovement is the leading street-dance theater company in the United States, and for over 35 years has been dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop aesthetics and street-dance culture through workshops, classes, history, lecture demonstrations, long-term residencies, mentoring programs and public performances. With his roots in the inner city, Harris and RHPM present stories that are riveting, intimate and honest. RHPM’s mission is to reeducate the public about hip-hop culture and street dance through its artistic work, sharing the essence and spirit of street dance, rather than the commercially exploited stereotype portrayed by the media.
Dr. Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris is a leading ambassador for hip-hop. Harris grew up entrenched in hip-hop culture in all its forms. Throughout his career, he has embraced the culture and sought to honor its legacy, believing that hip-hop and street dance are the purest forms of movement in that they honor African and African American-Latino culture. Harris is well versed in the vernacular of what he calls hip-hop “proper,” as well as the various techniques of B-boy (often mistakenly called “breakdancing”), house, GQ and other styles that have emerged from the inner cities of America, such as the North Philadelphia community in which he was raised. Harris is noted for bringing social dances to the concert stage, creating a cohesive dance style that finds a cogent voice in the theater, all while developing works that challenge audiences’ expectations about hip-hop and street dance.
Harris’s artistic philosophy reflects a deeper understanding of people that extends beyond racial, religious and economic boundaries, and he believes that hip-hop culture can help bridge these divisions. Harris’ work encompasses the diverse and rich traditions of the past, while presenting the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance.
At the turn of the century alongside Princess Grace Kelly and Dr. Julius Erving, Harris was voted one of the most influential people in the past 100 years of Philadelphia history. He’s been compared to 20th century dance legends Alvin Ailey and Bob Fosse. He received a “Philadelphia Rocky” award, Governor’s Artist of the Year Award and the USA Artist Award for Choreography, and was voted one of Philadelphia’s Creative Ambassadors in 2010. Harris has received a Mellon Foundation grant, a Doris Duke Artist Award in the dance category, a Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (the first hip-hop artist to be granted this award), a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography, a Master of African American Choreography Medal, a United States Artists Fellowship, the Philadelphia Joanie Legacy Award (2004) and the Kulu Mele’ African Rooted Dance Award. He also holds two honorary doctorates in arts and humanities from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and in fine arts from Columbia College Chicago.
Rennie Harris Puremovement’s most well-known evening-length work, Rome & Jewels, was choreographed, written and directed by Harris in collaboration with dramaturg Ozzie Jones, D. Sabela Grimes, Rodney Mason, Raphael Xavier, composer/sound designer Darrin Ross and lighting designer Pamela Hobson. Originally, Rome & Jewels used Shakespeare’s text and colloquial language. During the workshopping process of Rome & Jewels, the lead cast of dancers—Ozzie Jones, Raphael Xavier, Rodney Mason and D. Sabela Grimes—improvised poetry and writings into the script, earning them the title of co-authors. Rome & Jewels is the longest touring hip-hop dance-theater work in American history, with three Bessie Awards, four Black Theater Alvin Ailey Awards, a Herb Alpert Award and a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award (UK). Rome & Jewels has been performed to sold-out audiences, nationally and internationally. More important than the critics’ response has been the outpouring of support from every community where it has played. It became a highly successful outreach tool for the company. Fusing classical text with slang and mixing hip-hop with rock, modern and classical sounds, the work touched many cultures and communities. In addition to Rome & Jewels, Harris has a catalog of works that span more than 30 years, with evening-length works such as Falling Crumbs From the Cake (1990), Legends of Hip Hop (1998), Rome & Jewels (1999), Facing Mekka (2003), Something To Do With Love (2006) 100NAKEDLOCKS (2009), HEAVEN (2011 ), Luv: American Style (2015), Nuttin but a Word (2016), Rennie Harris Funkedafied (2017), Rennie Harris LIFTED (2017), Caravan: A Revolution on the Road (2018) in collaboration with trumpeter Terence Blanchard and his latest evening-length work, Lazarus (2018), was the first time any choreographer in the history of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was commissioned to set an evening-length work. In addition, it marks the first time Harris set an evening-length work on a company other than his own.
Rennie Harris Puremovement and their infectious brand of movement have toured the globe. His company has performed for the Queen of England and the Princess of Monaco, and were ambassadors for the United States of America as part of President Obama’s cultural-exchange program Dance Motion USA, and toured Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Ramallah, Israel and surrounding countries. In more recent years, RHPM has performed at the Bermuda Festival in Hamilton, Bermuda and at the Festival Internacional Teatro a Mil in Santiago, Chile, among others. Rennie Harris Puremovement has continued touring across the United States, performing work at the Joyce Theater, ICA Boston, Jacob’s Pillow Festival (where they headlined Hip Hop Across the Pillow, Jacob’s Pillow’s 50th anniversary of hip-hop celebration), the VETS, Schwarzman Center at Yale University, American Dance Festival, BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn!, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts/Penn Live Arts (RHPM’s home theater), August Wilson Center, Lied Center of Kansas, Deerfield Academy, and Hermitage Artist Retreat (where Harris is currently the first Hermitage Greenfield Prize artist-in-residence in dance, building out his new work Losing My Religion), among others. Notably, Harris was recently commissioned to create a piece for the Joyce Theater Production’s Max Roach 100, an evening of commissioned works celebrating the iconic drummer, composer and activist Max Roach. Rennie Harris Puremovement premiered “Jim Has Crowed” in April 2024 at the Joyce Theater, then at ICA Boston. The company recently performed this work in October 2024 at Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.
To continue developing his work and pushing the envelope in the field sustainably, Harris is the current artist in residence of Penn Live Arts/Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Rennie Harris Puremovement is the company in residence of the Annenberg, the first street-dance theater company to hold this title. During a three-year residency, choreographer and Pew Fellow Rennie Harris creates and presents new evening-length hip-hop dance works, along with a retrospective of his established repertory, confronting ongoing and pressing social issues such as gun violence. The residency offers Harris the opportunity to reconnect with the communities who influenced his artistic vision. Harris revisits his existing repertory in the first year of the residency (2024), exploring new works in years two and three (2025, 2026): American Street Dancer and Losing My Religion. The 30th anniversary performance brought together RHPM alumni with the current company to restage and remount legacy works, such as Something To Do With Love, Students of the Asphalt Jungle and P-Funk in conversation with current repertory work in Nuttin’ but a Word in March 2024.
Premiering in 2025, American Street Dancer will explore the political and social history of street dance from enslavement, while honoring the history and lineage of popular footwork dances and styles nationally, featuring a special guest performer. Featuring dance styles from Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York, this multivisual work will also premiere a “Hip-hop Street Orchestra” that will feature three bucket players, two beat boxers and one DJ. Possibly marking Harris’ return to the stage, Losing My Religion (2026) may feature his tour-de-force solo Endangered Species (1992). This work is a retrospective inspired by Harris’ life, the human experience and today’s current political and socioeconomic theater. Losing My Religion will include new pieces and old works reimagined to create a dystopian perspective with the purpose of challenging core belief systems and humanity. In addition to presenting work, Rennie Harris Puremovement company members also participate in education and outreach programs at local public high schools each year of the residency in collaboration with its second company, Rennie Harris Awe-Inspiring Works (aka RHAW).
