Youth Dance Invitational and Film Screening

Breaking Boundaries with Breakdancing at Green Street

On May 21st and 22nd, Green Street Arts Center will celebrate National Hip Hop Week and local break dancing and hip-hop performers with a documentary film screening and dance competition. Both events feature young dancers from in and around Middletown.

On Friday, filmmaker Bridget Palardy, Wesleyan University Class of ’05, will present Middletown B-Boys, a documentary following two B-Boy crews currently operating in Middletown, Of Shadow and Earth and 4-ONE. According to Palardy, the film “is a portrait of the two crews as they negotiate religion, race, drug abuse and life in a small city.” Middletown B-Boys recently won the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Jesse Thompkins III Artist Award of Distinction, and was officially selected by the Chicago International Hip Hop Film Festival. Following Palardy’s presentation and film will be a “cypher,” or break dancing event, between local crews.

The following day will feature a competition between the best local youth dance groups, hosted by ThoroEnergy and Of Shadow and Earth, in partnership with Green Street. ThoroEnergy is a newly formed hip-hop dance troupe featuring several Green Street students and founded by alumnus Eric Quiñones. The Youth Dance Invitational is a chance for kids ages 8-16 to compete against their peers and experience a larger hip hop and break dancing scene. Prizes will be awarded for the top dancers in a one-on-one bboy/bgirl battle and hip hop freestyle categories. Visit Green Street’s blog for more info about the events.

Bridget Palardy will show Middletown B-Boys on Friday, May 21st at 7pm at the Green Street Arts Center, located at 51 Green Street in Middletown. The Youth Dance Invitation will be held at Green Street the following afternoon on Saturday, May 22nd at 1pm. Admission to both events costs $8 for non-members and $5 for members, students, and seniors. For more information or to purchase tickets call 860-685-7871 or visit www.greenstreetartscenter.org.

About Bridget Palardy
Palardy, a resident of Brooklyn, NY, has also contributed to new films The Better Half (as Director of Photography, official selection at SXSW Film Festival and LA Shorts Fest) and The Distance Between the Apple and the Tree (Co-Director, Best New Filmmaker at Del Ray Film Festival.) She currently freelances as a video director and editor in the New York area under the production moniker, Sharkaa Films.

About the Green Street Arts Center
Wesleyan University’s Green Street Arts Center, which opened in January 2005, is a vibrant center for arts education, serving residents of the neighborhood and the region. It is a project of Wesleyan University in collaboration with the City of Middletown and the North End Action Team (NEAT). Programming in the former schoolhouse at 51 Green Street includes an after school arts education program and a wide range of affordable classes and workshops for children and adults in music, dance, visual arts, theater, sound recording, media arts and creative writing.