Body as Weapon: Trauma, Space and Identity Alchemy of Migrant Youth in Hip-Hop Dance

Yifei Wang

doi:10.54254/2753-7064/2025.LC26705

Communications in Humanities ResearchOpen access

Body as Weapon: Trauma, Space and Identity Alchemy of Migrant Youth in Hip-Hop Dance

Research Article

Open Access

Body as Weapon: Trauma, Space and Identity Alchemy of Migrant Youth in Hip-Hop Dance

Yifei Wang ^1*

¹ New York University (NYU)

^*Corresponding author: felecia0806@163.com

Published on 9 September 2025

CHR Vol.76

ISSN (Print): 2753-7072

ISSN (Online): 2753-7064

ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-146-4

ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-284-3

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Abstract

In the context of global migration crises and deepening educational inequalities, this study examines how hip-hop dance initiatives in Berlin and Toronto serve as sites for marginalized migrant youth to reconstruct social identity through embodied practice. Grounded in Critical Hip-Hop Pedagogy (CHHP) and Social Identity Theory (SIT), the research investigates two core questions: how programs strategically redesign social categorization via curricula, and how participants transform individual/collective trauma into empowered group identity through artistic production. Using comparative case studies of “Urban Beats” (Berlin) and “Rhythm Rebels” (Toronto), the analysis reveals three interrelated mechanisms. First, strategic recategorization subverts institutional labels through choreographic counter-mapping. Second, trauma capitalization converts historical pain into cultural resilience: Toronto’s Stolen Rhythm encoded colonial land seizures via stomping sequences, correlating with a 35% reduction in post-performance cortisol levels, while Berlin’s Syrian participants shifted “war” discourse from 41% to 9% in rehearsals. Third, spatial counter-comparison suggests what might be characterized as a reclamation of urban power zones. The body represents a site of resistance, where choreographic improvisation, spatial subversion, and lexical self-determination collectively appear to complicate traditional interpretations of oppressive categorizations. Within this broader analytical framework, this study tends to suggest what reveals hip-hop's potential to transform "social wounds" into "cultural trophies," calling for what the evidence reveals reveal as policy evaluation frameworks that ostensibly prioritize identity justice over predominantly instrumental metrics.

Keywords:

Hip-hop dance, social identity theory, immigration

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References

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