Pioneer break dancer Ana 'Rokafella' Garcia reflects on a life in hip-hop
It was 50 years ago this summer that the sights and sounds of hip-hop culture first emerged on the streets of the Bronx. To mark this milestone, WNYC and Gothamist are amplifying the voices of the many women from our area leaving their own mark on the genre. Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, a B-girl pioneer from Spanish Harlem, shares her story.
The transcript of Ana “Rokafella” Garcia's story has been lightly edited for clarity.
My name is Ana "Rokafella" Garcia. I am a B-girl, which means I'm a female break dancer, but I also choreograph different styles. I dance house, I dance salsa, African, and I am a co-founder and a managing director of a nonprofit dance company in the Bronx called Full Circle Productions, Inc.
Everybody in hip-hop pretty much is baptized with a new name. You rarely use a government or official name -- or your school name. And it usually comes from the display of the talent, whether it's graffiti or if it's dancing or a rapper -- poetry. My name came from the fact that I was able to get into a circle, which is the formation we dance in and cause the fellas in the circle to pause. My skills were too high, or they just weren't used to someone like that, and they didn't want to go after me. So, it was kind of like a battle if they did go after me. So, I was rocking the fellas. So, the name is sort of a job description.
I was a young girl in East Harlem, and then when we moved to the Bronx, so this is the same time that hip-hop is starting to emerge and gain more visibility on tv, and then movies came out.
The people around my neighborhood -- they were able to change their situations and their living conditions through hip-hop. They were able to travel, they were able to go somewhere and be sponsored and get, you know, more wardrobe and eventually, you know, money. So that influenced me to say, well, there's a way out -- it doesn't just have to be gangs or whatever.
It was an inspiring expression of creativity and I felt like, hey, I can be creative too. So, I trusted that what I originally saw hip-hop do for the community -- it can do that for me as well. When I look back, then I can reflect and say, oh, look at all the things I've done. But day to day, there's more deadlines, there's more goals to reach. So, I'm not really thinking about what did I leave behind? But I do want people to know that if you see me at this point in my life, feeling successful that I can pay my bills through dance -- all my bills are paid through dance, then you can do it too.
