Choreographer / Dancer / Activist / Curator
Born in Hong Kong, rooted in Germany and Mali, raised in Berlin and trained through hip hop: choreographer Raphael Moussa Hillebrand uses his background to realise his visions of hip hop dance theatre. He started his career as a dancer, initially participating in numerous B-Boy Battles and winning national and international battles. At the same time, he worked on stage productions - first as a performer, then increasingly in collective creations and today as a choreographer, director and curator. Working on an international level, he taps into his instinct for socio-political issues, cultural identity and opens the space for decolonial perspectives. He is one of the most important choreographic representatives of the Goethe-Institut. He regularly directs cultural and cooperation programmes worldwide and develops various creations with local dancers.
He toured worldwide with the dance theatre video performance "Gemeinsam Einsam". At the Freiburg Theatre he choreographed the urban version of Richard Wagner's "Ring" "Der Rap des Nibelungen" and subsequently conceived and directed the stage piece "volXtanz" at the same theatre, a work that combined hip hop and folk dance. His pieces have been shown nationally and internationally: he has been a guest at the Breakin' Convention at Sadler's Wells, toured the UK, been at the Théâtre national de Chaillot, CND Pantin, HAU Berlin, Théâtre de l'Archipel Perpignan, to name but a few.
As a member of the groups Battle Squad and Animatronik, he is an integral part of today's hip hop community. In June 2014, he completed his master's degree in choreography at the HZT Berlin. He then toured Central America with the resulting dance theatre production "POW_2045" in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and Waltz Binaire. As the idea generator and founding member of the world's first hip-hop party: Die Urbane. A Hip-Hop Party, he advocates decolonisation as well as empowerment and cultural diversity, among other things.
His current theatre piece, produced at Ballhaus Naunynstraße "Auf meinen Schultern" premiered in September 2019 and can be seen until today. The theatre performance was a guest at the Goethe Institute in Sri Lanka, at EinTanzHaus Mannheim and at the Made in Germany festival. In 2020, Raphael Moussa Hillebrand was honoured by the German Dance Award for his outstanding artistic development in dance.
