Soul Sessions Encounters

An Evening of Hip-Hop and Breaking

On Thursday, March 5, the Studio will host a double bill featuring two world premieres by Oslo-based choreographers.

Norwegian-Tanzanian Eshidoreen Paradiso and Guatemalan Carlos Cantún, better known as Gato, both have deep roots in street and club dance. Audiences can expect raw energy and powerful expression from hip-hop and breaking on stage.

When Movements Carry Meaning

What happens when the body reclaims its own language, its expression, and its value—without being filtered through someone else’s gaze?

Eshidoreen Paradiso is a dance artist and choreographer with a background in street and club dance and hip-hop freestyle. As a choreographer, she explores identity, freedom, and stories rooted in the experiences of women of color—and in her new work, she examines how movement can carry meaning and become conversations between bodies.

On stage, Paradiso is joined by dancers Aaliyah Jakobsson and Claudio Fernandez, both highly accomplished hip-hop artists with strong qualities and presence.

Breaking and Rocking Meet Contemporary Theater

Carlos Cantún, better known as Gato, is a dancer and choreographer with roots in breaking and rocking, and an emerging practice within the contemporary field. His choreographic work revolves around migration, belonging, and human dignity—themes he knows intimately after a decade-long journey toward safety.

The piece he creates for Soul Sessions Encounters, Røtter i bevegelse ('Roots in Motion'), will be his first solo production as a choreographer—a meeting of breaking, rocking, and contemporary theater. Audiences can expect a deeply personal journey where flight, waiting, new beginnings, and the search for safety are transformed into movement, breath, and rhythm on stage.