City Sessions is coming in hot as part of the Live at the Bowl program after celebrating street dance in Melbourne’s public spaces for over nine years.
On Saturday 17 April, this iconic freestyle dance battle event will be adapted for the Sidney Myer Music Bowl as Australia’s best go head-to-head in a 2vs2 battle in the dance styles of Hip Hop, House and Funk.
Cypher Culture’s City Sessions is a series of public activations that create engaging environments to showcase diverse street dance communities through freestyle dance battles. The series is recognised as Melbourne’s largest and longest standing exchange of subcultural dance in the public space.
“Cypher Culture supports dance that comes from the city. It’s the music, the people, the community. As Melbourne is such a diverse city, City Sessions is a great way for cultural exchange. City Sessions started at a grassroots level in our city’s civic spaces and has provided an outlet for the wider street dance community to connect with the public in a celebratory manner,” says producer of City Sessions Efren Pamilacan.
The event will be held in two stages. From 10am – 3:30pm there will be a non-public Preliminary Freestyle Dance Battle. Judges will then select the winners who will go on to compete in the evening event from 5:30pm – 10pm, which will be an elimination-style tournament hosted by MCs.
To keep the music vibe at an all-time high, the final battle event will be in close collaboration with the ever-growing local music scene in Melbourne with DJs Mero and Mothafunk bringing the beats. To celebrate the diverse forms of street dance, City Sessions will also showcase communities including House of Dévine, Jungle City, Burn City Waack and L2R Dance.
City Sessions is renowned for bringing street dancers from across Victoria together for a raw and energetic celebration of street culture.
“The community are people from diverse backgrounds who meet in the city not just because it’s a civic art form, but because it was a halfway point for people coming in from all points of the compass; a focus. They are dancers from Hip Hop, House, Popping, Break, Krump, Dancehall, Footwork and Locking backgrounds so all of them operate outside of studio settings,” said Ef.
Supported by the City of Melbourne and Arts Centre Melbourne, City Sessions is presented by Cypher Culture, a community-focused street/club dance initiative that fosters experiences that create spaces for social, cultural and community dances to be celebrated.
City Sessions is a free event but tickets must be purchased to ensure formal seating allocation. Tickets will go on sale from 12pm, Monday 29 March via liveatthebowl.com.au
We’re excited to be welcoming visitors back to our venues in line with the most recent Victorian Government guidelines on COVID-19. We have opened our outdoor café Protagonist, the Sunday Markets as well as the Australian Music Vault. These openings coincided with the Live at the Bowl season, which officially kicked off on 8 January 2021.
We will continue to offer audiences the chance to experience the wonder of the performing arts via our digital hub – Together With You. For more information including: our opening plans and related health and safety policies; bookings for free and ticketed events; and other digital content and experiences, please visit artscentremelbourne.com.au.
