French government : Do not regulate hip-hop with a state diploma

The Issue

The French government is about to pass a bill that will regulate the teaching of hip-hop dance by creating a mandatory "degree" for hip-hop intructors. Such degrees were already created in 1989 for ballet, jazz and contemporary dance. Now they want to bundle hip-hop with the academic dances. We are hereby trying to prevent it by asking the government to leave hip-hop dance out of the scope of the regulation.

Here is why you should support us :

- Such a degree would inevitably define guidelines for hip-hop dance, its steps, technics, vocabulary, history etc. It would have a desastrous impact on the creativity and the enrichment of such a dynamic and lively art.

- Hip-hop is not ours to define and regulate. It is an artistic and cultural movement born in the US, but universally adopted. Why would the French governement be entitled to frame it ?

- We modestly think that the French hip-hop movement has participated in the growth of hip-hop and especially fed the streetdance scene with innovative dancers over the last few years. We fear that the regulation of hip-hop dance in France will create generations of clones and that we will no longer be able to participate in developing the hip-hop culture.

We do want hip-hop to be recognized as a legitimate and rich art and culture, we do want hip-hop dancers to have a job and to earn what they should for their talent, we do want our children to be safe when taking a class. We are just saying that a state diploma will not be the solution and that it would put at risk a whole culture for very little benefits.

The government has very few positions to offer to dance instructors and a state diploma will not create money to open more classes in the public or private sectors. All it would do is to give a "teacher licence" and allow very young and inexperienced instructors to teach about hip-hop dances just because they went to school about it - when other less academic dancers who actually live theses dances, with years of pratice and perfecting their art, would not have the same official credit.

In hip-hop, one size does not fit all. Hip-hop is uniqueness, creativity, freedom, self-expression. It is not something a diploma can embrace.

See petition in French

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More:

our website : lemoovement.com

Le Moovement HIP-HOPPetition StarterLe Moovement est un collectif de passionnés organisé dans le but de promouvoir et préserver les danses et le mouvement hip hop. Initié par des danseurs, des pédagogues, des organisateurs et des chercheurs du mouvement hip hop, il a vocation à rassembler le plus grand nombre pour la défense des valeurs et des fondements de la culture hip hop. Ce collectif a émergé face à la volonté des pouvoirs publics, et en particulier du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, d’encadrer la pratique et l’enseignement des danses hip hop, au même titre que les danses « académiques » : la danse classique, la danse jazz et la danse contemporaine. Aujourd’hui notre préoccupation est de défendre la liberté qui nourrit notre danse. Demain peut-être, nous devrons faire encore plus si notre culture est menacée.

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