Red Bull Dance Your Style is one of Germany's biggest dance showcases. There, dancer Luwam Russom reviews the current state of dance between the big stage and TikTok
She moves like a metronome possessed by instinct, precision folding into intuition. A body fluent in silence, gestures carrying entire worlds. Luwam Russom is not only a dancer — she is a choreographer, a movement director, a Gen Z legend who has shaped the texture of Germany’s street dance for nearly two decades. Her presence in the scene is gravitational: pulling others into orbit, opening space for visions beyond the underground.
At the Red Bull Dance Your Style Germany National Final 2025 in Columbiahalle, where Dinipirietebu rose as the new champion, Russom did not compete. This time she stood on the other side — as an observing voice, a witness to the risk and electricity of the night. When the crowd dissolved, security refused to let us backstage — no pass, no entry, a buzzing confusion of dancers, staff, flashes of sweat and laughter. So we drifted outside, onto the dark parking lot, where the asphalt still carried the echo of bass lines. It was there, in the afterglow, that this conversation began.
Luwam Russom at the Red Bull Dance your Style Final, Berlin, 2025.
„Dance is risk — every step a heartbeat away from collapse, every beat a chance to fly.“
How was tonight’s final for you? What moved you the most — and what perhaps left you critical?
The energy. It was overwhelming, surprising. That’s what carried me. But there was also pain: Junior Games got injured, I think. And that’s the risk we all carry in this profession — every dancer knows it. You’re full of emotions, you push your body, and suddenly, in a single click, your knee or ankle is gone. I also wished for more entertainment, more edge. It was a strong final, yes, but I know the guys could have gone further. Sometimes it comes down to the music — when a track you’ve never heard drops, it’s luck or no luck.
Platforms like Red Bull Dance Your Style – how important are they for young talent? Where do you see potential, and where do you see gaps?
They’re huge. I’ve been in the underground scene since 2006, almost twenty years now. Dance Your Style opens doors to people far beyond our bubble. I post a video — it goes viral. Suddenly people who only know TikTok dances say: “Wait, this is dance.” That shift is powerful. And it’s not only dancers following each other anymore. It’s generations, strangers, people from all walks of life. Once, on a flight, someone in business class leaned over and asked me about Dance Your Style. He had nothing to do with dance, but he’d seen the videos, loved them. That’s the reach. That’s what this platform does.
The gap? People confuse commercial music with TikTok dances too easily. We need to bring more depth, more research, more seriousness into how the audience perceives dance.
You’ve been a fixed presence in the scene for years. How has your perspective on dance, movement, and community shifted?
The field is wider now. Dance allows me to be more than a dancer: I can be a content creator, a creative director, a movement director. Brands are less hesitant – they begin to see the range, the power in what we do. And they recognize the strength of our community. Especially in fashion. Most of us are not only dancers. We’re DJ’s, stylists, creators. Hip-hop gave us so many tools. That’s why my work crosses boundaries. I choreograph, but I also shape concepts, visual worlds. That’s the expansion dance gives me.
„The underground is not a place, it’s a pulse that spills into fashion, into screens, into how we see each other.“
You recently dropped a concept video – tell us about it.
Budgets in Germany are always a fight. People try to push you down: “Do it smaller, do it cheaper.” But I wanted to go beyond. So I invested a few thousand euros myself, and within four days we created the video – to Luciano and Reezy’s “Expensive Shit.” It’s probably one of the best videos on the German market right now. I say this with certainty – because it carries heart, blood, and vision. Everyone involved came from our community, many of them also working with Red Bull. We built it ourselves, and now it’s opening bridges to brands, new collaborations. That’s the future: we create our own stage, and we finally start to earn, together.
What advice would you give to young creatives just setting out?
Stop overthinking. Just do it.
The concept video was only an idea in my head – and I pulled it off. You can start with less, with small steps. I did, too. The important thing is: you have to go through every step, you can’t skip the process. It took me fifteen years to win the National Final twice. Last year I also represented India, making it into the top eight. None of this came overnight. It came from doing, again and again.
And if you had to sum up tonight, in a single word?
Love. Always love. And the togetherness it brings.
On that Berlin parking lot, our words rose into the warm air like smoke. The Columbiahalle emptied, leaving only echoes of music and a city reclaiming its rhythm. Yet something stayed suspended — the charge of the evening, the tenderness of a community, the risk etched into every step.
As the stage now shifts toward Los Angeles and the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final 2025 on October 11, Russom’s voice lingers. Not as a competitor this time, but as a witness, a guiding presence, reminding us of what remains when the lights cut out: movement, risk, vision – and, above all, love.
