Wesley

BACKGROUND
He draws inspiration from many things outside of dance. His artistic journey is mostly fueled by his curiosity for movement in general and the way the body can adapt and learn so many different things. The body and mind aspect fascinates him a lot, because it allows him to dig deeper into what he feels is possible through visualisation in the mind, to then bring it into the physical aspect.
Throughout the years his focus has shifted from Martial arts, to Theatre, movement culture, fitness and many other things. He feels that this broad level of interests has shaped him a lot in his journey of dance. By incorporating certain key principles, it helped him to develop not only his language through movement, but also him as a person.
The reason why he feels so drawn to HipHop – and House dance – is because of the way it allows him to express himself. By bringing his personality into & outside the dance. He got inspired by documentaries like “Check You Body At The Door” (2011, dir. Sally R. Sommer, Charles Atlas, Michael Schwartz) where he felt connected to how the people in that documentary spoke, dressed, moved and were just vibrant about their way of being, their way of being together.

COMMUNITY
The HipHop and House community are a space purely for people like him. “Being honest about what you feel and how you go about things. It’s important to honor your core values and upholding them by your actions in communion with the other people in it.” It’s about honesty but also respect in that togetherness. He feels that this is also something he brings to the forefront in his teachings, the way we all should be with people in general.

WHY HHH?
“Because of the people, because it’s close to home…it is home. It stands for change, it’s for the community, and there are possibilities for the community being provided: collaboration, manifestation, and just pushing and moving forward. It’s what the culture is about and what the culture should be about. It’s about who should be there, in what positions, in which roles, and how we collaborate to keep moving forward.  That something that I really enjoy about Hiphophuis, it’s not about me teaching there…there are so many things happening in terms of events, people gathering, bringing people and new ideas together, talks about things that are important, opportunities and spaces that are being created for individuals and groups and for people to come together to enjoy these things that we love: Dance, art, DJing, graffiti, spoken word, breaking, and seeing it all flourish. So yeah…why Hiphophuis? Because of all of that!”