Photo by Frank Bicking Photography
Kyle “JustSole” Clark and Dinita “Queen Di” Clark are both award-winning dancers, choreographers and street dance competitors who have dedicated over 20+ years to the cultivation, transmission, and preservation of Hip Hop/Street and Club dance forms/cultural traditions. They have done this in multiple facets of the culture as professional performers, educators, mentors and cultural ambassadors. They’ve toured both nationally and internationally with world-renowned Rennie Harris Puremovement Hip Hop Theater company as Principal Dancers/ Rehearsal Directors. Kyle performed with RHPM for 9 years and was the Rehearsal Director for 5 years. Dinita performed with RHPM for 7 years and was the Assistant Rehearsal Director for 4 years.
They’ve both represented the U.S. as Cultural Ambassadors three times; twice with RHPM via The Obama Administration/ BAM/Dance Motion USA in Egypt, Israel, Palestine in 2012; The US Embassy in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan in 2014; additionally, via Next Level USA (Kyle in Nigeria 2018,Dinita in Jordan 2019). Kyle and Dinita are both two- time Graduates of the University of the Arts. Both receiving their MFA in Dance, (Kyle 2021, Dinita 2022). In 2022, both Kyle and Dinita became Full time Professors of Hip Hop/ Street Dance (Kyle at Swarthmore College, Dinita at The University of the Arts). Some of their honors include both winning The University of the Arts President’s Distinguished Teaching Award (Kyle 2017, Dinita 2022), Philly Rocky Award (Kyle 2017, Dinita 2020), Kyle- Pew Grant 2017, Dinita 2019 Pew Fellowship Award and 2017 Leeway Transformation Award, Kyle 2023 Joanie Award.
Together, locally, they’ve taught at Koresh Dance Studio, Philadanco School of Dance Arts, Philadelphia Dance Theater, Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, various schools for Philadelphia Arts and Education Programs, and various dance studios across the tri- state area for almost 10 years. Kyle & Dinita also taught as Master Lecturers/Adjunct Professors of Hip Hop Dance at The University of the Arts, Temple University, Drexel University and Bryn Mawr College for over 10 years. Additionally, Kyle has taught at Ursinus, MCCC and Swarthmore College during that period.
They both have also choreographed several Hip Hop/ Street Dance ensembles for all 5 universities in the Philadelphia area as well as West Chester University. Individually, they have taught Master classes at various colleges, dance companies, and festivals, home and abroad. Kyle has worked with Alvin Ailey 2, Philadanco, Cairo Ballet (Egypt), Eleone Dance Theater, Johns Hopkins University, Barriquismo Festival (Mexico), Soul City St. Petersburg (Russia), Cercle Underground (Paris), House Dance Forever & Summer Dance Forever (Amsterdam) just to name a few. Dinita has worked with CSU Monterey Bay, 13th Contemporary Dance Festival (Poland), Barriquismo Festival (Mexico), City Lights Festival (UK), Miami Dade College, Hebrew University, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Johns Hopkins University, Illadelph Legends Festival, Ladies of Hip Hop Festival just to name a few. Over the past 10+ years, they’ve developed multiple entities and have done work across the country. They created Just Sole! Street Dance Theater Company (Performance), Funky Sole Fundamentals (Education), Groove Factory (Intensive), SoleFull (Party), and The Sole Open (Battle).
Inspired to inspire, Kyle and Dinita co-founded an educational program /workshop series called “Funky Sole Fundamentals” in April 2011. It’s a bi-monthly workshop series dedicated to the preservation of Hip Hop, House, and Funk Styles dance. With that said, they wanted to create a space that strictly teaches the codified techniques of Hip-Hop dance. In addition, they co-founded “Just Sole! Street Dance Theater Company" that was conceived in 2010 at Rennie Harris’ annual “Illadelph Legends Festival”. In November of 2014, Kyle and Dinita premiered and self- produced their own evenings length show entitled “The Life of A Just Sole” at Freedom
Theatre.
In April 2013, Kyle and Dinita won Freestyle Session/ Survival of the Illest 2x2 “House Dance” Category Street Dance Competition. In December 2013, Kyle and Dinita won Juste Debout USA 2014 street dance competition against the best street dancers in the U.S.A.’s “2x2 House” dance division. It was a qualifier to the world’s largest and most competitive street dance competition “Juste Debout World Finals”. They represented the USA in the World Championships in Paris, France against 15 other countries in March 2014. They placed Top 10 in World Championships. In May of 2014, Kyle and Dinita also won Canada’s largest Street Dance Competition, “Bust A
Move” 2x2 House Dance category in Montreal. In the August 2014, Dinita was featured in Dance Magazine “On The Rise”. In June of 2015, they won “Slick City 2” 2x2 House Dance Category in Chicago, IL. Kyle and Dinita are two passionate, driven, and dedicated artists. Through all that they do. Their mission reads:
"Our mission is to empower, enrich, motivate and inspire the masses by providing an outlet that
enables self-expression. Which in turn, spurs independence, unity, and discipline. We provide
dance education in these styles under the umbrella of hip-hop dance that includes: Locking,
House, Popping, Hip Hop Social Dance, and Waacking. Our goal is to preserve the integrity,
relevance and impact of “Hip Hop” dance via performances, education, and street dance
competitions to protect the culture that we have all grown to love.