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Yuri Lane was born on a small island in Holland, but his
parents, a painter and a violinist, soon moved to San Francisco's
Haight-Ashbury district to ride the 70's counter-culture current. Raised in the
Haight, Yuri learned rhythm by osmosis and quickly learned to
incorporate urban rhythms into his daily life.
In the 80's, Yuri started breakdancing and supporting himself by
teaching moves at his middle school parties. His true passion was discovered in a
sixth grade math class where Yuri made sounds to compensate for his
lack of skill in arithmetic. When his teacher ordered him to "turn off
the radio," Yuri knew that he was on to something.
After finishing college at the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts where he studied theater, Yuri returned to his native San Francisco to pursue mime, improvisation and alternative theatrical forms. During the dot-com boom, Yuri found himself as "the geek" in several local and national commercials as well and TV episodes.
As San Francisco's boom went bust, Yuri returned to theater and began developing his one-man human beatbox musical, "Soundtrack City". Yuri created "Soundtrack City" by performing one scene at a time at clubs, bars, coffee shops, and small theaters of San Francisco. The full-length production of "Soundtrack City" debuted in November 2001. During the summer of 2002, Yuri starred in "Compulsory Breathing", a short film featuring his beatboxing skills.
Currently Yuri lives in Chicago and tours "From Tel Aviv to Ramallah," a hip-hop play that tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while emphasizing the humanity, suffering and joy of both Israelis and Palestinians. Since the fall of 03, "From Tel Aviv to Ramallah" has played at theaters in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and Cleveland as well as on college campuses, at Jewish-Muslim and Israeli-Arab peace events, camps, synagogues and community centers.
Yuri is soaking up the sounds of Chicago dropping beats at Chicago area clubs and is busy recording a beatbox album.
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