Meet the Crew
Who is Rain Crew?
Founded in 2009, Rain Crew is a dance crew and arts organisation with a focus on bringing people together through music, culture and dance.
Our missions is to inspire, enable and create movement in people, to make the world move.
Our vision is a world connected through dance, where every person’s artistic expression is valued and celebrated.
Our purpose is to help people to celebrate their authentic selves through dance and we do this by using hip-hop as a vehicle for social change with a focus on people centred community building, equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism.
Rain Crew’s artists specialise in Breaking, Hip-hop, House and Krump performing at both a hyperlocal and International level. Rain Crew is uniquely positioned as asset-based community developers (ABCD) deeply connected to the UK dance scene with roots in Hip-hop culture as a battle crew; while also operating as producers of creative work, delivering events and theatrical performances, striving for artistic excellence.
Rain Crew delivers classes, workshops, performances, events, projects and competitions as well as research, artist development programmes and fundraising drives for international disasters. The crew focuses on nurturing and developing creatives providing mentors and a support network for the dance scene, bridging the gap between community organisations and those who are seldom heard.
What are Rain Crew's Priorities?
Rain Crew has a history of challenging the norm of hip-hop as an artform by designing and delivering innovative and quality dance and arts projects, with a dedication to developing strong leaders, creating opportunities and making art accessible to everyone.
Our Priorities:
-
Artist Livelihood: Artists earn a living wage
-
Pay equity and the gift economy: Dance artists earn equal pay in the culture sector
-
Global voices and cultural synthesis: Artists and their work reflect diverse global perspectives
-
Creative care, safety and wellbeing: Dance enables social value and wellbeing for all
-
Artist power, autonomy, and sector structures: Artists shape and own their platforms, work and interventions designed for them
-
Creative spaces and place making: Artists have access to space to create art
What has Rain Crew done?
WE GET DOWN
Globally we have worked with organisations such as GAP, Maxi Nutrition, ITV, Adidas, ASOS, Argos, Orange, EE, RedBull, Relentless, NFL, Brit Awards, Nike, The Olympics, Breakin Convention and the Oliver award winning show ‘The Pied Piper as well as performing on many international stages including Paradiso, Excel and London 02 Arena.
WE BRING THE RAIN
We hold regular classes and events for dancers of all ages as our way of sharing our knowledge and elevating the art-form and our community internationally. In addition to supporting our own community, we continually work with teams outside the UK including raising funds for victims of disaster in Syria, Palestine, and The Philippines. As well as developing research through praxis and work in solidarity with artists in Kenya, Kurdistan, Iraq and Western Sahara. Our reputation is that of a dance group and family that stands for something more.
WE MAKE THE WORLD MOVE
We believe dance has the power to shift social consciousness. We pro-actively leverage our platform to champion women in Hiphop, fight against racial injustice in the arts industry, implement guidelines and structures to tackle harassment and misconduct in dance and advocate for making the arts accessible and inclusive.
More information on our work can be found here.