Participant dances at Red Bull Dance Your Style in New York, New York on June 28, 2025. // Annie Schutz / Red Bull Content Pool
On April 11, the global all-styles street dance battle returns to NYC following a sold-out 2025 edition, transforming the Brooklyn Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court into a stage where underground culture meets institutional legacy.
For one night, one of the city’s most iconic cultural spaces, long associated with fine art and history, will pulse with freestyle, unpredictability, and the kind of energy that can only come from NYC’s street dance scene.
What makes Red Bull Dance Your Style different is its format: no judges, no pre-selected music, and no rehearsed choreography. Dancers step into the circle not knowing what song will drop next, adapting in real time as the crowd decides who moves forward. It’s a format that strips performance down to instinct, musicality, and presence– qualities that define street dance at its core.
Among the dancers stepping into that arena is Zenta Mugler, whose journey into New York’s dance world reflects the very spirit of the competition. Originally from Korea, she describes the city as a place that reshaped her understanding of dance entirely.
“New York is like a kind of melting pot,” she said. “I could see so many various styles of dancers and their identities, and I really loved it.”
That diversity, and the collision of styles, cultures, and lived experiences, is exactly what the event amplifies. From hip-hop to house, waacking to voguing, Red Bull Dance Your Style doesn’t separate form, it throws them together, asking dancers to respond, adapt, and connect in the moment.
For Mugler, that challenge is part of the appeal. A seasoned battler with over a decade of experience, she sees the unpredictability not as a barrier but as a necessary test. “I’ve been battling for more than 10 years because I just want to break my limit,” she said.
Still, the scale of this stage feels different. “I really wanted to dance on the Red Bull stage– it is huge,” she added.
Arsenal at Red Bull Dance Your Style in New York, New York on June 28, 2025. // Annie Schutz / Red Bull Content Pool
This year’s setting only heightens that sense of magnitude. The Brooklyn Museum, celebrating over 200 years as a cultural institution, becomes an unlikely but powerful backdrop for street dance, a form historically rooted in underground spaces, ciphers, and community gatherings.
Mugler plans to use that platform to spotlight styles that often remain misunderstood.
“I’m doing waacking and voguing, so I want to bring those special categories and culture,” she said, emphasizing their roots in LGBTQ+ communities and underground scenes.
For Mugler, performance is about representation, not just winning. “I want to show the right things, and also I want to make my people proud,” she said.
That sense of responsibility reflects a larger truth about New York’s dance scene. Beneath the spectacle, there’s a network of chosen families, mentorship, and shared survival that shapes how dancers move and why they move.
The ballroom community
Mugler speaks about her ballroom community not just as collaborators, but as life-changing support systems. “They support me. They teach me how to love, show me how to be loved. They are my real family,” she said.
Atmosphere at Red Bull Dance Your Style in New York, New York on June 28, 2025. // Josh Sawyer / Red Bull Content Pool
It’s this intersection of artistry and community that gives the event its emotional weight. While the crowd votes in real time, what they’re really responding to isn’t just technique, but it’s authenticity, culture, and connection.
And that connection goes both ways.
For dancers, the goal isn’t only to impress the audience but to share something genuine in the moment. “For this battle, I’m gonna try to have fun. I want to enjoy my moment,” Mugler said, pointing to a shift in mindset that prioritizes presence over perfection.
That philosophy extends beyond the stage. When asked what she hopes young dancers take from her journey, her answer is simple but urgent: “Just do everything. Don’t give up, experience is the best thing in your life.”
On April 11, that spirit of risk, experimentation, and fearless expression will take over the Brooklyn Museum. Red Bull Dance Your Style isn’t just a competition; it’s a snapshot of where street dance is right now: global yet deeply local, polished yet raw, and always evolving.