Quick Intro: Havikoro

HaviKoro is a Houston, Texas-based group of dancers and performers who chose performing over the other negative activities present in their neighborhoods while growing up. The group spreads their anti-drug message to youth around the world through break dancing, hip hop and rap music.

HaviKoro was part of the American Voices Association, promoting American music and culture abroad. Its members, who also teach hip hop dance classes in the Houston Independent School District, often taught classes at schools while touring abroad as part of their message.

HaviKoro toured major U.S. cities and all around the world. They visited and performed in places like Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; Frankfurt, Germany; Tokyo, Japan and London, England. As part of the American Voices' "Houston Artists Abroad" program, HaviKoro headlined the Baku Jazz Festival in Azerbaijan in 2004. The following year, HaviKoro became the first U.S. break dance crew to visit and perform in Vietnam. While there, they spoke to their audience about how dance and music was their escape from the drugs and crime they grew up around. HaviKoro has also performed onstage with artists like Destiny's Child, Limp Bizkit, Coolio, Black Eyed Peas and Planet Funk, as well as for Houston-based sports teams the Comets and the Rockets.

Since these world tours, HaviKoro has become Urgeworks, a non-profit organization focusing on youth at risk in the Houston area. They have developed two programs that they take to schools around the area: "Be You," which uses dance and music to teach the positive aspects of the hip hop culture; and "The Mathematics of Hip Hop," which shows how math and numbers are a part of the hip hop culture.

Resources:

American Voices Association

Urgeworks