Bouncing on her tippy toes with her hand stuck straight up in the air, 10-year-old Gracyn fixed her eyes on the two young teachers at the front of the room. “Me! Me! I can do it!” she called over the upbeat music. The instructor leading the class smiled and nodded to give her the go-ahead. Looking around at her expectant classmates, Gracyn smirked in anticipation and paused for dramatic effect. Then she bent her knees and began shuffling her feet back and forth in time to the music. “Look, look, I’m doing the running man!” she said, a wide grin plastered on her face. Soon, her peers and the teachers followed suit, filling the room with the sound of shuffling feet and gleeful squeals.
For an hour each week, select classrooms at 32nd Street Elementary School transform into hip-hop dance havens. Kaufman Connections brings USC students from the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance to the neighboring school where they share their hip-hop dance knowledge. Launched in 2018, Kaufman Connections promotes community engagement by introducing the joy of dance to children in kindergarten through fifth grade. While the students in the elementary school benefit from the artistic instruction, the program also supports college students aspiring to be community leaders.
Atticus Dobbie, a USC Kaufman fourth-year, has taught for Kaufman Connections since his first year. He continues to teach each semester because he is fulfilled and inspired by students like Gracyn who embrace their instinct to move and dance. As he instructs fifth grade this semester, Dobbie crafts lesson plans each week centering on hip-hop’s core values and rich background.
“By teaching about the history and cultural context of hip hop, I have grown as an artist myself,” said Dobbie. When he taught the Running Man to his class, he explained its origins in the late 80s and its ties to Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. Kaufman Connections educates instructors like Dobbie on preserving hip-hop’s legacy for the next generation.
USC Kaufman professor Tiffany Bong founded Kaufman Connections because of her relationship to hip-hop and its transformative power. Bong was introduced to hip-hop in sixth grade during a school workshop. From that moment, she says, her life improved: her grades got better and she became more sociable. Her lifestyle change can be credited to the chance to express herself freely. Bong’s lived experiences continue to drive her, as she provides similar opportunities with Kaufman Connections for other children.
“It’s all about dance literacy…It’s important to transmit knowledge through the arts because it increases children’s social-emotional skills,” Bong said.
Bong also hosts workshops for the teaching artists to ensure they’re supported and equipped for this role. In these meetings, she reiterates how to facilitate effective classes that accomplish the goals of Kaufman Connections. One important goal is fostering cypher culture. Bong says cypher culture is a “long-time communal practice that actively builds space for community, safety and storytelling.”
In dance, a cypher is a circle where one person dances in the center and freestyles before trading places with another dancer outside the circle. In practice, however, cyphers are complicated and require participants to be active watchers and listeners.
Participants must maintain close attention to each person dancing in the center and negotiate their time accordingly – both to hold space for other dancers and to plan their own time to dance. The cypher is constantly changing, which requires adaptability and awareness.
“There are so many levels of intelligence and it’s all happening in real-time,” said Bong.
Dobbie views the cypher as an avenue for kids to get out of their comfort zones and express their personalities. Some students are bound to be nervous in the beginning, but they eventually break out of their shells and blossom. “By the end-of-semester show, all of the students are dancing machines,” Dobbie said.
The Kaufman Connections show is the culminating event of the program each semester. All of the participating classes gather to perform routines, and parents are invited to watch their kids show off their new skills. By the end of the event, the contagious energy transforms the show into one big dance party where students, teachers and parents come together and cypher as a community.
Since 2018, the parents of students participating in Kaufman Connections have become more involved. During pandemic-era restrictions, Bong remembers parents watching from outside the school’s fence to catch a glimpse of their children dancing in the final performance. But at the most recent showcase, the parents were able to fully witness the power of Kaufman Connections. Bong described it as a significant reunion.
“A reunion implies that the community already exists,” she said “They were finally able to dance with their kids,” Bong thought it was a beautiful experience to see hip-hop transcending generational boundaries and bringing together diverse cultures in one space.
Kaufman Connections is continuing to empower children like Gracyn and teachers like Dobbie through hip-hop. With every Running Man, cabbage patch or two-step, students are finding their voices, expressing themselves, and celebrating the rich history of hip hop. Instructors like Dobbie are not just teaching dance; they’re passing on a tradition and enhancing children’s lives. When asked what Dobbie was going to teach his class next, he smiled broadly and said, “Next week, we are doing cyphers!”