established 2013

 

Light Twerkerz is a creative collective at the intersection of dance and music culture, originally based out of The Web in East Van and West Coast festivals. We are now an extended network of collaborators locally and globally, anchored by founder Crystel Clear in so-called Vancouver, BC, Canada on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people, in the Cascadian Bioregion on Turtle Island / Planet Earth. 

The main offerings we are known for are our interactive dance class/performance "Twerkshops", and the "Lit Mix" series of curated booty music DJ sets.

Light Twerkerz Twerkshops range from private small-scale home and studio sessions, to large-scale public and outdoor events with original music and choreo. The format is flexible to group size, age, ability— it’s a participatory hybrid workshop/performance that can be adapted to the specific situation. We combine aspects of twerk and dancehall history, choreography, freestyle, mindfulness, deep ass conversation, and twerkthrough (mind-booty ephiphany) facilitation. We have been hired for private twerkshops by parties ranging from municipal mental health associations for teens to 40th birthday parties. And bachelorettes of course. Open to all inquiries, serious only (or silly enough).

We have hosted Twerkshops at many festivals including: Shambhala, Kamp, Luminosity, Diversity, Astral Harvest, Global Eclipse, and at Bass Coast annually since 2013. Lead by MC Crystel Clear and a rotating cast of booty dance facilitators, the skills our crew shares range from expertise in street dance, acro yoga, circus arts, contemporary dance, erotic movement, waacking, ballroom, and more. We have hosted festival debut appearances by notable cohosts and cultural ambassadors such as RJ, Venom (Ketch Di Vybz) and Sadé Ariel. Presenters and participants are interspersed in concentric circles. We start with origins of twerk and dancehall, teach and learn specific dance moves, then progress into a freestyle bootyquake of collective dance. 

This is all soundtracked by live DJ sets from top selectors, most frequently Lighta! Sound’s Tank Gyal and Mandai, as well as Selecta Abel of Vancouver’s Faction Sound. The LiT Mix series features music and interviews with selectors from Vancouver and around the world, each sharing what booty movement and music means to them personally and culturally.

 

Mindfully inclusive of race, gender, body size, abilities and sexual orientation, Light Twerkerz encourages butt shaking as a natural birthright for all humans. While practised in various forms and called various names by distinct peoples all over the world, we respect the culturally specific origins of ‘twerk’ dance from the southern USA via the Caribbean and West African diaspora.

Coming of age in the 2010’s, Light Twerkerz has been an active catalyst in the popularization and normalization of twerking, challenging taboos especially within West Coast youth lifestyle, North American festival culture and on social media. Since twerking has been a thing in pop culture for decades, and has become a legitimate subject of academic study for scholars, dancers and cultural theorists… there is now a vast range of expert opinions and lived experiences on the subject.

 

Light Twerkerz may speak with a unified voice while we are inclusive of a variety of perspectives on issues such as representation and appropriation, and always deepening our awareness and accountability to authenticity. It can be easy to over- or under-think it (see FAQ) so without getting too much more nerdy and self-aware about it…

 

We will say that by situating twerk movement in a post-colonial context, Light Twerkerz twerkshops allow heteronormative gendered dance as in traditional dancehall to coexists playfully with queer attitude and gender-diverse role play as in bounce and house dance, all within the confidently consensual container of female-run social spaces. The result is an explosion of bodies in motion, a cathartic release of personal and cultural baggage and tension we carry in our bodies, that feels healing to shake out.