In viral videos and the street, 9-year-old turf dancer embodies the Oakland-made art form’s future

At 7 years old, Roux Stunna went viral after a video of him performing the Brookfield, an iconic Bay Area dance move, was uploaded to Instagram. The clip amassed over 1.2 million views and marked his entry into the turf dancing scene. Now 9, Roux is one of the youngest dancers competing and performing in Oakland. 

This year, Roux is set to perform at “The Night of Main Events,” a showcase hosted by World Wide Dance Association in Oakland. He also will appear in LaRussell’s remix music video “I’m From The Bay.”

But views aren’t as meaningful to Roux as his tribute and commitment to turf, a storytelling dance born on Oakland’s streets and passed down through several generations.

“It gives me a way of expressing myself,” Roux said. “I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy the people I meet doing it.” 

Turf, which stands for “taking up room on the dance floor,” is widely recognized by young Black dancers who found creative expression in Oakland’s Black Panther legacy, the spread of drugs and the realities of street and gang culture. 

Roux, which is a stage name, has performed at Turf Inc. Shows, Oakland First Fridays, the “Days like This” community party at Lake Merritt, and Prescott Market. Not only is he competitive but he’s also making friends and connections within the turf community. 

“He’s not a normal kid,” said Cresin “Bravo” Williams-Quinn, a member of the Animaniakz, the first original turf dance team to come out of West Oakland. “He’s very attentive and just open to learning and wanting to learn more.”

Turfing offers a window into a time when Oakland’s dance traditions were being forged through cultural pride and adversity, long before the Hyphy movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s popularized Bay Area culture. 

Turfers combine elements of pantomime with energetic movements to tell personal stories of joy, resilience and creativity with the body. 

“There is an element of feeling out of your body — you’re just having so much fun, you’re not thinking about what moves come next,” Williams-Quinn said. 

Gideon Mekwunye, an Oakland break dancer, said Roux’s story can encourage more people to get involved no matter what their backgrounds are.

“When people think of Oakland, they think of a Black person with locks, but there’s other types of natives that are from here,” Mekwunye said. “Roux wasn’t born here, but he’s raised here. He has a perspective as a dancer, but as an Oakland dancer.”

Created in Oakland

Turfing originated as a creative, nonviolent way for youth and even adults to channel neighborhood tensions into movement rather than violence. Its techniques, animations and sense of freedom trace back to the Boogaloo era of the 1960s, which introduced many of the foundational movements still present today. 

Turf dancers typically embody a style that reflects their own “turf,” or where they’re from.  Dancers in West Oakland are known to be bouncier in their movements, whereas East Oakland has a smoother style. 

“Turfing is something that was created in Oakland. All these dances and styles were birthed from different hoods and popularized by certain hoods known for specific elements,” said Jarell Boyd, a turf instructor and advocate for the turf community. “However, over the years, just like with the music, different cities started having their own way of approaching the style. Then the collective of the community caught wind of it and was like, ‘Oh, we like those moves. We’re all gonna use them now.” 

Roux channels those early influences into his own evolving style and movement.

“He’s an example of why I fell in love watching turf dancing — it’s just the freedom and the fun of it, and he genuinely enjoys doing it,” Boyd said. “He’s the start of the next generation right now.” 

Roux says he makes up his choreography on the spot. He has posted nearly 50 videos of performances in Oakland, Paris and other cities and has massed more than 1,415 Instagram followers.

He incorporates lyrical elements, such as toe spins, glides and playful pantomime, showing that he’s a young dancer who simply loves to turf. He often wears a furry orange bucket hat, colorful shoes and jeans covered in graffiti. During dance battles, he mimics another dancer’s style, transforming into their persona and snapping back into his own. 

“It feels nice,” Roux said. “I try to come up with moves that people like, so I can get a bigger crowd.”

Early influences

Before being introduced to the turf scene, Roux said he was captivated by male ballet dancers, specifically those who leap in the air and spin. He also was mesmerized by the synchronized choreography of  Jabbawockeez, a hip-hop dance crew from the early 2000s known for signature white masks and gloves. 

“I’ve always loved dance, and then when I got a little older, like 5 or 6, I started to settle on hip-hop,” Roux said. “And then 7 to now, I started to do turf.” 

Roux says he’s inspired by those who came before him and how they made their own unique space on the dance floor. 

“Whenever I win money from something or do a performance and win money, I always give it to one of my mentors,” he said. “It needs to go back to the community.”

(Top photo and video show Roux Stunna performing at Oakland First Fridays on Nov. 7, 2025)

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