Rokafella comes to Middlebury for hip hop class and lecture
In conjunction with the exhibition Post Pop: Prints of Keith Haring, on view at the Middlebury College Museum, pioneering feminist breakdancer Ana “Rokafella” Garcia will give a lecture demonstration in the Dance Theatre of the Mahaney Center for the Arts at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27. Her presentation is free and open to the public.
But, hold-up… hear that record scratch, and drop… this… beat… 
Yo, you can join Rokafella, in her master class 
hip hop and shakin’, open to the public’s bad a**
Dig-it Wednesday, the 26th, half past four that’s right
Groovin’ and breakin’ in Mahaney ‘aight?
(Don’t have rhythm? Here’s a translation: Join Rokafella for a hip hop dance class on Wednesday, Oct. 26, Mahaney Center for the Arts Dance Theater, 4:30 p.m.)
Like Haring, who frequented dance clubs and organized his first art exhibitions in them, Rokafella launched her career in the dance culture of New York. She will discuss the rise of hip hop and breakdancing and demonstrate some of its signature moves in her lecture/presentation on Thursday. 
Born in East Harlem, Rokafella got her start in what she calls “temples of dance” after she first saw the extraordinary feats of B-Boys (breakdancers) on the streets. Developing her own take on their skills, she soon was dancing with the best, earning her stage name “Rokafella” and paving the way for other B-Girls to follow. 
As she told the filmmakers of the PBS documentary project Makers: Women Who Made America, “I’m letting people know you can be a woman and be a badass breaker. When you see me, you’re seeing excellence and you learn that men don’t have a hold on the word ‘excellence’ . . . I’m showing that hip hop is pure expression, freedom and positive.”
In 1995, with her husband Kwikstep, who had coached her and directed her to audition for top crews, she founded Full Circle Productions, Inc., a non-profit that seeks to empower young dancers through the positive power of hip hop. Rokafella is also a faculty member at The New School and at the Peridance Capezio Center, New York.
Rokafella’s visit is co-sponsored by the Middlebury College Museum of Art, the Department of Dance, the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, and Chellis House, Women’s Resource Center at the College.
For more info call (802) 443–5007 or visit museum.middlebury.edu.