Wake Up Street Session (Hip-Hop battle dance in Mauritius)

Wake Up Session

Wake Up Session is a street dance event created in 2010 who introduced a regular battle dance platform in Mauritius, with over 50 events organized until now. The events are always free for public and all artists and staff has always volunteered to help maintain this platform as often as possible.

Several categories of dance battles are proposed on Wake Up Session:

1. BBoying - Breakdance
2. Debout – All Style Hip Hop dance
3. Dancehall Battle
4. Afro Battle

The contest occurs as a tournament (Qualification- ¼ - Semi - Final) in 1vs1, 2vs2 or dance crews vs dance crews. 

 

Since 2011, Wake Up Session collaborated with Reunion Island organization Soul City so that Mauritius Island can be represented on the Indian Ocean breakdance championship called ‘Battle de l’Ouest. Each year since, Mauritian dancers are selected to represent our island on the Indian Ocean breakdance finals held at Reunion Island.

Over the years we have:

 

Been hosted at : 

 

Caudan Waterfront | Orchard Center Quatre Bornes | Trianon Shopping Park | Phoenix Les Halles |Port-Louis Waterfront (SPDL )| Skate Park Bagatelle |Cascavelle shopping Village | Super U Grand Baie | Riverside Complex Rivière du Rempart |

Collaborated with : 

 

US Embassy of Mauritius |Institut Francais de Maurice |AEISEC (University of Mauritius) |Orange Street Dance| Malta Guiness Street Dance |

Partnered with International dance organizations

Urban Konection Festival ( Reunion Island ) | Battle de l’Ouest Indian Ocean Championship ( Reunion Island ) | Bboy Bgirl Africa ( Dakar Senegal ) | Break Battle Sud Internatinal Break Festival ( Reunion Island) | Battle Of The Year, BOTY ( South Africa )

About Street Dance in Mauritius

 

About Street Dance

Street dance is a language that speaks directly to most youth around the world since its mainstream broadcast in Hollywood blockbusters (You Got served, Step Up series, Street Dance 3D), Pop and Urban music videos and ongoing contests around the world.

Battle Street dance contest which is still disregarded in Mauritius is yet a culture that is extremely popular worldwide with international championships being organized on all continents.

Some of the most known contest are : UK BBoy Championship, The Notorious IBE in Holland, R16 Korea, BOTY ( World Cup breakdance in Germany ) , Red Bull BC One ( World Series ), Chelles Battle Pro (France)

Why Street Dance in Mauritius?

This popular culture eventually reached Mauritius and since 2010 has been more popularized with the creation of street dance platform, Wake Up Session.

Mauritius street dancers are very talented and have been participating in the Indian Ocean championships held at Reunion Island since 2011, as well as participated on several championships in France. In 2016 Mauritius Street dancers have been invited to South Africa and Dakar to participate on the African breakdance Championship BBA.

It is a physically demanding dance form, especially break dancing which has many acrobatic moves. Besides its health benefits, street dance helps Mauritian youth to valorize themselves and teach them to give the best of themselves always. It brings strong social cohesion amongst youth from different backgrounds and keep them away from bad influences such as drugs and violence.

Our Expectations and Motivations

We have a concern to bring to Mauritius the street dance culture as per the international standard. Many talented Mauritian dancers are representing our island on championships overseas.

We hope to start a healthy and fun activity at a National scale which will only benefit the Mauritian culture diaspora and help our dancers attain an international level and be true ambassadors when participating on overseas championships.

Many dancers who participated on Wake Up Session are now professional street dancers in hotels. There have been three street dancing schools opened since and many workshops proposed by several dancers around youth centers in Mauritius.

We are completely sure that this culture can help Mauritian youth get away from drugs and violence as well as bring them a lot of positive benefits in their social life.

Kenjee Kennedy

Kenjee is an organizer of Hip Hop dance competitions and producer in audiovisual active since 2007. 

He is mostly known for being the organizer of Wake Up Sessions, a contest that introduced battle dance competition in Mauritius in 2010 with events held around commercial centers in Mauritius until now. 

 

Since Childhood, Kenjee has always participated in gigs in school and started theatre in college where he got the chance to attend several workshops organized by Ministry of Arts and Culture. He would later follow several other courses on sound engineering, Lighting and Acting &Play production offered by the Ministry of Arts and Culture to deepen his interest in live performance organizations.

After completing his HSC in 2004, Kenjee started a music recording studio and has produced up to now several music albums for different artists and was introduced to Rap music.

Winner of CCF Charles Baudelaire (now IFM) contest ‘Tremplin Classe des Charles’ in 2008, Kenjee was invited to produce at Reunion Island International Hip Hip Festival Urban Konection, in 2009 and 2010. 

 

In 2012 he started in video production and produced several music videos that plays on National TV as well as Satellite TV Channels. Please visit his website to find out more about his artistic collaborations.

His Top 5 Achievements 

1. Organizer and Speaker of Wake up Sessions, over 50 public events, most recent being 09.04.16.
   
   
2. Producer of short film ‘Danse 2 Ri’, a documentary about street dancing in 2013.
   
   
3. Organizer of animations and speaker for Orange Street Dance six shows in Mauritius and Rodrigues in 2011.
   
   
4. Speaker for Malta Guinness Street Dance 2016.
   
   
5. Created a cultural bridge with several Reunion Island organizations where Mauritius has been invited to participate in their Indian Ocean Championship contest since 2011.

 

Orange Street Dance 2011

Orange Street Dance was an event organized in 2011 by Mauritius Telecom and was the biggest event dedicated to the street dance culture in Mauritius Island.

 

Shows were organized at Mahebourg Waterfront, Trianon Shopping Park, Caudan Waterfront, Riviere du Rempart and the big final was organized at Rose Hill Plaza . A special edition was also organized in Rodrigues Island.

Qualifications were held around the Island for three different dance competitions.

1. BBoying
2. Danse Debout
3. Dance wid my Music ' Choreography of Dance Shows '

The BBoying and Danse Debout battle dance were organised as 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 contests.


Kenjee Kennedy  organized the  contests and also animated all  events for Mauritius Telecom.

Video of the Final 1 vs 1 BBoy Kas T Vs BBoy Crazy 
https://youtu.be/8KeUuBq18L0

 

 

Video of Final Debout 1 vs 1 Lil Freeze Vs Monster 

 https://youtu.be/v9vgnBgeYQ0

 

Video of BBoying 2 vs 2 Final Nova & Kid Power Vs Kas-t & Thiza

 

https://youtu.be/at-23kJCDTc
 

Video of Juste Debout 2 vs 2 Final  Far Out & Winley Vs Seb & Tifou

https://youtu.be/oTgDnb6XhnA

 

Video of M Brothers Dance wid my Music Winner

https://youtu.be/_kQC7b9CSX0

Other videos of Orange Street Dance from Orange Mauritius Channel 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4FD50C630E0839F4

(Skip the first three videos which have obviously nothing to do in the OSD Playlist  )

 

 

Wake Up Session (Mauritius Hip-hop platform)

Wake Up Street Session started as a street dance event dedicated only to BBoying culture in 2010, it initiated Battle Dance culture in Mauritius and gradually evolved into a Street Arts platform to host several other dance genres such as New Style, Popping and dancehall battles.
Over 50 events have been held since its creation and this platform created a cultural bridge with Reunion Island dance professionals, which allowed Mauritian dancers to participate on several contests there since 2010.

The latest event has been produced: 09th of April 2016 at Port Louis Waterfront! (more coming)

 

 

More recently Wake Up Session hosted Afro Battles during its event. Many local Emceez and popular artists performed on the event over the years.

Video by DJP Studio of a 2015 Wake Up Session
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8HnahiRRd4

Video of Gary Victor performing 'Zoli Mamzel' on Wake Up Session

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVmMzv_oEBw

 

The first session of Wake Up event occurred on the 27th of November 2010 after Kenjee came back from his second participation on the Urban Konection Festival held at Reunion Island.
Having previously organized Kolt'art Live in 2007 and 2008 in Youth Centres and Private Clubs, Kenjee knew that to make the street dance culture popular, he had to produce these events in front of the public to get their attention on this culture.

All Wake Up Sessions were organized in commercial centres around the Island. The first four monthly events took place in Orchard Center QBornes, Phoenix Les Halles, Caudan Waterfront and Trianon Shopping Centre respectively.

If any organizations or institutions wish to host or sponsor a Wake Up Session, please feel free to Contact Us

Here below are some video trailers of Wake Up Sessions organized during the past 5 years.
Wake Up Session 2010 - Phoenix les Halles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43UnSVhBmmU

 

Wake Up Session 2011 - Caudan Waterfront

 

 https://youtu.be/fEOPbhxGedI

Wake Up Session 2012- Battle de l'Ouest Mauritius Qualifications

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVstg2MLns

Wake Up Session 2013 - Cascavelle

 https://youtu.be/eNF08Ts3o1g

 

Battle de l'Ouest 2013 - Mauritius Qualifications on Wake Up Session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOyUEB7CDy4

 

You may watch out all Wake Up Sessions videos on Kenjee Kennedy's Youtube Channel Playlist

Caudan Waterfront became the favourite spot for competitions and hosted many of the Wake Up Sessions until 2015.

Over the years, Wake Up Session gained in popularity and nowadays the event attracts a lot of local fans.