Starting from a notebook, now we here!
How about recalling all the Hip Hop dance events we have been attending since 2011 with a focus on women representation within each one of them?
Here is a little homework:
How many women dancers have been animating workshops?
How many women dancers have been part of events as jury members?
How many of them have won prizes during events or joined battles?
Now, how about you answer the same questions for the opposite gender?
Did you spot some inequalities?
The Female Hip Hop Tunisian Dancers DID!
And as a solution-oriented team, the three young ladies, right after scribbling on their notebook, have come up with The Philanthropic Battle idea that turned into reality in just few weeks:
A two-day event that will take place in the “Complexe de Jeunesses Hammamet” on Juin 22 & 23, 2018.
We caught up with The Philanthropic Battle team to find out more about their movement, its mission & the event’s program. LESSGO!
Nour Ben Soltane, before discussing your mission, tell us more about your movement and the story behind P.B name?
The Female Hip Hop Tunisian Dancers movement is a two-month old baby, born out of a collaboration between three women dancers and friends: Nour Ben Soltane, Imen Maghraoui and Nour Aouichaoui.
About P.B name, it’s actually a kind of a love-at-first-sight story! Our English teacher introduced us to its definition and we perfectly connected with its meaning. We got the name approved by our team and here we are making things happen.
Imen Maghraoui, tell us more about the P.B mission and how did you turn it from idea into reality?
As young women dancers ourselves, we wanted to empower other ladies through our movement striving to spread awareness about the evolution of women in the Tunisian Hip Hop Dance scene.
We decided to take a first concrete action, with the collaboration of Art Solution Urban Art movement, our financial & logistics partner, that aims to increase women representation within the dance community.
We were invited by Art Solution to join the Creative Connection program “Tfanen” which helped us connect with other Hip Hop events’ organizers leading to a unique synergy that has inspired our team.
Nour Aouichaoui, how did your team align the event program with the P.B mission?
For P.B first edition, we aimed to involve more women dancers in our event by first working on creating connections with parents through the promotion of our all-female team. We think that it is positively impacting some overprotective parents’ perceptions as they believe Hip Hop dance events are an unsafe place for their daughters.
Then comes our major innovation that makes P.B a unique place to learn some rarely-taught dance styles in Tunisia where women can flourish and nourish their feminin attitude: Waacking, Afrodance and Dancehall sessions are scheduled among P.B workshops.
Do you have any advice to share with young dancers who would also like to make some changes within the Tunisian Hip Hop dance community?
SEEK HELP. Seeking help allows you to build your mentors network.
We are so thankful for receiving support from our two mentors Chouaib Ben Brick, Art Solution founder and Ahlem Ben Othman, our great coach. Their precious advices were key components of the P.B evolution.