John Mark Hackman is an American choreographer, writer and stage producer. Most notably recognized as the creator and executive director of

street dance Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, Locking (dance), locking, house dance, waacking, voguing, etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created o ...

performance company

Chicago Dance Crash Chicago Dance Crash is an American physical theater and street dance company based in Chicago, Illinois. The company tours year round while sustaining a calendar year ‘season’ of local premiers and commercial work as well as a spring/fall ed ...

, Hackman is also the founding choreographer of photography/performance project

The Living Canvas The Living Canvas is an American performance art and photography project that uses lighting, sound, and multimedia imagery, displaying video or photographic projections onto nude performers. Founded by writer, musician and activist Pete Guither ...

under the directorship of Pete Guither as well as the cofounder of ''The Keeper of The Floor Championship (KTF)'' alongside dancer/actor Kyle Terry – the production now being recognized as one of the longest-running professional "all styles" dance battles in the United States. Hackman's writings are known for a live production style of storytelling that combines

stunt A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Befo ...

work and dance with recorded narration and dialogue. This concept has been seen in Hackman's writings for nationally-touring productions including ''Booms Day'', ''Tribulation and the Demolition Squad'', ''Gotham City'' and ''The Bricklayers of Oz''. among others.

Hip Hop

As a producer and

hip-hop culture Hip-hop culture is an art movement that emerged in New York City, in the borough of The Bronx; Primarily within the black community. Hip Hop as an art form and culture has been heavily influenced by both male and female artists. It is charac ...

advocate within the entertainment industry, Hackman has been a presenter, investor or consultant for several professional street crews and musicians.In a

Newcity Newcity is a media company based in Chicago, founded in 1986 by Brian and Jan Hieggelke." It started as the ''Newcity'' independent, free weekly newspaper in Chicago. Effective March 2017, the founders changed the newspaper into a glossy monthly ...

Magazine interview regarding the future of show business after the

2000s File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty on the left during the September 11 attacks, terrorist attacks on Sep ...

, he predicted an industry-wide embrace of hip hop and street styles specifically for commercial

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

. '“More often than not, this contemporary view is usually taking street styles (breaking, waving, krumping) and putting them in a theater with concert techniques like modern, ballet or jazz,” Hackman says. “Our generation is getting established enough to start producing our own work and all these new TV shows and movies have hit this decade that have ballerinas onstage with breakers, it seems like it’s an approach that’s only going to gain popularity into the 2000-teens and well beyond that.”'

Personal

Hackman is a graduate of Illinois State University, and resigned from Chicago Dance Crash as CEO in 2022 to work for the City of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

's Film Office and Cultural Department, appointing Jessica Leyva as his successor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hackman, Mark American hip-hop dancers 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 1979 births Living people Writers from Illinois Illinois State University alumni American theatre managers and producers