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New Film Shows Women Breakdancers’ Moves Through Hip Hop
Loading ...An accomplished breakdancer from East Harlem is now breaking into film with a new documentary about female breakdancers, or “b-girls.”
Ana “Rokafella” Garcia is a breakdancer, filmmaker and activist from who earned her nickname for good reason.
“On a physical level, normally, people think that women are weak, and think that we’re not going to be able to hang with the fellas. And that’s where my name came from, ‘rock the fellas,’” says Garcia.
She’s been “rockin’ the fellas” for a long time. Now “Rokafella” Garcia is working on a new documentary on female breakdancers.
Garcia grew up in East Harlem, dancing to a number of different styles. In 1992, she met her current husband, Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio. The heyday of breakdancing had already passed but he was still keeping alive.
“He was like, I think you’d be good for this type of dance, and I was ready,” says Garcia. “I thought, if anyone would teach me, then I could probably be good. And he started to teach me not only the dance moves, but also the history, the roots of this style of dance.”
“She was dancing in the street, she had fire. So one thing that ‘hip hop university’ acknowledges is skill,” says Dionisio. “If you have skill, it doesn’t matter your gender, as long as you can rock the floor, rock the mic, rock the wall.”
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