Hip Hop Intensive
Back for Summer 2026! Recognizing that Hip Hop is a rich culture beyond dance, Urbanity’s Hip Hop Intensive focuses specifically on the movement, offering a week-long celebration of Hip Hop as a social dance form rooted in freestyle, groove, and community practice. The week emphasizes both embodied skill-building and cultural context, supporting dancers in developing versatility, confidence, and a deeper understanding of Hip Hop’s foundational principles. Each day isolates a key aspect of practice, allowing students to engage more intentionally with the forms, structures, and values that shape hip hop dance.
When: Week of August 17-21st; Teen Intensive: 5-7pm, Adult Intensive: 7-8:30pm
*Full week or daily drop-in registrations available.
Monday: Foundations with Miranda Lawson
Students will develop and/or explore the core grooves, rhythms, and movement principles that serve as the backbone of Hip Hop dance.
Tuesday: Breaking with Brian Washburn
Dancers will develop and/or explore foundational breaking vocabulary including footwork, floorwork, and cultural context.
Wednesday: Choreography with MoveLikeZay
Students will learn how Hip Hop movement is structured into choreography, focusing on musicality, performance quality, and retention.
Thursday: Freestyle with Makeda Wallace
Through guided improvisation, students will build confidence in self-expression, creativity, and responsiveness to music.
Friday: Battle Skills: Conversations with Movement with McKersin
Students will learn cypher and battle etiquette, strategy, and performance presence, engaging with the competitive and communal aspects of hip hop culture.
Confirmed Faculty for 2026
Miranda Lawson
Miranda Lawson (she/her) is a Boston-based performer, choreographer, and educator whose work lives at the meeting point of contemporary and Hip Hop dance forms. She is fascinated by how these styles challenge and influence one another. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Dance and Psychology, Miranda’s teaching is rooted in curiosity, authenticity, and community-building. Her classes emphasize exploration and connection, inviting dancers to take risks, celebrate their individuality, and stay open to a little goofiness along the way. She currently performs with Urbanity Dance and Phunk Phenomenon, while continuing to create and share her own choreographic work, which has been presented at the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, the Multicultural Arts Center, Tufts University, and The Dance Complex. Miranda’s practice has been shaped by mentorship through MIDDAY Movement’s BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship program (2022–23), her Urbanity X residency (2022), and recognition from the Mass Cultural Council’s Pandemic Relief Grant and the Somerville Artists Fellowship (2023).
Brian Washburn
Born in Providence, RI, Brian Washburn performed in his first large scale production at 15, He began teaching hip-hop following his graduation from Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte North Carolina. Since then he has expanded out to other styles of dance and movement, making a career performing and teaching, both around and outside of the Boston area.
MoveLikeZay
Bio coming soon!
Makeda Wallace
“Makeda Wallace, known as “Inferna” or “Keda” is one of
Boston’s most decorated movement artists. As a first generation Caribbean-American, Keda has infused her training in multiple different dance styles such as Hip Hop, Krump, Vogue, Ballet, and modern with her cultural roots in Dancehall/Soca to create an amalgamation of those forms. In addition to her involvement in multiple dance communities, Keda has taken her dance around the globe as a performer and choreographer, dancing with renown artists such as Mr. Vegas, Baby Cham, Dexta Daps, & Machel Montano to name few. Boston’s Soca Queen, Stackin’ Styles 2020 Freestyle Concepts battle champion she continues to scale her artistic vision, trail blaze pathways for artists/women of color, and be an example for the next generation. She is currently apart of the all female dancehall group, Kadillac Ladiez and Kia the Key and Company.”
McKersin
Bio coming soon!
Past Faculty
A-A-Ron
A-A-Ron of Beantown Lockers is an dance artist-educator dedicated to the preservation of Locking, which is a funky style of dance that Don “Campbellock” Campbell pioneered in Los Angeles in 1970. He’s been the Locking instructor at The Floorlords Studio, created video tutorials for universities, and led Locking academies abroad from Abu Dhabi to Rio de Janeiro. A-A-Ron’s also the Co-Founder, MC & Dance Lead for the creative venture A Trike Called Funk whose interactive mix of music & movement plus participatory paint experiences have been unleashing creativity and building community in/around Boston since 2021.
Miranda Lawson
Miranda Lawson (she/her) is a Boston-based performer, choreographer, and educator whose work lives at the meeting point of contemporary and Hip Hop dance forms. She is fascinated by how these styles challenge and influence one another. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Dance and Psychology, Miranda’s teaching is rooted in curiosity, authenticity, and community-building. Her classes emphasize exploration and connection, inviting dancers to take risks, celebrate their individuality, and stay open to a little goofiness along the way. She currently performs with Urbanity Dance and Phunk Phenomenon, while continuing to create and share her own choreographic work, which has been presented at the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, the Multicultural Arts Center, Tufts University, and The Dance Complex. Miranda’s practice has been shaped by mentorship through MIDDAY Movement’s BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship program (2022–23), her Urbanity X residency (2022), and recognition from the Mass Cultural Council’s Pandemic Relief Grant and the Somerville Artists Fellowship (2023).
Megatron
Megatron (Tron) started Poppin', Lockin', and Breakin’ back in 1978. A self-taught dancer, he helped form the group Cosmic Reaction. He then moved to become a founding member of The Almighty Floor Lords in 1981. They started out doing street performances and during that time traveled all across the country. Megatron considers his style to be very original as far as creativity goes. He’s very versatile and he thinks of himself as a perfectionist. Megatron's training technique is very detailed, and he likes to create intricate routines and moves and break them down into palatable core elements, also imparting the history, culture, and music of the dance forms he teaches, with a healthy dose of respect for his contemporaries and those who preceded them.
Together with his longtime dancing partner and crew member Shallow, they created a program called Slaughter House, where kids and adults of all ages and abilities can get educated on many different styles of Street Dance and Hip Hop culture. Slaughter House provided a safe haven for many dancers willing to broaden their careers, built their self-confidence, respect, and skill level, taught them about the entertainment industry, and resulted in many world-renowned dancers, including America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew, as well as Disney Shows, major motion pictures, international dance crews like the Jabbawockeez, cruise ships, and major artists.
Megatron was fortunate to work with great artists like: Heavy D & the Boys, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Fabulous, Method Man, Grandmaster Flash, Kool & the Gang, Busta Rhymes, Aerosmith, Kenny G, The Bee Gees, New Kids On the Block, Salt N’ Pepa, Martha Wash, Meatloaf, C&C Music Factory, Village People, Cyndi Lauper, UTFO & Curtis Blow, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Run D-MC, Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, Special Ed, Kid n’ Play, New Edition, Bobby Brown, Stevie B, Onyx, Fat Joe, CeCe Peniston, MC Shan, Naughty by Nature, Luther Vandross, James Brown, Krs-One, Beastie Boys, Marky Mark, George Clinton, Tevin Campbell, Madonna, Peter Wolf (J Geils Band), Slick Rick, Lil Jon & the Eastside Boys, Twista, Kim Sims, Voice, Giggles, Covergirls, Sweet Sensations, George Lamond, Tara Kemp, Lisette Melendez, Masta Ace, TKA, Tony/Tone/Toni, K7, Corina, Coro, Kriss Kross, Young Black Teenagers, De La Soul, Silk, Jodeci, Big Pun, Arrested Development, PM Dawn, Tag Team, MC Lyte, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Nirvana, Billy Ocean, Ying Yang Twins, Fabulous, Candy Man, Bone Crusher, Donna Summer, Color Me Badd, Natalie Cole, DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, and many others. Tron also performed in the motion picture “Celtic Pride” and at events hosted by Woody Harrelson, Cam Neely, and Tia Carrera, and appeared on TV in the Arsenio Hall Show, Sports Connection, Party Machine, Chronicle, Wrap Around, and the 2013 New Year’s Eve Ball Drop with Carson Daily and Jane Lynch hosting.
Priscilla Colon
Priscilla is a dance teacher originally from NYC. She is the co-founder of Urban Feme Dance Boston and Mosaic Movement Boston, choreographing for various shows and festivals throughout the USA. She is a trained dancer in latin and hip hop styles and teaches Hip Hop at Urbanity Dance.
Jeff Jean-Philippe
Jeff’s purpose is to guide people to excel in their life because I know they can. I am passionate about playing the role that helps people rediscover a meaningful life full of passion and purpose, all while I can live a life that I am proud of. I am a man of many trades but mentoring humans through their personal lives, artistic journeys, and holistic health, to achieve a magnificent break-through is where I thrive.
Being the Artistic Director and Founder of The Expressive Movement dance company, Dance Advisor for Positive Street Art, Hip Hop educator at various studios and institutions in New England, and nomad of the earth, I have had the honor of deeply connecting, exchanging wisdom, and providing guidance to people all over the world. With these inspiring experiences, I created my personal brand, J-Brand, an organization where I express my purpose through mentorship, holistic practices, dance/art, and comedy.
My largest successes are the moments where I achieve pure presence, as presence is our strongest state of authenticity and love. In a society where our natural order is constantly overstimulated, I put in work everyday to master this mind and body so I can serve others and bring them closer to their personal truths and purpose in this lifetime.