Jo'Artis Ratti, professionally known as Big Mijo or Mijo

Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti is an American dancer and co-creator of krump, the expressive, improvisational street dance form that emerged from South Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Born in Los Angeles, Mijo entered the city's street dance world through the clowning culture built around Tommy the Clown. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, he and dancers including Tight Eyez, Miss Prissy, Lil' C and Dragon were pushing the vocabulary toward something more forceful and emotionally charged—a form rooted in parking-lot battles and built from chest pops, arm swings, stomps, jabs and improvisational storytelling. Mijo and Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis are widely identified as central originators, though krump emerged as a community creation rather than a single artist's invention. Its aggression was redirected into nonviolent expression, character and release.

Mijo's path to global recognition began with David LaChapelle's short documentary *Krumped* in 2004 and the feature *Rize* in 2005, which brought the South Los Angeles scene to international film audiences. His appearances in these foundational records helped establish a lineage later transmitted through battles, tours, workshops and performances. As a teacher, Mijo emphasizes "the Rootz"—foundational technique, culture and the connections among krump practitioners. He has taught krump internationally through faculty positions and workshops, sharing the discipline and philosophy of a form born from lived experience and transformed into language.