Native Moons

Native Moons is an energetic dance collective founded by Sarada Sarita Keilman, Yordana Rodriguez and Kim Tawjoeram, and has been a long-standing and beloved partner of the Amsterdam Roots Festival. With a program centered around street and club dance styles — such as breaking (breakdance), popping, locking, house dance, waacking and voguing — the collective creates a dynamic space each year where everyone — regardless of level or age — is welcome on the dance floor. Native Moons works from the belief that dance is a shared language: a language that connects, liberates and carries culture across generations.

Inspired by the festival theme Cultural Commons, Native Moons shows that dance culture is also shared heritage: not owned by one person, organization or movement, but by everyone who carries it, nurtures it and passes it on. Every dance holds a history and emerges from a specific community: waacking and voguing from queer ballroom culture, breaking from the hip-hop culture of the Bronx, and house from Black and Latin club cultures. In this way, street and club dance styles are seen as living archives — sustained and passed on by the communities that shape them.

This year’s edition focuses on the strength of these communities: dancers, makers and teachers who work to increase visibility and accessibility, while building bridges between generations and styles. They ensure that this culture not only survives, but continues to grow and thrive.

Through performances, battles, music and storytelling, Native Moons brings street and club dance to life. This takes shape in interactive formats such as the Social Dance Games and a Soul Train. The Social Dance Games are playful improvisation battles in which dancers challenge each other and respond to the music and to one another. In the Soul Train, visitors take turns stepping onto the dance floor to show their own style. In this way, the audience becomes not just a spectator, but a participant — part of this shared culture.

With DJ Polli Panda, DJ Lucas Benjamin and percussionist/vocalist Gianna Tam, the energy of the dance floor truly comes alive.