If Cities Could Dance features dancers from across the country who dare to imagine what it would look like if their city could dance. Many often label the rich history of Richmond, California’s WWII-era days as the city’s long-ago “renaissance.” The population swelled with tens of thousands of shipyard workers—many of them African American—recruited from throughout the United States. Legendary blues clubs proliferated in North Richmond, and the downtown grew. But for the members of the emerging hip-hop dance troupe R.O.O.T.S. (Rising Out of the System) The Movement, who were born and raised in the city, Richmond’s heyday isn’t resigned to the history books. Watch founding members Kabreshiona Tiyteea La’Shae Smith, Deontae Watkins, and Aziza Thomas dance proudly in front of Point Richmond, along Macdonald Avenue and outside the RYSE Youth Center, performing a mixture of styles influenced by krumping, hip-hop, African dance and modern ballet.
