Bay Area Hip Hop Company Featured in International Dance Festival – The Silicon Valley Voice

From urban house parties in the 1970s to the Olympics in the 2020s, hip hop dance has come into its own. Fusion between classical ballet and hip hop even has its own name — hiplet — and hip hop Nutcrackers are now ubiquitous; with even Disney getting in on the act. Closer to home, partners and soon-to-be-spouses Stuck Sanders and Alee Martinez founded Tribe Crew fusion dance company, which has been treating Bay Area audiences to a Hip Hop Nutcracker since 2017. Tribe will be featured in the two-day Peninsula International Dance Festival at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, highlighting dance from around the world. Sanders and Martinez met on a dance crew in 2013 and embody artistic fusion. “I come from dance battles and street dancing and performing,” said Sacramento native Sanders. “And Alee comes from more technically trained styles. So when we met, it was a great combination of the two. That’s what allowed us to create a company based on street dancing, but also with the structure of a theater company or a classically trained company.” They formed their company in 2015 to explore dance fusion between hip hop and other dance disciplines. Tribe offers dance...