WELCOME TO THE 

INTANGIBLE ROOTS

PEDAGOGICAL SCHOOL

A dynamic polymathic educational experience which focuses on enhancing and furthering the knowledge of Black dance, movement, music, culture, history, heritage, technique, and its people.

“...I know there exists impalpable elements that lie beyond physical movement. They are intangibles that tether jazz dance to an African American experience and hold a deep structure of cellular memory of African aesthetics, traditions, and rituals.”

~ E. Moncell Durden

From Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century

ABOUT

INTANGIBLE ROOTS is a dynamic polymathic educational experience created by embodied historian, filmmaker, and author E. Moncell Durden. What many think began as an online course has a dynamic history and is now morphing and transforming into something new..

MISSION

INTANGIBLE ROOTS’ primary mission is to provide professional development, certification and accreditation programs that develop polymathic educators in order to preserve the music, movement, history, and heritage of Black folkloric expression — including, but not limited to Cuban, Haitian, American, and West African origin by providing programming that individuals, non-profits, and school/studio systems can incorporate into their practice.

Courses, events, lectures and knowledge drops will begin your preparation for developing, instructing, educating, and teaching others by providing a deeply-rooted comprehension of the cultural context for Black dance practices — including, but not limited to Jazz, Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, House, and more.

HISTORY

During the 2001 Illadelph Legends, a summer festival held in Philadelphia by Rennie Harris Puremovement, Durden first had the idea of developing a certification program to teach people the who, what, when, where, why, and how of Hip Hop dance culture. As he developed the program, he began to interview the pioneers of the dance forms associated with Hip Hop culture. He turned those interviews into a documentary entitled Everything Remains Raw: A Historical Perspective on Hip Hop Dance.

In 2007 while still developing the certification, Durden was asked to participate in a weeklong intensive in Moscow, Russia. During this engagement he met and befriended Alkas Raftis, the President of the International Dance Council CID, Paris. CID was, and still is, the official umbrella organization for all forms of dance globally in addition to being an official partner of UNESCO. While in Moscow, Durden conducted personal research on CID and UNESCO, and he discovered that these organizations work to safeguard intangible cultural heritage: thus, the inspiration behind the name “INTANGIBLE ROOTS.” Alkas Raftis was interested in achieving for Hip Hop what had already been granted to other folkloric dances around the world: Government recognition of dance as cultural folklore. If Hip Hop could be identified in this way at a government level, it could become mandatory curriculum in schools. Unfortunately, the larger Hip Hop community did not understand the significance of this opportunity, and there wasn’t enough support for the endeavor. After years of trying, Durden moved on. He copyrighted the name INTANGIBLE ROOTS in 2010 but It wasn’t until 2020 during the pandemic that he decided to revisit the name and put it to use.

On Friday March 13th, 2020, The University of Southern California was heading into their Spring Break when all faculty, including Durden, received an email stating that school would continue remotely via ZOOM. Durden thought to himself, “there are many people globally that have expressed a wish to experience my lecture classes. Perhaps this pandemic is providing an opportunity to make that happen.” Durden could not and did not allow anyone to participate in his USC ZOOM classes. Instead, social media provided a platform through which he could share his knowledge to a global community. On Saturday March 28th, Moncell stated via Instagram that he would go live every Saturday for 10 weeks in order to provide free lectures to the Hip Hop dance community. These were the first online lectures for dance during the pandemic. Durden sometimes invited other prominent dancers in the community to discuss issues via his IG live, from tradition-bearing and cultural legacy to racial awareness and appropriation. The success of these lives led Durden to provide 4 full-length lectures in July 2020. These classes took place every Friday via ZOOM with lessons such as:

  • Ring Shout and the Kongo Cosmogram on July 10th , 2020

  • Blackface Minstrelsy, Black Hair, and Black Awareness on July 17th, 2020

  • Dance Beyond the Movement on July 24th, 2020

  • Exploring the Cultural Lineage of Hip Hop Dance on July 31st , 2020

These university-style lectures led to emails and DM’s asking if Durden would continue to offer information throughout the year. He decided to hold a Winter lecture session December 2020 and then another Summer session in 2021. He held all sessions under his brand, “INTANGIBLE ROOTS.” This all prompted Durden to return to his certification from 2001 and begin developing an educational program that could help other “street dance” practitioners not only dig deeper into the rich legacies and cultural dynamics of Hip Hop dance but also learn how to navigate academic institutions offering opportunities to teach. Durden’s certification was also focused on helping faculty in those institutions have a better comprehension of the history and heritage of Hip Hop dance by providing supplemental material for movement and theoretical classes.

PRESENT & FUTURE

Now, as an organization, INTANGIBLE ROOTS hosts events and offers lectures, knowledge drops, and merchandise through Patreon. Dropping soon will be INTANGIBLE ROOTS: Pedagogical School. The school’s courses will continue to focus on enhancing and furthering the knowledge of Black dance, movement, music, culture, history, heritage, technique, and people. These courses will prepare participants for developing, instructing, educating, and teaching others by providing a comprehension of the cultural context for Black dance practices. These practices include but are not not limited to: Jazz, Soul, Funk, Hip Hop, and House.

  • INTANGIBLE ROOTS was established to educate, instruct and inspire people of every age, gender, religion, ethnicity, and social background on the authentic forms of Black Vernacular Dance.

  • INTANGIBLE ROOTS aims to help teachers and students comprehend the historical, cultural and social context of how different countries analyze and interpret dance. Students can also come to an understanding of their own culture and begin to respect dance as part of their heritage.

  • The courses offer a structured curriculum framework, to support dancers and teachers when developing their classes and movement practices or discourse around particular subject material.

  • Be able to think critically and creatively utilizing various approaches to viewing, embodying, listening, discussing, and analyzing expressions and aesthetics celebrated within Black social cultural identities.

    Learn how to break down, demonstrate, and explore music and movement ideas for yourself and others in a way that offers a vast repertoire for self-expression.

    Learn how to explore contextual detail while observing and interpreting social meaning when conducting investigative research.

    Discuss social/cultural expressions, values, and differences in the field of music, and dance, and ideas around the quality of life.

  • Critical thinking: (problem solving) Whose narrative is present? Why did they call it that? What do the gestures mean? What are their intentions? Whose interests are being represented or preserved?

    Creative thinking: (a process) A way of looking at a problem or situation, from a new or different perspective that suggests an unorthodox solution.

  • Given today’s climate of social cultural awareness and the globalization of hip hop...with its complex blend of racial participation and unique interests, there is a need for appropriate mechanisms to uphold and defend Black folkloric traditions on national and global education platforms. Programs must be developed to secure quality in all elements, including adequate resources, supportive materials, and well-prepared educators. To engage in and sustain the kind of educational reform necessary in speaking about Afro-diasporic cultures, there must be support provided to those who are educating students. Supportive, structured curriculum frameworks can help eliminate the frustration that results when the historical innovations of the creators and pioneers are not linked. A curriculum framework can be designed to assist curriculum developers in overcoming policy fragmentation, by moving away from organizing only the content knowledge of a single movement principle discipline, and toward developing a coherent view of other disciplines. This action, in turn, can structure and guide policy choices about instructional programs, material adoption, teacher and administrator preparation, certification, professional development, accreditation and assessment.