New Victory Arts Break: No Excuses, No Limits

New Victory Arts Break videos and activities are designed to have your family ready and raring for showtime before you even leave home. Here’s how to use them! All set? Then let’s get creative together and prep your kid for No Excuses, No Limits with the activities below.

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New Victory Arts Break videos are filmed at the New Victory Theater. We acknowledge that New Victory resides on the seized homeland of the Lenape people and the intertribal territory of many First Nations. We celebrate and pay deep respect to all Indigenous peoples, past, present and future, and we encourage you to learn more about these vibrant communities.

Did You Know?

No Excuses, No Limits is an explosive, inclusive dance performance from the b-boys of ILL-Abilities™. The performers tell their personal stories and express themselves through dance, music and audience interaction. Learn more about the show and watch a short trailer below!

• The six ILL-Abilities™ crew members performing at the New Victory hail from five countries across the globe: Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands and South Korea.
• The crew gets its name from the custom in hip-hop culture of using a negative term to describe something positive. Rather than meaning “sick” or “unwell,” the “ill” in ILL-Abilities™ refers to the incredible, intricate talent of its crew members.
• The ILL-Abilities™ dancers begin choreographing by improvising together, often incorporating the crutches, orthotics and wheelchairs that they use in real life.

Try It Out!

B-boys hype each other up in a cypher—a circle where they take turns dancing in the center. Inspired by the cypher and the unstoppable ambition of the ILL-Abilities™ crew, work together to share your goals or dreams with each other!

Siobhan, Jess and Daniel each took one of their goals and shared it in an affirmation cypher. What dreams can you help bring to fruition with encouragement from your family and friends?

1. Talk with your kid about the goals and dreams you each have; invite friends or other family members to join you. Each of you should pick one goal to share in the cypher.
2. Form a circle and take turns stepping into the center to share your name and goal in the following pattern:

   My name is   and I want to  .

   Keep a steady rhythm as each person takes a turn, and when everyone is done, say “No Limits! Go do it!” all together.

3. Now add a power pose! As each person enters the cypher, they can shorten their goal to just the final part—for Jess, it was “Fly a jet!”—and add a movement or freeze pose to really give the affirmation some power.

Do this for as many goals or dreams as you want. The more you hype each other up, the more unstoppable you’ll be!

Talk About It!

As you make your way to the theater, get your kid in a No Excuses, No Limits mindset with some show-themed conversation starters! Ask them:

• What are some things you want to try in life, but are afraid you maybe can’t do?
• Have you ever accomplished something that felt impossible? Maybe you still can’t quite believe you did it! How were you able to get it done?
• What do you think about when you hear the word “hip-hop?” Remember, hip-hop is more than dance or music—it’s a movement built on authentic self-expression and inclusive community! DJing, MCing, rapping, breaking and graffiti art are all core elements of hip-hop.

And the fun doesn’t have to stop here! Follow along with New Victory Teaching Artists in a few Arts Break videos and activities from the archive that will pump up your family’s dancing and self-expression skills.

Learn some house dance history and a menu of moves from Olney Edmondson.

Show off your moves with pathos (and donuts)! Dance your feelings with Sun Kim.

Add your own twist to a traditional dance style! Remix ballet with Lauren Sharpe.