'Everybody's high on dance': At 25 years, Hip Hop International has big plans for the future

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Set us as preferred Hip Hop International, which turns 25 this year, brought some of the world’s best dance crews and choreographers to mainstream attention.Groups including Jabbawockeez and Quest Crew, and choreographers such as Parris Goebel (Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber) and Sienna Lalau (BTS, Blackpink, Ciara) all got their start through the group’s annual dance competition, which connected dance cultures in a pre-YouTube era through global shared artistry when breaking was a mostly underground activity.This year’s weeklong contest concludes Saturday in Phoenix, when a new world champion will be crowned.

Involving 3,000 dancers from 55 countries, the competition has grown to be among the largest in the world due to the efforts of founders Howard and Karen Schwartz, whose globetrotting history led to HHI’s current prominence in the dance world.In the late 1980s, the Schwartzes were known as “the mother and father of aerobics.” The duo were pioneers of the aerobics craze that gripped the nation during that decade and helped create the National Aerobic Championship.ESPN followed the Schwartzes’ competitions.

So did the Soviet Union, which was in the midst of the massive social, economic and cultural upheaval that culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.Soon after, the Soviet Union asked the Schwartzes to bring their aerobic champions to teach fitness and aerobics there, Karen said.

So they did.“We grew that,” Howard said, adding that the aerobics championship became “almost as big as what HHI is now.

We were all over the world with it.” The pair later transitioned out of aerobics but still had the desire to create communal experiences.While traveling, the Schwartzes went to Paris and saw kids breaking on the street.

The seed of an idea was planted.It blossomed later on a trip to T...