Performance still of “Coded Language” (2023) choreographed and performed by Serouj Aprahamian. Photo by Natalie Fiol.
Meet Serouj
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Serouj Aprahamian and I’m originally from Southern California where I grew up involved in dance styles like breaking, popping, and freestyling. Having gained notoriety, under the moniker “Midus,” for my unique approach to these styles, I have traveled throughout the world teaching, performing, and judging at hip-hop dance events. I also received a PhD in Dance Studies at York University in 2021, with a focus on the beginnings of hip-hop dance in the Bronx, NY, during the 1970s. My dissertation was the basis of my first book, The Birth of Breaking: Hip-Hop History from the Floor Up (Bloomsbury 2023), and my scholarship has been published in the Journal of Black Studies, Dance Research Journal, IASPM Journal, The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies (Oxford University Press 2022), and the forthcoming anthology Power Moves: Dance, Culture, Politics (Playwrights Canada Press).
Briefly explain your artistic practice and/or scholarly research.
Both my artistic practice and scholarly research are rooted in underground dancing, meaning community-based forms of kinesthetic expression that develop largely outside of formal institutions. Most of the styles I am interested in—such as breaking, popping, and freestyling—are associated with hip-hop but not strictly beholden to it. My choreographic practice stems from the aesthetics and movement concepts within these forms, and my scholarly research focuses on their histories, symbolic meanings, and mainstream (mis)representations.
What sparked your interest in this work?
As a practitioner involved in these dance styles for almost three decades, I have seen them proliferate throughout the world and impact every facet of modern global culture. Yet, I have also seen how they are regularly overlooked and/or obscured in dominant discourse. The contradiction between their significance and the host of myths and misconceptions surrounding their practice is what initially drove my research.
Performance still of “Coded Language” (2023) choreographed and performed by Serouj Aprahamian. Photo by Natalie Fiol.
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How do you hope your work impacts people?
I hope my work will inspire people to pay greater attention to how community-based dance forms affect everything from musical innovations to the construction of identity in human affairs. I also hope to contribute to conversations around how structures of power and communities of practice shape knowledge production and cultural behavior.
What is your favorite or informal way or space to engage with arts and culture in your community?
My favorite arenas for engaging with the arts are still impromptu dance circles—or “cyphers” as we like to refer to them. The exchange of energy and improvisatory experimentation that exists in such circles is, to me, unmatched. I imagine that’s why they continue to remain central to all forms of hip-hop dance.
Anything else you’d like to add or emphasize?
I want to add that I have been greatly inspired by the faculty and students here in the Department of Dance at U of I, specifically, and the College of Fine and Applied Arts, more generally. They have reminded me of the importance of cultivating spaces where community is built through diversity and where ambitious goals are pursued with an openness to change and experimentation.
