Private Story
B-Migrant: Breakdancing away from home
"My story is etched in the asphalt. Being a migrant and a B-Boy means confronting the street. My dance is engraved on the corners of Medellin," says Gabriel Arocha, one of the 2,8 million Venezuelans settled in Colombia for whom dance is their true territory.
The 'B-Migrant' project began in December 2021 when I was walking through the streets of the west of Cali and became interested in a group of young people doing acrobatics. One of them was Alexander Roque, a B-Boy from Valencia, Venezuela, who told me, "I emigrated for art.” A reflection that asserted that the diaspora is not only linked to survival.
Breakdance was founded in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the Bronx, New York, with the purpose of resolving conflicts between gangs through dance. Since then, it has become an art form that has transcended beyond its original borders, just like the protagonists of this visual story.
B-Migrant is a project that explores the different journeys within the migratory experience of Venezuelans dedicated to breaking in the cities of Cali, Bogotá, and Medellin. In other words, the existential, physical, and transcultural journeys of young people who chose to leave their country "for art."
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