Who Are We

The Harlequin Hipsters is a collaborative performance collective whose aim is to honor, celebrate and continue to evolve the rich heritage of American social dance. Through the synthesis and re-imagining of swing, hip-hop, clown, acrobatics and modern Circus disciplines, we craft experiences that invoke in our audiences a spirit of dance, play and wonder…

Phew! That was a mouthful. And here’s the key: we love to play. The Harlequin Hipsters were born out of a desire to bring performance to the people; to provide a little something out of the ordinary – of the unexpected – into daily life. From this simple intention, we’ve expanded our notion of what partner dance can be. As we experience music in this technological age, we experience culture through a constantly expanding and evolving lens.

As dancers, we are curious to explore the furthest reaches of musicality from a partnering context while incorporating stylistics from a wide range of influences. The tradition of clowning provides a wonderful springboard for this exploration. As we dance we also play. We abjure the fear of looking silly on the dance floor by embracing that risk as a gateway to new and challenging material.