(hip hop music) (intriguing music) - The most powerful word in the English language, is black.

(funky music) It is both dark and light, but it means so many different the things on an emotional capacity, on a spiritual capacity.

It is so many different things and we use it so many different times.

(funky music) I'm a dancer, I'm an artist, I'm an entrepreneur.

I'm fluid and I identify with a lot of different things.

I'm 'Hobbs' Waters, and this is my expression.

(bright music) Dance is my life, man.

The first time I danced, honestly, I just remember being happy.

(bright music) It's how I express myself.

I'm always growing and this is really when I feel liberated.

(bright music) (funky music) It is ultimately my purpose, that's how I'm contributing to the world.

I'm always being tested with dance, physically and mentally, just having that mental capacity to push myself, and then you have to look at what you're doing as a milestone and be able to continue to grow.

(footsteps thudding) Especially with the pandemic, I've been really trying to push myself and there have been days that I wanna quit and days that I wanna just jump in the studio and work my hardest.

(bright music) Arthur Mitchell is someone that I look up to.

He was an emerging African-American dancer during the civil rights movement.

I particularly am appreciative of him, because he was the first and I'm pretty sure the only male principal dancer within the New York City Ballet.

He went on to star in the Dance Theater of Harlem, and he has influenced so many other black dancers and choreographers who have done a lot of different things.

(funky music) We're at openHAUS, which is a co-working collective in Portland, this is actually where I was commissioned to do my third mural.

(intriguing music) My lifestyle at least is all oriented around art.

Not only dancing, but painting, illustrations, even you know, photography, and music.

(funky music) Oftentimes I feel like complicit people come around and then they look at something and then they take away from it and then they don't do anything.

So with my work, I wanna change that norm.

I want people to really reciprocate my work and then become active.

(funky music) This is an abstracted anatomically correct heart.

I wanted to play a little bit around with realism and abstract, trying to really accentuate like the arteries and the different pumps.

I didn't actually start producing abstracted pieces until like three years ago.

I was definitely reluctant to start getting into that medium, but I'm surrounded by a lot of people who pushed me to continue to grow and explore new artistic mediums.

(intriguing music) (ladder rattling) I have a lot of my work around town.

A lot of my art is really just an adaptation of how I perceive the world, especially 'cause most of my art is oriented around social justice.

I like a lot of symbolism in my work as well, and all my pieces are like that.

And in a way, they bring light to issues that I think are neglected or need to be analyzed further.

(funky music) I am finding myself within my artwork.

Like I said, I'm always shifting and always changing.

And I don't think I've found my medium yet, but I have a palette of work that ranges from movement to clothing.

(door creaking) Oh, hey.

- [Jacqueline] What'd you bringing today?

- [Sean] I brought some new inventory that I just got today.

I was just gonna give you like a two in each, from an extra large to extra small.

- [Jacqueline] This is great.

- We're at Jailbreak, it's a local shop here in Portland, in the Southeast Portland, where a lot of local artists and makers have their work on consignment.

(upbeat music) (water spraying) City Troll's my Urban Lifestyle line.

Initially it was another way to funnel money into my dance, but it's grown to so much more.

(upbeat music) These are my friends, this is Naomi, this is Malachi.

Today, we're just gonna be shooting for this photo shoot, for my urban lifestyle line.

Come on a little bit, Naomi, like... Don't be afraid to be silly.

- [Assistant] You like this, Hobbs?

- [Sean] Yeah, this is good.

All my clothing line is primarily online, but City Troll can be so much more.

I like to think of City Troll as if it's a movement.

Just like, turn your head like this, and then like lean back a little bit.

Yeah.

What I'm really trying to insight and say with City Troll is, you know, breaking down these white norms that have been perpetuated through art, by introducing new ideas, new norms that resonate with BIPOC.

You guys wanna like dance a little bit, just like move around.

This is kinda something that I also try to introduce into all my work, whether that's painting, that's dancing.

That's kinda the thing that intersects all of the things that I do.

(upbeat funky music) When people mention my name, I want them to think about my dancing.

I want them to think about my art.

I want them to think of me as the face of City Troll, as the face of my movement.

(funky music) I'm trying to pave the way for the next generations of dancers who look like me, or introducing these, you know, more diverse idioms into the art world.

I want them to think, I want them to think of my work and my legacy.

(funky music) (upbeat music)