First steps of new dance competition taken at popular downtown program

While the walls come down on Portage Place, a little engine of creativity still churns on the beleaguered mall’s first floor.

Studio 393, an arm of Graffiti Art Programming (GAP), is many things.

On the face of things, it’s an after-school drop-in program aimed at downtown youth, but just as importantly, it’s a community-centric arts studio catering to a host of disciplines and styles.

On any given day of the school week, you may see young creatives breakdancing, scratching old records, sketching colourful graffiti bubbles and tags in markers or mouthing song lyrics in the recording booth.

“(GAP) has really cultivated a connection and a community here that’s very organic,” says Dana Lance, a member and leader of Studio 393’s Dance Troupe.

She was at Studio 393 to prep for Style Fusion, a 2v2 — two versus two — competitive tournament with a $500 prize, open to everyone. Dancers battle in short bursts, moving up the brackets through sports-style elimination.

The event takes place Saturday at Maples Collegiate. Three hip-hop/dance-related workshops are being held the night before at the school from 5-9 p.m. Workshop and competition participants are asked to sign up prior to the events through the bio link on Studio 393’s Instagram page or by emailing 393dancetroupe@gmail.com, while admission at the door is $10 for the general public.

Many troupe members are instructors with 393, some having gone through GAP’s broader dance programming — learning, for instance, from the world-class Gordy (Flexum) Lopez, a past member of the world famous Jabbawockeez crew.

“GAP do a lot of good outreach for kids that don’t fit in that box,” says Cirilo Jr Manaligod, another Studio 393 Dance Troupe leader.

A notably high number of Studio 393 and GAP alumni have gone on to perform across Winnipeg and Canada’s stages, including through the Canadian National Dance Competition.

Manaligod, 27, and Lance, 28, are good examples. They went through the After Schools Leaders Program with GAP and Studio 393, which introduced them to Dance Troupe. They competed with the ensemble at the Manitoba Dance Festival last year, receiving gold honours, and have performed at many showcase events.

Manaligod says GAP’s mixed environment, somewhere between community outreach and an art/dance school, offers certain advantages over traditional studio environments.

“There are two communities within the dance community I would like to call it streets versus studio,” says Manaligod, who says he started off as a “studio kid.”

“We want to show these studio kids like there’s something different outside of your studio. There’s actually a community out here that will help support you when you are when you’re an adult (so) you can make a future dancing.”

Both Lance and Manaligod channel and fuse a variety of street styles, with Lance especially interested in ballroom culture.

Originating in New York’s working class Black and Latino queer scene, ballroom is sometimes contrasted with breakdancing’s more masculinist energy. Yet both are competitive movement cultures that emerged around the same time in New York City in the 1980s and have since become global styles, permutating according to region and fashion.

Lance is skeptical that ballroom’s movements should or can be learned or taught simply as dance steps — whether by studio instructors or TikTok influencers — stripped off the contexts from which it originated and has evolved.

“People try to imitate it because they’re good at imitating. You need to learn the history in order to learn the movement,” she says.

Contrasts between “studio” and “street” art recalls GAP’s own origins in the late 1990s as a haven for graffiti artists whose street associations didn’t just have to do with the art form they practiced.

Graffiti was relatively new then, and while public anxiety spread about its connections to gangs and vandalism, GAP offered a safe, non-judgmental space on Higgins Avenue with massive blank walls as canvas for practitioners of the artform.

But when Manaligod talks about “street,” he clearly has something much broader in mind.

“The community for the street side, when I was younger, we didn’t hear about it. Now, as I got older, I started expressing myself more with these guys, I started seeing it from a different point of view, right?” he says.

“And you see the growth. There are, seven to 10 year olds, maybe even younger, starting to break, and they’re learning from Flexum.”

While breakdancing and vogue are more likely to find progressive than conservative champions, it’s hard to miss the traditionalist quality to Winnipeg’s “street” dance culture. There’s a “respect for your elders’”ethos that runs through them, emphasizing mentorship and reverence for the scene’s legends.

At the same time, they thrive on youthful energy and friendly competition, testing athleticism and grit.

“There’s always hunger you see in people’s eyes. You feed off it,” says Manaligod. “It helps you as a human. It helps you as an artist to grow out of your comfort zone. Like, my goal is to beat Dana. My friends push me to be a better to be a better dancer, to express myself.”

Lance, Manaligod and other members of Studio 393 Dance Troupe won’t likely take part in the competition portion of Saturday’s event, which also includes dance performance and a vendors marketm as they want more new faces to participate.

They’re encouraging Winnipeg’s dancers to show up and show off their favourite styles, whether it’s breaking, hip hop, dancehall or waacking.

“If you feel anxious that’s OK, you all start from somewhere, but know that you’re in a space full of passionate and friendly folks. Keep doing you,” says Lance.

“And when the day is over and everything has come to pass, be proud of whatever you left on the dance floor, give yourself the grace and space to feel proud,” adds Manaligod.

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