Aruna Vermeulen

Aruna (1976) resides in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where she was born in a Surinamese and Dutch family. As a teenager she enjoyed hiphop music but things got serious in the late nineties, when she actively started to participate in the scene: She started breaking at the age of 21, inspired by local oldskool heads. From the start she was included in the inner circle of the small HipHop community. Dedication and determination helped her to grow skills, character and knowlegde. She joined the 'Freezone crew' for shows, battles, classes and jams. Gigs, sponsorships, fashion shows and even the Olympics allowed Aruna to dance for a living and at the same time invest in the growth of the local community. As one of the few bgirls in Europe she also started to travel solo for battles, workshops and gigs. Visits to South Africa, Japan and South Korea have made a huge impact. Over the years Aruna connected with many of her inspirations. Skooled by the old to empower the new. She's putting in work to strengthen the next hiphop generation from within. As co-founder and director of HipHopHuis (a home for HipHop culture and education) it has become a daily operation, hopefully for many more years to come.