Myanmar MCs and Burmese B-Boys: ‘Break the Night’ Concert Highlights Hip-Hop

By Lwin Mar Htun 6 December 2019

An interdisciplinary hip-hop project bringing together hip-hop artists from Myanmar, France and Germany will hold its final event Saturday, a small concert called “Break the Night” at the French Institute Yangon.

The Myanmar-French-German hip-hop project, organized by the Institut Français de Birmanie and the Goethe-Institut Myanmar, aims to create a unique mix of hip-hop dance choreography, dance battles (also known as b-boy dancing), music production and DJs.

At the final performance of “Break the Night”, artists including DJ Densen (Germany), Saw Phoe Kwar, Tyrah-T, Boby Funk and Chan A Win will perform.

To prepare for the “Break the Night” performance, French choreographers Erwan Godard and Kader Attou from the National Choreographic Center in La Rochelle, France trained young hip-hop dancers from Myanmar for three weeks at the Goethe-Institut Myanmar.

The performance will feature a dance piece called “The Roots”, choreographed by Attou and Godard.

“We chose some students from here and worked together with them. They’re really hardworking and outstanding, and we’ve been happy to work with them during these three weeks,” said Godard at a rehearsal of the performance on Thursday.

The performance will also feature DJ Densen, from Germany, who has been exploring Yangon’s hip-hop scene. DJ Densen gave a DJ workshop with local DJ Boby Funk at Turning Tables Myanmar. The participants from the workshop will also perform at the final “Break the Night” event.

The event will also feature a hip-hop battle and an open graffiti wall—the fourth element of hip-hop culture, after dancing, rapping and DJing.

The “Break the Night” concert will run from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday and entrance is free for all.