By Megan Reyna
Hip-hop dancing is something many convince themselves they could never master or understand. However, Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie believes anyone could connect to the style.
“Dance specifically has an amazing power to connect people,” Asherie said. “This sounds cliché, but it is a universal language.”
Ephrat Asherie, or “Bounce,” to which she refers to as her B-girl name, was the guest artist for Texas Tech’s dance program this fall semester. Born in Israel, she began her ballet and modern training in Westchester, New York. It was not until college, Asherie said, that she began to immerse herself into the style of breaking.
The Texas Tech Department of Theatre and Dance, housed in the Charles E. Maedgen Jr. Theatre. Photo from ttu.edu.
Tech’s dance program brings in a guest artist every semester to teach master classes and lectures, said Luc Vanier, the head of the dance program and associate chair of the school of theater and dance. This fall, Vanier and Elizabeth Johnson, an associate professor of dance, wanted to bring in an artist who would provide both knowledge behind the style and expose the students to different forms of hip hop, such as breaking and house.
“I think that her strength coming here is the way that she’s able to be that link,” Vanier said.
Asherie said she got into hip-hop when she was in her senior year of college. A friend of hers took her to a free community breaking practice in Brooklyn, coordinated by Break Easy (Richard Santiago). Asherie said once she started to grasp the style, she could not stop breaking and decided to finish college early and audition with an agency.
Currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Asherie has made appearances dancing for NBC, MTV, Comedy Central, the City Center, Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. Her work has been mentioned by The New York Times.
Asherie’s master classes covered the history and origin of hip-hop styles, said first-year dance major Ashlyn Brown, adding that they helped her understand there is an entire world Texas Tech students are not exposed to..
“I think it’s really important to share your knowledge to people that really don’t have the resources or sort of the connection or the ability to go to these places where house and breaking and hip hop in New York are staples,” Asherie said.
Asherie believes the mainstream media present hip hop out of context, without any research and education.
“Education is important,” Asherie said. “Analytical thought is important, having conversations with people about this is really important, and I’m really happy I was able to come here and share some of that information with people.”
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