Dance and community without competitions.
Urban dance has become a meeting point between music, movement and culture, and Urbanite takes this convergence to a new level by bringing together dancers and crews from Mexico and the United States on a platform that celebrates the diversity and energy of the scene. This August 15, 2026, Urbanite arrives in Mexico City with a showcase which will bring together 17 dance groups from both countries, in an experience that promises to connect the public with the talent and strength of urban dance. Regarding this meeting, we spoke with Leticia Campbell of Urbanite about their proposal, the community they have built and the present of this discipline.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: We know their story, but we also want to know, from their own words, how they define Urbanite and everything they are doing.
Urbanite: Urbanite it’s a showcase of dance. It is not a competition, but a showcase where it started in the United States, in Chicago. It started on a local level with universities and then expanded to the world of dance.
And well, what it is about is uniting cultures, uniting companies, uniting thoughts. So, the truth is that it is very cool because it is always done in the United States and this is our third year that we do it here in Mexico. So, generally companies or groups from Mexico were invited to Chicago and now we are trying to do it the other way around.
On this occasion, more than eight companies from the United States are coming for our 2026 edition. And so, basically, it is that: it is not a competition, but it is sharing as dancers. Since the dance community is very accustomed to competition, this show seeks the opposite, but what we are looking for is support among dancers, to be able to see another choreographer’s piece and to be able to give it a round of applause, to be able to accept that it is good, do you understand me? It is not more about criticism, but rather about coexistence.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: It is important to note that it is not a competition, that dance can also be something collaborative, where does this initiative of wanting to do it in that format of cooperation instead of competition come from?
Urbanite: Well, from the beginning this was the proposal of Urbanite. Really Urbanite was born by some urban hip hop companies called Dance Dance 2XS and there were several companies around the world. My husband and I, Jesus Nunezwe were directors of Dance 2XS Mexico and what was done was to make an annual event so that all the companies, for example, had Dance 2XS Brazil, Dance 2XS Portugal, Dance 2XS LondonChicago, United States.
So, what was done is, this event was created to bring together all the companies once a year and for them to share, to live together, to get to know each other because they were finally from the same family and from there little by little, for one or the other, for example, in our case, Dance 2XS It ended after the pandemic. It was already very difficult, after 12 years of having the company, it was already very difficult to maintain it and that is what happened to other countries. But the Urbanite event remained, already inviting new companies, that is, they did not have to be Dance 2XSbut new companies from other states, especially from the United States.
I mean, it stayed in a more American vibe, no longer international, but the concept was the same, right? Share, live together, enjoy a night of freestyleto meet friends, to connect and with the producer what happened is that Jesus and I, my husband, were talking and we said why don’t we try and take him to Mexico? And so do it again in some international way, right?
And now companies from the United States come to Mexico and get to know our culture and share the same stage. So that’s how it really came about. Urbanite MX.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: Tell us about the importance of this being an international event. That is, how does this international perspective feed into what you already do?
Urbanite: Of course, I think that practically the companies, that is, for example, with everything that happened in the World Cup, right? There was an idea that Mexico is dangerous, Mexico don’t go, they will rob you, blah, blah, blah. And we saw that no, I mean, finally the Mexican when it comes to partying and it’s about living together and opening up, I mean, we are really very open, we have always been interested in tourism.
So, in some way or another, that is what we also look for in the Urbanite. We need to remove that bad image of Mexico and also in the world of dance, which is that Mexicans are very competitive and nothing more than competition. We also enjoy and we also live together and we also have this culture that not everything is competition.
So it is very important for us to make that vision and obviously in the future to be able to open Urbanite to other countries.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: Why is it important that there are events like Urbanite that have dance as their main theme?
Urbanite: Well, I think it is very important, especially because we have made a lot of progress and the truth is that the youth, my husband and I have had a dance school for 25 years, and the youth are being consumed by technology, that is, they are already on their cell phones all the time and we have seen it, well I tell you, for 25 years before they have been looking more for physical activity, having fun, getting rid of worries and even drugs. We had many programs with children who suffered from drug addiction and we took them off the streets and 20 of them dance and now they are dancing in international companies or they are already choreographers or they have their dance schools.
So I think it is very important that in Mexico these spaces continue to open and promote this dance culture because it is not just dancing. I have always said dance, apart from art, is also a sport and it is a high-level sport, that is, we are athletes who do dance. So I think it is very important to open all these spaces so that youth have this showcase, have this way of releasing emotions and that it is not all through the telephone, the computer.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: Of course, in dance there is a lot of discipline, perseverance and seriousness.
Urbanite: Yes, a lot of physical preparation and discipline because dance is very jealous. So you make a lot of progress when you are very consistent, but leave a month and you can lose everything you have already won. So a professional choreographer, a professional dancer, really their whole life is training.
In other words, you never stop training, you never stop learning, updating yourself and, above all, training your body. You leave it for a while and you lose a lot of things. So the truth is that dance is very beautiful, it is jealous, but at the same time it is very beautiful because it changes your character, it teaches you many things such as discipline, perseverance, holding on to what you want and obviously having a passion.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: Tell us a little about the 17 groups that will make up this edition.
Urbanite: Yes, both companies from the United States and companies from Mexico are invited, but honestly we have opened up a lot, because dance has also evolved, we have opened up a lot in terms of the groups that are performing. So we are going to have K-pop, we are going to have a contemporary sample, that gives us a lot of pride because also in some way in this scenario that has always been about being different, showing different dances, so we are going to have a little contemporary, we are going to have a lot of hip hop, we are going to have a reggaeton group and we are going to have a folk dance group.
That’s the first time it’s happened Urbaniteboth in Mexico and anywhere Urbanite in the United States. So it’s going to be a very varied night, for the audience it’s going to be very interesting, because not only are we confining ourselves to a type of dance or a type of style, but all the colors that they are going to see will be very entertaining.
Don’t miss the experience of showcase of Urbanite this August 15th in Indie Rocks Forum!
