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.