BRKFST Dance Company

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BRKFST Dance Company, founded in 2014, seeks to create intellectually rigorous, physically demanding works of art through abstraction, breaking, and contemporary dance vernacular, continuously exploring original modes of artistic expression. BRKFST’s egalitarian and choreographic collaboration is rooted in the hip-hop adage, “Each One Teach One”. Regardless of class, race, experience, age or gender, everyone remains both teacher and student. BRKFST’s lineage stems from breaking and hip-hop culture: earning respect from battles and embodying inclusivity by passing down their knowledge to the new generation. The lived experiences of this collective, who identify as working class, queer and BIPOC, inform their compositions. BRKFST performs regionally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, premiering work at the Walker Arts Center, Southern Theater, The Cowles Center and Orchestra Hall with The Minnesota Orchestra; nationally in the Belding Theater with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Hartford, Connecticut, and internationally in Dublin, Ireland, for Dance2Connect (D2C) Hip Hop Festival. Their film Dreamers (2019) was an official selection in 11 international film festivals receiving the Grand Jury Award (In/Motion Festival 2021) and Best Experimental Film (Tirana International Film Festival 2020). BRKFST has set repertoire and original work with dancers at St. Olaf College and Carleton College in Minnesota, D2C Hip Hop Festival in Ireland, Bates Dance Festival in Maine, and the University of Minnesota. BRKFST Dance Company’s awards include Creative Residency at The National Center for Choreography-Akron, National Performance Network Creations and Development Grant, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) National Dance Project Production Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support Grant, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International Grant, and a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Arts Activities Grant. Members of the BRKFST company that will be in residence at Princeton are Lisa ‘MonaLisa’ Berman, Joseph ‘MN Joe’ Tran, Travis ‘Seqal’ Johnson, Azaria Evans-Parham, and Marie Thayer.