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Hip hop takes the edge off self-help

Dance workshops draw teens into talking about violence, bullies and healthy sexuality

SARA MINOGUE

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Anika Aylward, 15, Teresa Inooya, 14, and Emily-Ann Aoudla Henrie, 14, complete a dance routine at Iqaluit's Francophone Centre on Tuesday. (PHOTO BY SARA MINOGUE)

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Self-help can be a little boring, but plenty of young girls think hip hop is pretty cool, which is why the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council recently brought the Hip Hop Superstars teen girl workshop to Iqaluit.

All this week, about 16 Grade 8 and 9 girls practiced dance moves in the morning, and talked about teen issues in the afternoon.

Joyce Aylward, Qulliit's executive director, got the idea for the workshop from two young girls who went to an all-girls Power Camp in Quebec last November.

When Micheline Kilabuk-Coté returned from the feminist girls' camp she said that her favourite thing was the Hip Hop Superstars workshop. She suggested bringing the workshop here to Iqaluit.

"I notice a lot of girl-on-girl violence in schools, just fighting over boys a lot," says 19-year-old Kilabuk-Coté, who now acts as a kind of liaison between Qulliit and Inuksuk High School.

On day two of the workshop, she's already noticed that the girls are less shy, and the sessions are much louder.

"I hope they're going to take this information and use it," Kilabuk-Coté says.

Whitehorse dancer Andrea Simpson-Fowler uses hip hop to connect with young girls at risk. (PHOTO BY SARA MINOGUE)

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Hip Hop Superstars was created four years ago by Andrea Simpson-Fowler, a dancer who runs the Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks studio in Whitehorse. She's done similar workshops for the past four years.

A week-long session with her includes hip hop classes, a choreography class and bead-making combined with afternoon workshops hosted by local experts on bullying, drugs and alcohol, and sexual health.

On Tuesday afternoon, Simpson-Fowler tells the girls about a movie star who died after an overdose on crystal meth. At least half the girls know the celebrity, and when Simpson-Fowler tells them the effects of that particular drug on young bodies, they pay attention.

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