We recently connected with Jason Noer and have shared our conversation below.
Jason, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
One of the projects that hold significant meaning for me is MIXTAPE, an endeavor that continues to gain substance with each passing year. The latest installment, MIXTAPE 6: Cypherspace (2023), has not only raised the bar for the impact of our work but has also witnessed our expansion into the realms of education and historical preservation of the Twin Cities Breaking scene.
To bring the performance to life, I diligently sought grants and commissions, successfully securing $50k in funding. Our choreographers, including Desaré Cox, Tottiana Duffy, Selwyn Talley, and Cheng Xiong, and our music director, Stefon BIONIK Taylor, dedicated themselves to the project by committing three hours every Saturday for four months. This fresh approach fostered a stronger sense of collaboration among the creative team, enabling us to tell a cohesive and compelling story together. As a result, even our stage manager, Fei Ma, lighting designer, Mike Grogan, and our mentees, Andre Allen (lighting) and Dyril Davis Jr. (music), became deeply immersed in the process, making MIXTAPE 6, our most collaborative performance to date.
Furthermore, we forged a valuable partnership with Miracle-Ear, culminating in a memorable performance at the Amplifon headquarters in downtown Minneapolis for the Day Without Sound event. Our engagement with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community marks just the beginning of our efforts in this domain.
Recognizing the expertise and experience of Stefon BIONIK Taylor, he assumed the role of Education Director, owing to his extensive involvement in music programming across various institutions, such as Creative Arts and COMPAS. In collaboration with Desaré Cox, Taylor spearheaded the inaugural MIXTAPE residency in May 2023 in partnership with the Minnesota Youth Story Squad at Northeast Middle School. The success of this endeavor has paved the way for further expansion in this direction come 2024.
Lastly, as part of my academic pursuits, I have taken it upon myself to construct a comprehensive archive of my Breaking videos and Hip Hop events from the mid-1990s. This archive aims to preserve the Twin Cities Hip Hop culture, with a specific focus on dance. Discussions are underway with the Minnesota History Center regarding the possibility of housing this collection, ensuring its accessibility to all who seek to explore it.
Jason, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have practiced several Hip Hop dance forms for over thirty years, including Breaking, Rocking, House, 90s dancing, and All-Styles. I began choreographing in 1999 and received my first grant for performance in 2005, sparking a lifetime interest in putting Hip Hop dance on the stage. My experience with these dance forms immersed me in Northern California, Southern California, and Minnesota (my home) dance communities, making me aware of my positionality as a heterosexual, white man. This awareness has grown into a sense of giving back to my home community (Twin Cities) as the artistic director of MIXTAPE.
My long-term involvement in the Twin Cities Hip Hop dance scene has cultivated strong relationships with several communities. My work in this area involves organizing dance competitions (battles), creating spaces of discussion (town halls), and teaching the ethical principles of Hip Hop dance (respect and inclusion).
I founded MIXTAPE (est. 2017), a nonprofit organization focused on dance theater and the professionalization without gatekeeping resources of the Twin Cities Hip Hop dance community. We formed as a response to the lack of performance opportunities for our dance genre and have successfully produced six years of shows. We also increased our annual budget of $5k to $50k through grant funding in three years and offer free grant-writing help to anyone in the Hip Hop Twin Cities dance scene. We offer opportunities for equitable pay to this community and access to our collaborators. In addition, MIXTAPE choreographers, lighting designers, videographers, and composers offer a paid mentorship program for people in our community.
Our Board of Directors consists of artists from the Twin Cities, including Mary Ellen Childs as the Chair, who has advised me on conducting the business of MIXTAPE. Through my six years of experience as artistic director of MIXTAPE, I have extensive experience with finance and operations, development, strategic planning, audience development, arts education, arts production and presentation, communications, and board relations.
Finally, I am a Lecturer in the University of Minnesota (UMN) Dance Department and Disciplinary Head of the Urban Street Forms/Hip Hop Dance Track. In partnership with the Dance Department, I established and have taught the four levels of the Urban Street Forms/Hip Hop Dance Track. I designed the track to engage with critical dance scholars, documentary films featuring practitioners, dancers from the local community, and rigorous movement practice.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
One of the most asked questions is how to create a successful and sustainable career in Hip Hop dance. This question is rooted in different places for different people, and I have struggled with it myself for over twenty years. The short answer is relationships; everything depends on how you nurture your relationship with cultural dance forms, the people who created them, and the communities in which they live. The longer answer is that these relationships constantly evolve and shift, making getting comfortable difficult (as it should be). Practicing and serving the Hip Hop dance scene emerges from asking questions and being involved in multiple ways. I have organized battles, town halls, and community gatherings in response to listening to the Hip Hop dance scene to give back once I can. The constantly shifting nature of my relationship with the scene means I must check in periodically to see what is needed and how I am positioned. I emphasize relationships because a strong one is grounded in trust, which is important for decisions and, ultimately, some form of success in Hip Hop dance.
I love to choreograph in my dance forms (Breaking, House, Rocking, Funk Styles, All-Styles, and Footwork). When I started this work (2005) in the Twin Cities, no venues featured an evening of strictly Hip Hop dance. I pay respect to Kenna Cottman’s Black Choreographers’ Evening at Intermedia Arts (est. 2003), Leah Nelson’s Heroes and Innovators, and Maia Maiden’s Rooted at Patricks Cabaret (est. 2009), which are important events in the history of Twin Cities dance. Building on their legacy, my vision was to work with an institution as a regular part of the season and focus on Breaking.
I began working with the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in 2011 on an evening-length performance, Hip Hop?. To secure this performance, I had worked for the Cowles as a Teaching Artist for nearly ten years, constantly seeking out the opportunity when construction on the new theater was finished. I created two more performances (Hip Hop! in 2012 and Hip Hop. in 2013) before taking a break and returning in 2017 with MIXTAPE Side A. My vision has grown, and I established a collaborative Hip Hop dance collective that connected the Hip Hop dance scene to resources and created a pathway to a career as a choreographer. My journey began in 2003 as a choreographer in other peoples’ shows (Black Choreographers’ Evening, Heroes and Innovators, and Rooted), then moved to create my seasonal performance with the Cowles, and then founded a dance collective to connect experienced and up-and-coming choreographers with resources. This is just one way to build an ethical and successful career in Hip Hop dance.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Society can make opportunities more accessible to artists who are usually part of the conversation about building a career that feeds into a thriving creative ecosystem. Minnesota arts organizations do an excellent job creating these opportunities as we have the most arts funding in the country. However, the different scenes within the Twin Cities Hip Hop dance scene currently have very little connection to these opportunities. The scenes include Breaking, House, Krump, Rocking, Funk Styles, All-Styles, and Footwork, often lumped under the umbrella term “Hip Hop dance.” Each of these scenes has its own history, techniques, and community, and each one deserves its own space of respect. My concern is that the individuals in each scene need to have, for example, the skills, time, or resources to sustain their practice through grant funding support.
Even when the arts organizations offer workshops on grant writing, not everyone is taking advantage of these opportunities. I’m hoping that the institutions could connect with the artists where they gather, for example, at battles and community events. We need connection and trust building between institutions and artists. MIXTAPE as an artist-led organization, is making slow inroads into this issue, and I have a stake in understanding how to connect these scenes to these wonderful opportunities that granting institutions that Minnesota offers. I encourage people that love these dance forms to come to performances, support the legislature for the arts, and donate whenever possible. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mixtapedance.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mixtape_dance/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mixtapemn
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTiu43xv0MMdi4LBnnH5JXg
Image Credits
Bill Cameron