New street dance festival is more than performances. It’s also about battles and community.

Hip-hop dancers, breakers, emcees and choreographers converge at St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre for three days of “The Sota Movement: The Minnesota Street Dance Festival.”

Featuring energetic dance battles, performances and workshops, the premiere festival brings together the Twin Cities’ hip-hop community and special guests from around the country. The festival continues the tradition of Maia Maiden Productions’ “Rooted: A Hip-Hop Choreographer’s Evening,” which curator and director Maia Maiden first produced in 2009 at Patrick’s Cabaret, a Minneapolis arts venue that sunsetted in 2018. She thought it would be a one-time event.

“I had only tried to do it one time because my own career was taking off,” she recalled. “I was getting calls from all around the country to do choreography.” Ultimately, Maiden decided to focus her attention locally.

“To see 16 years later where people are, and to be cultivating the next group of people is amazing to me,” she said.

“The Gathering” party, which this year focuses on women in hip-hop, will kick off the events. “It’s time to celebrate the women in hip-hop and to honor and empower them,” Maiden said.

Among the special guests is rapper and former hip-hop ambassador to the U.S. State Department Toni Blackman, who will lead a cypher workshop, where participants perform a freestyle session in a circle. Hosted by emcee Lt. Sunnie, “The Gathering” will include music by DJ Michel.Be and a community meal.

Day 2 of the festival features a night of dance battles called “Uprizing,” co-organized by Ololade “Gambit” Gbadamosi and Herbert “Fairwarning” Johnson III of Minnesota Krump Movement. Dancers will face off in both choreographed and improvisational bouts.

He specializes in krump dancing, an expressive, muscular kind of hip-hop that features staccato movements. That’s how he met Gbadamosi, another practitioner of the form. Gbadamosi got his start dancing at Apple Valley High School, where many years before, Maiden had founded a hip-hop dance team called Infinity.

By the time Gbadamosi was in high school, he danced with that same group, and further taught himself krump dancing first via YouTube videos before visiting other states to further train in the style.

Johnson and Gbadamosi organized their first “Uprizing” in 2014 with Tou Saiko Lee, who has since moved on to other projects.

In 2021, Maiden was thinking of ways to expand the “Rooted” festival, and approached Gbadamosi and Johnson about bringing their two festivals together.

“When I was thinking about where to take hip-hop and street culture next, we didn’t have a festival that combined a battle and a performance and workshops and kind of a pre-party,” she said. “So when I thought about who the people to do this with would be, I immediately thought about Uprizing.”

“They’ll be battling in a way to pass the torch to the next generation,” Johnson said.

Dancers go up against one another in a tournament format in “Uprizing.”

“As you win, you pass on to the next bracket,” Johnson said. “None of the dancers within the tournament are aware of what song they’ll be dancing to, so it is completely improvised and spontaneous, if you will, which is a part of the challenge. It’s to test their ability to stay on their feet and execute.”

The festival will wrap up Sunday with “Rooted: Hip-Hop Choreographer’s Evening,” which is curated by Maiden. It will include a mix of hip-hop dance styles coming from all levels of experiences and highlight local dancers like Andy Asong-Morfaw and Desaré Cox, and spoken word artist Desdemona, as well as out of town guests like Amirah Sackett from Chicago and Daisy, a rapper and emcee based in Los Angeles. Congolese hip-hop dancer Enock Kalubi Kadima (Brotha.E) also is part of the lineup.

Free workshops will be held on all three days and feature guest performers and Twin Cities legend Morris Johnson, who taught dance rooted in African traditions in Minneapolis for many years.

Ultimately, Maiden sees her continued work with “Rooted” and “Sota Movement” as being part of her determination to elevate the culture.

“The way we’ve been able to cultivate this together has been really phenomenal,” she said. “I’m always honored when people show up. I’m always honored when people say yes. And I’m always honored when people understand where we were and where we are now. What a tremendous journey that has been.”

What: “The Gathering”: 6 p.m. Fri., free; “Uprizing”: 2 p.m. Sat., $10-$25; “Rooted”: 6 p.m. Sun., $10-$15.

Where: Park Square Theatre, 20 W. 7th Plaace, St. Paul.