SIX STEPS
FOREWORD
Paul Evra
General manager
Centre socioéducatif lasallien
What if art let us be reborn each time we embraced it?
Through the ages, countless artists have captured the past, sketched the present, and imagined the future. Their voices, so often quieted, emerge with resilience and humility, carried by mediums that transcend language. They restore words where everything seemed extinguished, cast light on those held in shadow, and rekindle hope when silence returns.
Where songs vanish without echo, where canvases remain without color, where bodies dance unseen, spaces of expression become hidden stages where legends are born, legends no author ever wrote.
To create cultural spaces in these neighborhoods is to open windows where there were only walls. It is to give every story a place to exist.
Art does not allow us to be born again. It roots us in being. Here, now, and perhaps forever.
Street dance is one of those powerful languages, rooted in Montreal neighborhoods often left in the margins, yet deeply alive. It speaks of belonging, of acts of resistance, and of the raw beauty of an art that never pretends. An art shaped by the struggles of the past.
With every movement, it dares to speak uninvited. It bears witness to a story too seldom told yet intensely lived. From each surge of resilience is born the power to resurrect what was, to inhabit what is, and to sketch what is yet to come.
Helen Simard
Professor
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Every dance form begins with its foundations — the movements, knowledge, and values that define it.
In Breaking, the “six-step” is one of those foundational movements: a repeated footwork pattern that every b-boy and b-girl must learn and master before developing a style of their own. Because how can you be original if you don’t understand the origins of your dance?
In Six Steps, Do Phan Hoi shines a spotlight on some of the dancers who form the foundation of Montreal’s street dance community — those who’ve inspired us over the years through their distinctive styles and lasting contributions. They’ve won battles on the world stage while organizing world-class events at home. They’ve brought street dance to the theater without ever losing touch with its roots in the street. They’ve mentored generations of dancers, yet still step into the cypher ready to smoke anyone bold enough to call them out.
Just as you can’t build a house without a solid foundation, a community can’t thrive without its pioneers. Six Steps is a celebration of the giants upon whose shoulders Montreal’s street dance scene stands — and a call to each of us to keep our own shoulders strong, so future generations of dancers have something solid to stand on too.