On a Thursday night at The Urban Groove, 40 dancers pack a former warehouse on Main Street for an advanced breaking class. Ten years ago, this building sat empty. Now, it's one of several studios drawing dancers from across Ohio to a city that has quietly become a serious destination for hip hop.
The Turning Point
Somerset City's dance resurgence took root around 2014, when a small collective of local choreographers and graffiti artists began organizing informal practices in vacant storefronts. What started as word-of-mouth gatherings gradually attracted city arts funding and private investment. By 2018, two dedicated studios had opened. Today, that number has grown to six brick-and-mortar spaces, with dozens of affiliated instructors and regular out-of-town students commuting from Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton.
The city's position along I-71 helped, but local dancers say the real catalyst was simpler: a handful of committed founders who treated hip hop as a culture to build around, not just a style to teach.
Studio Spotlight: The Urban Groove
The Urban Groove opened in 2016 inside a converted textile warehouse. Founder Marcus Chen, a former backup dancer for two national rap tours, designed the space with mentorship in mind. The studio now runs roughly 30 classes per week, ranging from beginner hip hop for ages six and up to an invitation-only breaking intensive.
What distinguishes The Urban Groove is its track record of moving students into professional work. Chen and his staff maintain relationships with talent agencies and music video directors in Chicago and Atlanta. In the past three years, roughly a dozen of the studio's advanced students have booked paid commercial or backup-dancing gigs. The studio also hosts quarterly workshops with visiting choreographers—recent guests have included dancers who have worked with Megan Thee Stallion and Kendrick Lamar.
"The goal isn't just to teach steps," Chen said. "It's to show kids that this can be a career path, not just a hobby."
The Fusion Factory: Where Styles Collide
Two miles east, The Fusion Factory takes a different approach. Co-founder Aisha Okonkwo, who trained in contemporary dance at Ohio State before gravitating toward street styles, built the studio around deliberate genre-crossing. A typical week might pair krump with contemporary, or house with jazz funk, taught by instructors with backgrounds in ballet companies, circus performance, and battle-scene circuits.
The studio also runs wellness programming that sits alongside its dance schedule: nutrition workshops, injury-prevention clinics with a local sports medicine practice, and quarterly mindfulness sessions led by a staffer with a master's in dance movement therapy. Okonkwo says the combination reflects a simple belief—that sustainable careers require more than technical skill.
"If you're only training your body and ignoring everything else, you're going to burn out or break down," she said. "We try to train the whole dancer."
From the Floor: A Dancer's View
Jalen Mercer, 22, started taking classes at The Urban Groove in 2019 after transferring to a nearby university from Cleveland. He now trains at both studios and competes with a local crew called Concrete Soul.
"When I got here, I figured I'd just take a class or two for fitness," Mercer said. "But the level of training surprised me. There are people here who could hold their own in New York or L.A. The difference is you can actually afford to live here while you train."
Mercer points to the regular open sessions and informal cyphers as evidence of a scene that functions as a genuine community, not just a collection of businesses. "It's competitive, but it's not cutthroat. People share choreography, post each other's videos, show up to battles even when they're not competing. That matters."
Community Events and Competitions
The studios anchor a calendar of events that keeps the scene visible and connected. Monthly open mic nights at The Fusion Factory rotate between spoken word, rap, and freestyle dance sets. Smaller dance battles pop up quarterly in a downtown parking lot that a local business owner donates for the purpose.
The largest fixed event is the Somerset City Hip Hop Championships, which launched in 2019 and returned this March after a two-year pandemic hiatus. The 2024 edition, held at the Somerset Performance Center, drew approximately 200 competitors and sold out the venue's 800 seats. Crews competed in breaking, popping, and all-styles categories, with a panel of judges that included two alumni of the local studio circuit now working nationally.
Looking Ahead
Somerset City's dance infrastructure is still young, and local organizers acknowledge challenges: affordable studio space is tightening, and retaining top instructors who receive offers from larger markets remains a struggle. But the foundation appears solid. Newer efforts, including a youth outreach program launched in 2023 by The Urban Groove and a planned hip hop theater showcase at The Fusion Factory for fall 2024, suggest the scene is still expanding its ambitions.
For dancers considering
