ABSTRACT

This scalar site is a collection of in-depth annotations on sources I am using to write a paper about breakdancing scene in Morocco. Through two dissertations, two articles, three videos and a photography series, I will explore the mechanisms of the Moroccan breaking community (both within and outside of the physical space of Morocco), and its relationship to the Islamic cultural norms, the state, neoliberal policy, and histories of colonialism. I argue that the practices of Moroccan street dancers reclaim individuals' agency to shape the cultural norm of what a "good Moroccan/Muslim youth subject" is, while simultaneously being a product of Westernization, a vestige of colonial history, and serving the state's interest of neo-liberalizing Moroccan society. I want to explore how this defies our cultural conception of hip hop as something that is always resistant to institutional power, but still gives individual young Moroccan subjects feelings of embodied power, creativity, and community.