First-ever Ourofest Street Dance Festival takes to Vancouver in May

by Kristi Alexandra on April 11th, 2024 at 11:15 AM

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A brand new street dance festival is set to take place in May—but its roots in the community have been a decade in the making.

For 10 years, Ouro Collective has been celebrating and promoting street dance-based culture and performance in Vancouver through shows and workshops. To celebrate the milestone, they’re launching the first-ever Ourofest.

The four-day street dance festival will take place at multiple venues across Vancouver (namely SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Robson Square, and Q7 Studios), featuring dance battles, performances, and workshops.

Kicking off on May 25, dancers will go head to head in one-on-ones or in teams of two—all with the backbeat set by DJ Miguel “Friar Funk” Vasquez. The battles will be judged by Kosi “Kosi” Eze, Momoko “Momo” Shimada, and Marie-Reine “M Queen” Kabasha, with winners getting cash prizes and streetwear by Plus and Vancouver Street Dance Festival.

The next day, Vancouver-based, all-female dance crew Diamonds in the Rough will perform alongside Ouro Collective members—namely dancers Ash “Complex” Cornette, Cristina Bucci, Eric Cheung, Ganna Martynova, Kinui Oiwa, and Rina Pellerin—plus M Queen, and Surrey youth street dance artist Tegvaran “Teg” Sooch.

For those inspired to “step it up,” May 27 and 28 will feature workshops that you can pre-register for here.

“A decade ago, five individual artists from diverse cultural and dance backgrounds came together with a vision to create community through collaboration,” says co-founding member and managing director Cristina Bucci in a release. “Over the years, Ouro Collective has pushed the boundaries of how street dance-based works are created and presented. In celebration of our 10-year anniversary, we’re bringing street dance to everyone in Vancouver—and providing an accessible platform for the next generation to continue building the community.”