Hip-hop culture starting erupting in Argentina in the 80s with the decentralised regions and suburbs of Buenos Aires province acting as the epicentre. This eruption was a way for the voices of young people to express their feelings in suburban neighbourhoods and it reached its definitive explosion in the 90's when it gained momentum as a tool of social protest and awareness. After the recovery of our economic crisis in 2001 the country – surprisingly – opened a large number of urban dance academies with highly qualified artistic staff that were spread all over the bonaerense territory like: Blow Up Studio, Lanus Dance School, MOTUS and La Boheme.

The Argentinian anthropologist and Doctor of Natural Sciences Ana Sabrina Mora looks at the ways of conceiving the political nature of artistic practice and its transformative potentialities: "the perspective according to which artistic practice is understood as a creative form of political action and as a staging or staging of a political construction that exceeds the limits of art.” [1] Building on this, I want to introduce the idea of ​​Present Bodies, which refers to those who find in this path of activism a way of positioning Voguing and Hip-Hop/Urban Dances as socially legitimate channels to echo and articulate the democratic problems and conditions that cross the different territories of our Latin American region.

The project El Parlamento del Futuro – created by the Laboratory of Living Arts and Citizenship, TENERIFE LAV in Spain – uses dance, music and citizen engagement to centre the voices of young people and promote a higher degree of debate and critical thinking. TENERIFE LAV is a live arts and citizenship platform created and directed by Javier Cuevas y Beatriz Bello, in Tenerife, Spain; their project El Parlamento del Futuro has been re-adapted and implemented with Argentinian youth communities and organisations in 2021 by an interdisciplinary team integrated by myself (a cultural dance manager), the director of Arte y Vida Civil Association, Indiana Litwinchuk and the Body Studies Research Team members from the National University of La Plata (Mariana Saez, Ana Sabrina Mora, Juliana Verdenelli and Lucía Merlos). In my case, I am in charge of the General Coordination of this re-adapted version which represents a first methodological, open source collaboration between TENERIFE LAV and our team. The aim of this collaboration is to decentralise this performative tool, experience its impact with other alternative dance forms in the South American region like hip-hop and exchange them with new methodologies for translating, amplifying and redirecting choreographic compositions through empowered bodies.

Artistic expressions linked to Hip Hop culture in the suburbs of Buenos Aires find their greatest representation in the music of hip-hop and in its synchronic ally the freestyle dance. In their choreographic approach, urban dances have converted the traditional street scene as a framework for fights and violence in some neighbourhoods into a new state of co-existence due to the energy of bodies in rhythm, moves becoming more complex and the physical demands needed for those urban dances.

The suburbs of Buenos Aires demonstrate multiple layers and complexities for young people which represent different powers and challenges. Avenue General Paz acts as the boundary - both defined and permeable - between the metropolitan city and province. How do communities and diversities meet and coexist? What forms of dialogue and exchange can be established? What common horizons and future perspectives can be built together? A large number of young people across the different suburbs have found these Hip Hop languages ​​- not only as entertainment - but as a vehicle towards building a collective and political future, to express their visions of the world and to bond with others.

“Today I met other kids who talked about love, empathy and caring for the environment. With this dance, hip-hop, you are never alone, because wherever you go to dance it, you will find others who are there communicating from the dance in the same way and thinking about the future. We believe that a different future is possible.”
Luz, a participant of El Parlamento del futuro - Argentina in the district of San Martín.
 

In the same way that Evelyn highlights the role of Voguing in Colombia - which has managed to captivate and occupy the activist space of social protest – hip-hop and freestyle dance in certain districts of Buenos Aires has also found a way to begin to empower young people who inhabit these territories.

Hip Hop helps bodies become absorbent and porous to community, dissent, violence and politics; it enables each new generation to work towards a more just, respectful and equitable future for all. This is why El Parlamento del Futuro works with Hip Hop, it is a space that can hold new creative approaches and alternate artistic expressions for young people and it has a rich history of democracy, community and citizen participation. We need our public policy makers to shake up their thoughts and make way for a more provocative democracy. A democracy that knows how to (re)move, a democracy that reminds us how strong we can be, a full democracy, on the move.