Editor Andrea is here today with a look into the world of AAPI hip hop dance.

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month back in May, I wrote a round of trivia about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the world of dance. The late ’90s and early 2000s saw a proliferation of Asian American student organizations on college campuses, many of whom formed dance groups as a separate part of the larger student organization. One of the pioneering college dance groups was Kaba Modern, founded in 1992 as part of the Filipino American student organization called Kababayan at University of California, Irvine. Kaba Modern not only highlighted hip hop dance but also created a space for fellow Asian Americans on campus to find community, do homework together, talk about race and identity, and learn more about their shared AAPI history. Other universities soon followed suit, with dance groups forming at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and other West Coast schools.

Hip hop dance groups began to emerge as a way for students to express themselves and challenge stereotypes. These groups provided a platform for Asian American students to showcase their talents and assert their cultural identities in a predominantly white collegiate environment. Groups like Kaba Modern, Team Millennia from Fullerton, and Culture Shock from San Diego gained national attention in the dance world. Kaba Modern and Team Millennia, for instance, achieved mainstream fame through their appearances on MTV’s "America’s Best Dance Crew" in the late 2000s. Their success on the show highlighted the high level of skill within college dance teams and brought greater visibility to Asian American dancers.

My own exposure to Asian American dance groups began in high school. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dance. I tried and made a fool of myself (this was pre-YouTube, thank heavens). Very soon after that, I resigned to being a spectator. High school was characterized by watching all of my friends dance. Shout out to Isang Hakbang, the traditional Filipino dance group at my high school. My friends worked tirelessly to prepare their traditional dance routine for Battle of the Bamboo, a cultural showcase and competition put on by Filipinos in Alliance, the Filipino student organization at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This particular dance is called "The Legend of Mount Kanlaon,” depicting a folktale about the sacrifice of Anina, a princess in a part of the Philippines called Visayas. According to the YouTube description, this performance tells the story of “a seven-headed dragon terrorizing their village in search for an unblemished maiden.” My college alma mater also had a prominent presence at Battle of the Bamboo. Throughout high school and college, I maintained an icy distance, almost a “too-cool-for-this-s***” attitude about dance groups, but deep down, the feeling of not fitting in made me question the validity of my own Filipino American identity. Did being a bad dancer make me a bad Filipino? I don’t know, maybe. I can’t sing either, and that’s perhaps the bigger disappointment.

The rise of Asian American hip hop dance groups in colleges is closely tied to issues of identity and representation. For many Asian American students, dancing offered a way to navigate their identities. They could celebrate their heritage while also participating in an art that had become a cool global phenomenon. Dance crews often infused their routines with elements reflecting their cultural heritage, creating a unique fusion that resonated with broader audiences. A great example of this is bhangra, a folk dance from Punjab, a region spanning northern India and Pakistan. Bhangra dancers such as BFunk contributed to the rise of the dance’s popularity in big cities. Since the representation of Asian Americans in mainstream media was often limited and confined to stereotypical roles. AAPI dance groups provided a counter-narrative, allowing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to be seen as innovators and leaders in a vibrant cultural sphere.