ABOUT BREEZIE

ARTIST STATEMENT

I make dances that reflect my passion for community-building and engagement as a hip hop practitioner, dance educator, choreographer, and visual artist - connecting artistic communities and people, celebrating individuality and independence, and resisting measured value by economic production through authentic, creative participation and appreciation. To participate in the ongoing community-building through anti-racism and inclusivity, I aim to honor the legacies, traditions, and practices of Black Culture and Hip Hop Culture in which I am a guest. As I utilize the movement from Black dance forms preserved and innovated by Black and Brown bodies, I acknowledge my whiteness and aim to co-create space-making and joy-making possibilities through/within the dances I make and the resources I have access to.

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BIOGRAPHY

Cherie “Breezie” Gendron, grew up in Atlanta, GA in the 1990s through the early 2000s, spent her high school years in Houston, TX, and later started her journey in higher education in Santa Cruz, CA. These cities had a huge impact on her in how she developed as an artist, dancer, and community member. Growing up in Atlanta, Breezie's dance and cultural knowledge were informed by dance studios, dance competitions, and theatres as well as skating rink dance contests and underage clubs. As a hip hop and house dancer, she honors their origins as freestyle and cypher-based dance forms, attends weekly cypher sessions, hosts jams, and enters battles to inform her technique and express her commitment to the street dance community.

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Breezie received her BA in Dance from UCLA's Department of World Arts & Cultures in 2019 and her MFA in Dance from the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2022. With over 20 years of dance training and performing, over 10 years of choreographing, and eight years of teaching, she builds upon her dance knowledge by expanding her theoretical research and regularly attending workshops, conferences, and panel discussions. In 2022, Breezie was selected to present her research paper, I Can Do It Too: Hip Hop Social Dances, Appropriation, & Whiteness on TikTok, at DSA Conference, Dancing Resilience: Dance Studies and Activism in a Global Age, hosted by Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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In 2021, a collection of Breezie's dance films were featured at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum (HiSAM) as part of the "Dance for Camera:
Screendance and Movement Media Art" exhibition. Her dance film, ABSORB, was selected in 2022 to be featured in the "Creativity in the Time of COVID-19" project and online collection at Michigan State University. In 2022, Breezie performed her work Seule, a house dance solo, live at HiSAM as part of the "First Friday Performances" exhibition. Invited by artistic director, Sami “Cocoa Chandelier” Akuna, the solo was one of a five-piece show titled TheQueeries. As a member of the house dance crew House Ohana, Breezie and crew were invited to perform in the 2022 festival, "East-West Fest: Celebrating Cultures," at the International Conference Center at Jefferson Hall at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. In 2023, Breezie performed alongside dancer, Henry Harrison II, in her work Natu Natu Remix part of Dr. Sai Bhatawadekar's  dance concert, Māyā: A Live Dance Concert, at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA).

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TEACHING

Since 2015, Breezie has taught at dance studios (teens and adults // 18+), public schools, and private schools (Kindergarten & Grades 1-10). She was a guest lecturer for hip hop dance courses and taught students at the collegiate level. Breezie currently directs an after-school dance program at Nu'uanu Elementary School wherein she teaches hip hop dance. She is also currently Co-Curricular Dance Faculty at Punahou School where she teaches hip hop dance and house dance technique courses. Most recently, she taught and set five choreographies on stage for the Dance School department student performance, Universal Dreams. 

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In 2020, Breezie co-founded the registered independent organization (RIO) Each One Reach One Collective (E1R1), and held the position of Executive Director for three years. During her years as ED and collective member, she also directed and taught the free community class hosted by E1R1. In this class open to the public, students and community members were introduced to various street dance forms such as popping, hip hop, house, breaking, and litefeet by collective members and guest artists. Breezie taught both house and hip hop dance. The purpose of the organization is to make university resources accessible to the street dance community and connect dance students to the street dance community. E1R1 has collaborated with crews like the 808Breakers and the House Ohana to host jams (Melting Pot, BATTLE!BATTLE!) in the university ballroom and dance building studio. In this way, dance students experience street dance outside of a university context which predominantly prioritizes Euro-centric dance forms, classical dance forms, and choreography. 

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PRACTITIONER

Breezie is a street dance practitioner. She participates in street dance jams, battles, and attends weekly cypher sessions to train and connect with community members. Since 2021, Breezie has been a member of the house dance crew House Ohana under the mentorship of Kāleo Ten // Ten of Quad. In addition to performing, House Ohana hosts workshops, jams, and house freestyle sessions. In 2022, she co-hosted the "All Styles Freestyle Sessions" with Bgirl Sara Rodriguez at which street dancers from the community connect, train, learn, teach, and exchange. The same year, Breezie founded the Fresh Kicks Jam as part of an ongoing effort to connect the university/dance studios scenes and the street dance community on Oahu.