Q & A with Michelle Salazar

In July, hip-hop dancers from Argentina, Vietnam, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and the Philippines came together in Washington, D.C. to perform during the two-week Performing Artists Cultural Visitors Program, a collaboration between the US State Department and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The joint venture aims to promote professional development and performance opportunities for emerging international artists.

Participants Hassan El Haf, Silvia Fernandez, Hien Ngoc Pham, Michelle Salazar, Samer Smahneh, and Mauricio Trech took classes with hip-hop masters in New York City and Philadelphia. The program culminated with a performance on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center where audiences saw the dancers bring their own cultural identities to their movement style.

VelocityDC contributor Emily Macel recently caught up with Michelle Salazar to discuss her participation in the program and hip-hop’s growing influence within the global dance community. Michelle performs with the Philippine Allstars, an award winning hip-hop troupe. On the day of the interview, she flew from D.C. to Las Vegas to join the Allstars at the 2009 World Hip Hop Championships where they received 4th place.

During your time in the US, where did you perform and take classes?

We’ve taken classes with Steps in NYC, and when we went to the concert of Sugar Hill Gang and we formed a circle and jammed and had a performance for the crowd, just jamming with the music. Then we went to Philadelphia for the Illadelph Legends Festival, a one week intensive workshop where the masters or the legends taught us the foundations of hip-hop dance. Yesterday we performed at the Kennedy Center.

What did performing at the Kennedy Center mean to you?

It was an honor performing there because I know it’s a venue that has all the greatest performances in America and even the world. It was so wonderful, the crowd was wonderful. It was an experience that I want to bring back to the Philippines and hopefully some other Filipinos will get to perform there.

Have you enjoyed working with the hip-hop dancers from around the world in this program?

It was amazing being able to work with them and bond because we came from different countries with diverse cultures and in a way hip-hop was our common ground. So it was easy for us to work together despite the language barrier. I enjoyed working with them because we had the same passion.

How long did it take to choreograph the show for last night?

We only had two weeks here and we were so busy during those two weeks so we had to squeeze in rehearsals. So all in all, it was only around a day.

Did you do a lot of sightseeing in the U.S?

Yes, especially in New York because we had a lot of time on our own. I loved everything. I loved the experience of going to the where hip-hop started, the ground where all the founders stepped on. We went to the Bronx and I experienced what it was like back in the day. DJ Afrika Bambaataa was playing and the b-boys were dancing and moving with the music and everything was giving out love. It’s not like how we thought, it’s not hostile. Everyone was very friendly to us even though we stuck out because we were from different countries.

Tell me about your hip-hop group back home, the Philippine Allstars.

The Philippine Allstars started in 2005. We wanted to represent the Philippines for the World Hip Hop Championships in America. We dropped everything, even our jobs, for a month so we could compete. We won the international competition and after that we were able to compete here in the U.S and won the World Hip Hop Championships in 2006. After that it became our fulltime jobs, being in the Allstars. Every year we try to compete and spread love. When we go back to the Philippines we work and do shows. Once or twice a month, we do charity work. We teach kids and perform for Gawad Kalinga, a nonprofit program that builds homes for poor families.

Is there a large hip-hop community in the Philippines?

It’s growing because I think we gave it a way to grow. We won the World Hip Hop Championships in 2006 and then the media gave interest to us, so in a way a lot of jobs were offered to hip-hop dancers. With any other country, it’s still hard to make hip-hop dancing your primary job but I’m very hopeful.