Since its founding in 2008, Embodiment Project has become one of the most enthralling hip-hop companies in the Bay Area, bringing street dance and Black social dance to the concert stage while honoring the qualities of improvisation and individuality at the core of hip-hop culture.

The company is led by Nicole Klaymoon, who grew up around dance forms like waacking, popping and house and studied under Rennie Harris, one of the great innovators in bridging hip-hop and concert dance. Under her leadership, Embodiment Project and fellow San Francisco performance arts nonprofit Dance Mission Theater are partnering to present Get Free, a free festival from Friday-Sunday, June 3-5, featuring an opening showcase, dance workshops and, at the heart of everything, an “experimental battle” featuring artists from the region and beyond.

To learn more about the festival and the nature of an “experimental battle,” The Chronicle spoke with Klaymoon and Embodiment Project member and co-producer Rama Mahesh Hall, who grew up in a meditation community in Iowa and began dancing with Klaymoon 13 years ago.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: It’s the third time you’ve done one of these festivals and the second time at Dance Mission. How did Get Free begin?

Klaymoon:We first did the festival in 2015 because Rennie (Harris) was going through a loss and couldn’t produce his festival, Illadelph, in Philadelphia. So we were like, “Why don’t we hold it down for you and bring you out to San Francisco and be together, you know, and give this offering to our Bay Area community?”

We had a lot of talent from New York, people that created the dance styles that spread around the world, and keepers of Bay Area history like PopTart (Lonnie “PopTart” Green, famed San Francisco Strutter). We had Tyrone the Bone Proctor, and Junius Brickhouse from D.C., who’s also really holding it down on the East Coast in terms of that urban artistry. It was a very ambitious gathering that made us see, wow, producing a festival relies on family and community.

Hall:两年后,我们做了一个迭代的Get Free festival at Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, and the next year at Dance Mission. And both those years we were doing a battle at the Oakland Museum. That was historical, for the museum to hold a street dance battle. One of Embodiment Project’s core members, George “WuKong” Cheng, initiated that battle and originally called it “Art Has No Rules.”

Q: That became the model for the “Experimental Battle.” What’s special about this kind of dance battle?

Hall:Within street dance, you have more established styles, main styles such as house, dance, hip-hop, freestyle, locking, popping and voguing. These are all styles that people train in and they’re a foundation for creativity. But a lot of times people can also get in a box where they’re like, “I’m this type of dancer, I’m a house dancer, I’m a popper,” and if they go outside of that they get uncomfortable. So an experimental battle is for dancers that don’t identify with a certain style, or dancers that want to tell more, want to lead with storytelling rather than a style. Experimental battles are still extremely rare. That’s why we’re bringing it back this year. With this one, we wanted to bridge the gap between concert dance and street dance.

Q: In a normal battle, all the dancers compete, a top 16 or eight are chosen, and then it’s a tournament. But for the experimental battle, the dancers have already been chosen?

Hall:We have five dancers and we have a team of musicians. We have beat producer CoFlo, who is legendary in the Bay for house dance. And we have Tongo Eisen-Martin, a legendary spoken word artist. We’re going to have dancers dancing to his poetry. At Embodiment Project, we dance to poetry, but we’ve never seen it in this type of setting.

Q: It sounds like you’re creating a space where people can be fierce and competitive, but also vulnerable.

Klaymoon:Right. I’ve experienced battle culture to be very spiritual, because the element of competition can help us push us beyond, deep into unlimited potentiality. So we’re building on that. And then we’re also challenging the battle construct by having the artists be the judges of each other, and also bring in additional judges, an elder and a child, to ask: Who’s the authority? And what is our criteria? How do you judge art?

Q: Tell me about some of the artists you’re bringing from outside the Bay Area, like K’niin Abbrey from Los Angeles.

Hall:K’niin embodies everything at the heart of this festival — how vulnerable he gets in his dancing, how different his movement is, how he’s willing to just be abstract, and the way he just uses the space with his movement. He’s going to be part of each festival day.

Klaymoon:In selecting artists, it wasn’t just like, “Oh, who’s the dopest dancer?” It was, “Who do we see that we think is really taking that risk to express, taking it beyond privileging virtuosity or technique?”

Q: The last Get Free festival was in 2018. Will they be more regular now?

Klaymoon:This year is a pilot for next year, when we want to expand to a full week. We’ve already secured funding, so we’re making this an annual thing, a partnership with Dance Mission. We’re thinking about this festival as an annual gift to the Bay.

Q: Nicole, you teach every Tuesday at Dance Mission, and you end every class with a cipher. Could you or Rama explain what a cipher is and why it’s important to you?

Hall:Basically, a cipher is a sacred circle where people should be able to feel safe. That’s why it’s important that you bring that awareness to everybody there, that everybody’s engaged, it’s not just the person in the middle. Things come out in the cipher that are magic, because the energy is being turned from the inside out and outside in.

Klaymoon:I just want to add how ancient the cipher is. And across cultures, like what Rama was saying, when you’re in the middle, everyone has your back.

The person in the middle could be getting on your last nerve that day, but when they’re in the cipher, you are giving them everything, we’re in a collective. And when they shine, we all shine brighter.

Get Free Weekender:Opens with “Sacred Rowdiness,” a performer showcase, 8 p.m. Friday, June 3. Continues with “Timing Is Synchronicity,” an experimental battle, 8 p.m. Saturday, June 4. Workshops begin at noon Sunday, June 5. Free, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St., S.F.dancemissiontheater.org