Legacy Organization Feature

Ladies of Hip Hop: The Groundbreaking Organization Empowering Women in Hip-Hop Dance Culture for Over Two Decades

From a single day of dance workshops in Philadelphia to an international festival, a Bessie Award, and a permanent place in hip-hop's living history — Ladies of Hip Hop rewrote the rules for women in the culture.

By Dance Mogul Magazine · Published May 2026 · Hip-Hop · Culture · Empowerment

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In the world of hip-hop, where women have historically been pushed to the margins of the culture they helped build, one organization has spent more than twenty years ensuring that their voices, bodies, and artistry occupy center stage. Ladies of Hip Hop (LOHH) is not just a dance organization — it is a movement, a living archive, and a powerful declaration that women belong at the foundation of hip-hop, not on the sidelines.

Founded in 2004 by Michele Byrd-McPhee, this Black, women-led nonprofit has grown from a local Philadelphia training ground into an internationally recognized festival, dance collective, and cultural institution. And Dance Mogul Magazine has been there, providing live coverage of their events since the early years — because when culture moves, we move with it.

The Visionary Behind the Movement

Michele Byrd-McPhee: Street Dancer, Arts Activist, Cultural Architect

Michele Byrd-McPhee is a street dancer, arts activist, and tireless advocate for girls and women who has spent decades working to recontextualize conversations about hip-hop culture along gender, racial, and socio-historical lines. Her mission has always been clear: to situate Black dance forms, theories, techniques, and lived artistic experiences in spaces that honor and acknowledge their cultural roots — especially in an era where Black dance has been widely co-opted and appropriated without acknowledgment.

Byrd-McPhee earned her B.S. from Temple University and an M.S. in Nonprofit Arts Management from Drexel University. Before dedicating herself fully to LOHH, she built a career in television and arts production — serving as a production coordinator at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and as a senior music coordinator at Late Night with Seth Meyers. That dual fluency in street culture and institutional infrastructure became the foundation for everything Ladies of Hip Hop would become.

Timeline of Impact

From Philadelphia Workshops to the World Stage: A Timeline

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From the Archive

Dance Mogul Magazine × Ladies of Hip Hop: Live Coverage Gallery

Dance Mogul Magazine has been on the ground documenting the Ladies of Hip Hop movement since the early years. Below is a selection from our live event coverage — capturing the raw energy, sisterhood, and artistic power that defines every LOHH gathering.

Photos from Dance Mogul Magazine's live coverage of Ladies of Hip Hop

Cultural Significance

Why Ladies of Hip Hop Matters to the Culture

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Hip-hop was born in the Bronx in 1973, but the narrative of who built it, who preserved it, and who advanced it has overwhelmingly centered on men. Ladies of Hip Hop exists to correct that imbalance — not through argument, but through action. For more than two decades, LOHH has demonstrated what happens when women are given the space, resources, and institutional support to lead.

The organization's cultural contributions span multiple dimensions. As an all-elements platform, LOHH doesn't limit itself to dance. Its festival has historically included female DJs, MCs, graffiti writers, and visual artists — recognizing that women's contributions to hip-hop culture extend across every pillar. As a living archive, LOHH preserves the stories, techniques, and lineages of Black women in street and club dance — communities whose histories have been systematically erased, miscoded, or simply ignored.

The Black Dancing Bodies Project, launched in 2018, represents one of the most important cultural preservation efforts in contemporary dance. By collecting, documenting, and presenting the stories of Black women in street and club dance through performances, interviews, and photography, BDB ensures that these artists are not just remembered but actively celebrated on their own terms.

Programs & Impact

Building the Next Generation: LOHH's Programs

Ladies of Hip Hop operates through several interconnected programs that serve women and girls across ages and skill levels:

The Annual Ladies of Hip Hop Festival — What started as a single day of workshops is now a week-long international festival featuring performances, battles, panels, and workshops. The festival has hosted competitors and artists from across the globe, with battles judged by legends of the form. Comfort Fedoke, Soraya Lundy, LaTasha Barnes, and Nubian NeNe have all participated as judges and collaborators.

Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective (LDC) — An all-female, intergenerational dance collective that creates works illuminating the strength, power, and diversity of women in hip-hop. LDC's performances honor freestyle, cipher, and call-and-response traditions while exploring the proscenium concert stage. The collective has performed at the Kennedy Center, Chelsea Factory, and venues worldwide.

Ladies in Training (L.I.T.) — Launched in May 2022, L.I.T. is LOHH's training company offering intensive cohort-based seasons where women learn street and club dance forms through classes, lectures, and community events, culminating in a final assessment and performance.

Girls of Hip Hop (GOHH) — A youth dance program for girls ages 7–17 dedicated to the foundations of hip-hop dance, including old-school hip-hop styles, breaking, house, popping, locking, vogue, and waacking. The program also teaches hip-hop history, health and wellness, and cultural literacy.

Black Dancing Bodies Project (BDB) — An ongoing cultural preservation initiative addressing the erasure and exclusion of Black women's work in street and club dance, presented from the stage to the streets through dance works, interviews, and photo documentation.

Dance Mogul Magazine × Ladies of Hip Hop

Why DMM Has Always Championed This Movement

Dance Mogul Magazine's mission — inspiring self-empowerment through dance — aligns directly with the vision Michele Byrd-McPhee brought to life through Ladies of Hip Hop. Both organizations believe that dance is not just entertainment; it is a vehicle for leadership, cultural preservation, and community transformation.

Our live event coverage of Ladies of Hip Hop events has been part of a larger commitment to documenting the moments that matter in dance culture — not just the main stages, but the workshops, the ciphers, the community gatherings where real culture is built and passed down. When you're reading about Ladies of Hip Hop on Dance Mogul Magazine, you're reading firsthand accounts from the ground, not secondhand reporting. That's the DMM difference.

Organizations like LOHH are exactly why platforms like DMM exist. The broader media often overlooks women in hip-hop dance, and when they do cover them, it's through a lens that prioritizes spectacle over substance. At DMM, we approach every feature with the same respect and depth that the culture deserves. Explore more of our coverage across hip-hop, all dance styles, and our growing archive of empowerment features.

The Road Ahead

What's Next for Ladies of Hip Hop

As Ladies of Hip Hop moves beyond its 20th anniversary, the organization continues to deepen its impact. The LOHH Dance Collective tours nationally and internationally. The Girls of Hip Hop program cultivates the next generation of female hip-hop leaders. The Black Dancing Bodies Project continues its essential work of cultural preservation. And Michele Byrd-McPhee — now proudly represented by SOZO, a women-led management agency — continues to teach, perform, and advocate at the highest levels, including recent affiliations with NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts and UMass Amherst.

For those who want to get involved, LOHH offers multiple pathways: training through L.I.T. and GOHH, performing with the Dance Collective, attending the annual festival, and supporting the organization's nonprofit mission. Visit ladiesofhiphop.com to learn more, and follow @ladiesofhiphop on Instagram.

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Feature by Dance Mogul Magazine · Photos from DMM Live Event Coverage
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