Rennie Harris the Founder/Artistic Director of Rennie Harris Puremovement has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2010 in recognition of his work as a hip hop choreographer.
In 1992, North Philadelphia native Rennie Harris founded Puremovement with the vision for sharing an appreciation for diversity as well as being dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, lecture-demonstrations, dance residencies, mentoring programs and public performances.
Edward Hirsch, the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, announced that Rennie Harris was among the 180 awarded fellowships to artists, scientists and scholars chosen from a group of some 3,000 applicants.
Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of achievement and exceptional promise. One of the hallmarks of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is the diversity of its Fellows. The ages of this year’s Fellows range from twenty-seven to seventy-three, and their Fellowship projects will carry them to all parts of the United States and Canada and around the globe.
In a time of decreased funding for individuals in the arts, humanities, and sciences, the Guggenheim Fellowship program is all the more important. The continued and ever more generous donations from friends, Trustees, former Fellows, and other foundations have ensured that the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation will be able to continue the mission Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim set for it: to “add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding.”
The language of Hip Hop dance crosses social barriers, cuts across racial lines and has become a global phenomenon that impacts our youth culture world wide. Becoming a Guggenheim Fellow will allow Harris to further document the historical content of urban dance, while highlighting and articulating the voice of our youth culture, and challenging the possibilities of Hip Hop dance theater.
Rennie Harris Puremovement will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2012.
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