The proliferation of competitive showcase events in southern California is a good sign for both the street dance scene and the hip hop choreo scene. The biggest fusion of both cultures is the World of Dance (WOD) tour that has been held in multiple California cities as well as New York. Other events have followed in its wake, including Urban Street Jam which just happened last weekend in Costa Mesa. Why is this an important development? Well, showcases place our dance cultures in a context that builds community as well as markets them as a commodity in terms of live entertainment.
We need to have more showcases that promote emerging dance crews and freestyle dancers. The Kollaboration movement comes to mind as an inspiring model. This year is the 10th anniversary of Kollaboration, which has brought Asian-American musicians, artists, dancers, and performers to the public spotlight. What Paul Kim and his Kollaboration team have essentially done is to create a collective of artists that are their own supportive network. When you bring inspired minds together, magic is going to happen. Kollaboration provides the environment for this creative mixing to occur.
Myron Marten is doing that now with World of Dance. It’s been a more successful venture than the recent Freestyle Sessions, which is a high profile bboy competition under Cros One. It’s no secret that many bboys, poppers, and lockers are upset with the high ticket prices charged at Freestyle Session. On the contrary, World of Dance has gained positive word-of-mouth by keeping ticket prices lower and choosing venues that have been more comfortable. Also, World of Dance is fostering a collective of dancers from the choreo scene and the street scene. It’s a safe zone where dancers from different worlds can mingle, exchange ideas, compete with each other, and build relationships for future projects. It’s also a forum for turning the performing crews into live entertainers. People who are not involved in the dance communities will pay for tickets to WOD to see a show and to be entertained. From this mix, an entertainment culture is evolving.
Poreotics is a prime example of a crew that has benefited from this new development. They developed a strong following over the past two and a half years by constantly performing at competitive showcases. Their showmanship has grown with experience and now they’ve crossed over into mainstream television on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. Other crews will follow similar paths as this entertainment culture develops. Meanwhile, there are movers and shakers behind the scenes who are managing and promoting these teams. A prominent example of this is Arnel Calvario, who founded Kaba Modern and currently manages the Kaba Modern Six, the Beat Freaks, and Fanny Pak.
One end result of this culture will be more saavy and experienced performers coming out of our scenes. This can only prepare our Gen II dancers for more professional opportunities in the entertainment industry as street dance becomes more accepted by the mainstream.
One of the brightest examples of today’s “Gen II” new school generation is the cross-pollination between different dance cultures. We’re seeing street dancers broadening their horizons by joining hip hop choreo teams. Culture Shock LA and Poreotics are good examples of teams with solid street dancers. And we’re see choreo dancers learning foundation to enhance their poppin’, lockin’, and bboyin’ skills. Kaba Modern and Pac Modern are teams who have shown these influences in their routines. Finally, we’re also finding more younger dancers embracing consistent training in several styles so that they have become monsters on the dance floor.
Several factors have led to this cross-pollinating phenomenon. First, we can take a look at the rise of the hip hop choreo community since the early 1990s with Kaba Modern, Pac Modern, and Team Millenia hitting the college circuit. This culture created the growing numbers of choreo teams that practice on campuses, compete at showcases, and are surrogate families for their members. Second, the street dance culture expanded from its obscurity in the early 2000s with the “Gen I” new school arriving. They paved the way for the Gen II new school to get exposed to street styles. With the hip hop choreo scene and the street scene growing in tandem, it’s obvious to see how dancers would start to jump between both worlds. Finally, the breaking down of geographic and cultural borders between dancers has helped new schoolers to not limit themselves in learning only one style. It’s as if we’re taking on these styles without any of the cultural or social baggage they had in the 1980s and 1990s.
Our Gen II new school is also capable of multi-tasking. They live in a world with constant visual media influences that bombard them from television, film, and the online world. Perhaps this hyper-visual sensitivity has encouraged this cross-pollinating phenomenon. Today, we want to learn as many styles as possible in the shortest amount of time. Our learning curves are more accelerated than our predecessors. Primed to receive multiple stimuli from their environment, Gen II dancers are changing the way we approach training in these styles.
The idea of an all-around street dancer isn’t impossible. While there will always be specialists in particular styles, a Gen II dancer can now aspire to be a well-rounded, all styles superstar. The opportunities to train in different styles are more available. And it’s perceived that more doors could open for you if you train in multiple styles. It’s a brave new world for Gen II.
We’re seeing a sea change in generations within street dance culture. In the early 2000s, there was a wave of new schoolers in the greater LA area coming into the poppin’ and bboyin’ cultures. Many of them were in their late teens to early twenties. A decade later, these dancers are now at the head of the class for the new school. Some of them have a career as professional dancers performing on television shows and films.
Now in 2010, there’s a new generation quickly coming up. Many of these new cats were from ages 5-10 in the early 2000s. Today, they’re in their teens and early twenties. But these two generations are vastly different in their approach to our dances just like how Generation X, Generation Y, and the Millenials have differences. For the sake of this discussion, let’s call the dancers who started in the early 2000s, Gen I. For the dancers who started in the late 2000s and in this new decade, let’s call them Gen II.
Gen I grew up in an age before Youtube. The poppin’ and bboyin’ scenes were growing in the early 2000s, but they were still small in scale. Gen II has emerged along with the rise of Youtube and the street dance culture has exploded in numbers. Both generations co-exist with each other in today’s world, but Gen I dancers are at higher skill level because of time invested in their craft as well as the striving to learn from OG dancers. Gen II has a wide range of skill level because of turning to Youtube as part of their dance education and perhaps taking fewer steps to seek training from OGs. What we’re left with is a widening gap between these two groups.
Is it possible for Gen I to step up and mentor Gen II? The top new schoolers are visible in mainstream media. Gen II dancers are imitating them but they don’t understand the technique. Gen I does. As OGs grow older, it will rest on Gen I’s shoulders to guide Gen II and the generations that follow. We’re at a crucial crossroads for our culture. Without committed mentoring, Gen II will lose the heart and soul of our street styles. They can go on to evolve and create their own styles, but the original styles will lose their relevance. If Gen I nurtures Gen II as their younger brothers and sisters, our entire culture will move forward to higher levels of artistry in this new dance landscape.
The way street dancers get their reputations nowadays is a complicated mess. We know from OG’s personal testimonies that reputable dancers got their street cred from battling and from word-of-mouth within the community. You’d earn your reputation by demonstrating your skill in a cypher. When you got called out, it was hard to back down with witnesses around. Crews popped up representing neighborhoods or cities whether you were from Carson, Wilmington, Orange County or Long Beach. Bboys and poppers aggressively defended their reputations and their belongings by battling each other.
In the 2000s, OGs have said that our current street dance scene is very different from what they remembered. Today, we have more judged contests than battles in cyphers. The party, communal vibe seems to have lessened in the present day compared to the past. And the presence of the Internet forums and online video sharing have warped the way new dancers get their reputations and blow up their names. While Internet forums have been helpful in reuniting older dancers as well as bringing new schoolers into a revived scene, the negative aspects have exponentially grown. There seems to be a disturbing trend developing where inexperienced new schoolers feel a subconscious need to post videos of themselves dancing before their technique has fully matured. They may feel that they need to receive critiques from informed sources in order to improve their technique. But often, it opens the door to flame wars, negative arguments, and a desperation to “get known” by posting their latest set online.
Maybe we need to start rethinking how we post our videos online. Anyone can post a video of themselves as long as they have a computer and Internet access. But if someone else posts a video of you, the chances are higher that they admire your skills and that you’re progressing. This isn’t an automatic correlation, but we often see the most highly skilled street dancers being recorded and posted online by other sources via Youtube. An alternate strategy is that we can cut back on all the video noise that we’re contributing online. To go truly underground means becoming almost invisible and limiting your visible presence at contests and cyphers. It certainly would add an air of mystery around yourself if you decided to become nearly invisible.
Now, we’re seeing dancers gaining notoriety simply by posting footage online. There’s an undercurrent of needing to get the most views on your video in order to get famous. This is a dangerous mentality that needs to stop. The reason is that it reduces aspects of our dance culture to being interpreted by a larger audience only on online video. Outsiders make judgements on our dance without getting the full experience of seeing it live. And we all know that Youtube videos aren’t always shot with the highest quality. This feeding of our desire to be seen, to get popular through high view tallies, and to market ourselves can grow out of control and become a massive self-absorption that could destroy our culture. We have to be cautious of how we present ourselves.
It must be a strange time for an OG street dancer to witness what’s happening in today’s street dance world. Bboyin’, poppin’, and lockin’ have exploded around the globe. There seems to be no limitations to how far street dance culture can reach. The public is more aware of our world, but at the same time, there seems to be more confusion about history, technique, and the current state of affairs in local communities. This week, we’re tackling a few issues that have popped up on our dance landscape. Today, it’s all about the communication of history.
Documenting and transcribing historical events is always a complicated endeavor. We know this from our days in our nation’s education system. History is the recollection of those who write it. The only way that we can get a more balanced view is to cross-reference and corroborate one version of the story with other accounts. In the street dance world, there is plenty of heated debate on the true creators of a style, the evolution of a dance, and the contributions of individuals along the way. There has been little official documentation of our world. Most of it is passed on via oral tradition, passed on from mentor to student or within tight-knit communities.
Now, information can be produced and then instantly disseminated worldwide via the Internet. Misinformation spreads like wildfire. And minds become warped by a twisted version of the truth. In this Youtube age, the person who can produce the most videos with the most views can get a point across to a large audience. This becomes a dangerous phenomenon when this source has an ulterior motive like damaging other individuals, twisting the truth to inflate one's reputation, or to launch a war of words against competitors. Lazy minds will not cross-reference this source and accept it on face value.
If we don’t remedy this, then further division will occur in our communities. This is most apparent in the poppin’ community. There are so many different camps within poppin’ that it’s starting to get confusing. What makes this even more difficult is that few of these camps ever interact or relate to each other in person. Whether through pride or fear of losing one’s reputation; visible, loud voices in the poppin’ community choose to speak out but never listen to the other party.
We need a different model. And it has to be based in deeper relationships and organic community. The hip hop choreo scene has handled this a lot better than our poppin’ brethren. In the fifteen to twenty years that the choreo scene has sprung up in SoCal, there has been more agreed upon history through the consistent sharing and interaction among different teams and leaders. Much of this is due to the team nature of the choreo scene, while there are a lot of individual players in the poppin’ world. We all know that miscommunication is dissipated when we converse, debate, and interact in person. So let’s get off the keyboard and bring our conversations face-to-face.
For the poppin’ world, we need a balanced approach to seeking, studying, and documenting the dance’s history for a public to appreciate. Education is our best weapon against hatred bred from miscommunication within our culture. It’s not just about passing on information to a younger generation. A striving for education allows these younger dancers to critically think for themselves and to evaluate the history that precedes them. They need this in order to grow to become the best dancers they were meant to be. That is the greatest gift an older generation can give them in this age of potential misinformation.
One of the natural aspects of a street dancer’s journey is striving to be like your role model. There are master dancers whom we love. We glowingly appreciate their technique, concepts, and approach. And we search for ways to be exposed to their work. In the 1980s, the street dance generation were influenced by those who were closest to them. As the 1990s and early 2000s progressed, dancers treasured rare VHS tapes and personally-shot miniDV footage of their role models as sources of inspiration. Nowadays, we’re flooded by video recordings on Youtube and Facebook that filter into our collective imagination. Has this killed individual creativity? It could be argued that today’s upcoming generation of new street dancers are too identical to their idols because they’re inundated with so much video noise. Is there a way that we can restructure the online video landscape to creatively challenge our youngest generation? (Photo above is from a Google Images Search for Pandora Radio.)
In the past thirty years, compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has some of the most individually, well-rounded dancers in the street scene. Now, the rest of the world has caught up and we’re no longer the most technically skilled rhythm nation. There’s only so much time during the day. So if young dancers are consuming thousands of online videos, they may have less time to practice and to naturally experience creative discoveries during their dancing. A parallel argument has been made regarding the hours of television watched by children and the effect on their creative lives. Too much time watching online videos has led to a suffocated creative life.
How do we address this? The most drastic solution is to just go cold turkey and cut off your video-watching intake. But for most of us this is unlikely to happen. Perhaps we need a technological solution, like a video player or filter that is open-sourced and can be programmed to play videos of different styles and approaches to our dance. Think of it as a “smart filter” that has the ability to sort through thousands of videos and to provide us with a more well-rounded diet of street dance styles. This would especially be helpful for popping where there are many stylistic approaches that remain hidden to the viewing public. You’ll only learn certain styles like boppin’ and Fillmore if you learn in person from the masters. To everyone else, these styles may not exist on their radar.
Perhaps this “smart filter” could also evolve like a playlist on Pandora. We’d have to work out an algorithm to help mold the playlist of videos that a user chooses based on keywords or tags. Regardless, this technological approach shouldn’t replace the hard work required to train and grow as a dancer. It’s only a visual aid to broadening our tastes and creative awareness, as one who attends a liberal arts college might experience. A broader awareness only leads to a stronger sense of creative thinking that allows a street dancer to grow more effectively in this media-heavy online world.
Last night, UC Irvine’s Kaba Modern held tryouts for their 2010-2011 collegiate team. This time of year is always buzzing with anticipation on campus since Kaba is one of the most highly anticipated choreo teams on the college circuit. But things were a little strange last night. There didn’t seem to be as many people showing up at Crawford Hall for the individual and group auditions. (Photo above was taken at the tryouts last night.)
In February 2009, the tryouts were packed with eager participants. This may have been because the audition was the first time people could try out for Kaba since the Kaba Modern Six debuted on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew in spring of 2008. Now, almost two years later, it was a different story. Last night, there definitely was a dedicated group of Kaba returners and family. But the numbers outside of this inner circle seemed to have dwindled.
Does this mean there’s a lack of support for Kaba among the local scene? Or is this a blessing in disguise since it allows for the judges to spend more time with the dedicated auditionees? Maybe this marks a return to simpler times for Kaba Modern. It was rumored among the crowd last night that several of the senior members were graduating this year, so that opened up more slots for new folks to join. Even with the smaller numbers, the participants and their friends were still passionate and supportive throughout the night.
We want to wish the best of luck to all the participants last night as they poured their heart out on the floor. Regardless of the turnout, we hope that this marks a new season for Kaba Modern and that their family will continue to grow with new voices in the fold.
We live in a health-conscious nation, but there continues to be a great need for better health education. The fact is that many of us don’t decide to make a conscious decision to change our habits. It’s too easy and comfortable to stay with the status quo. We all know how it feels. As we grow older, we create our own systems to get through life. Change is hard to embrace even though it’s deeply desired. So with this in mind, can we use a technological approach to monitor and regulate a healthy diet for street dancers? This idea is relevant with the incoming wave of smart devices that will populate our household. (Photo above is from a Google Images Search for smart devices.)
Many of us have varied regimens in terms of going to the gym, sessioning, and working on different aspects of our dance. But diet intake is rarely a widely discussed topic. It’s challenging because we also have individual makeups and genetic conditions that require special attention. There is no one formula that can be applied to all dancers. But what if we had smart devices to help us? Manufacturers are talking about fridges that distribute food based on user settings that can also be manipulated remotely. We’re going to see more devices that become integrated into all areas of our lives in the spirit of aiding our changing lifestyles. Think about how smart phones like the iPhone have affected daily computing. We went from palm pilots to smart phones in a short span of time, allowing for the perpetual multi-tasker to perform multiple activities on the go. Now we rely on our smart phones to communicate, share documents, and help us to organize the timetables of our day. It’s not a far leap to imagine smart devices that would inform us of how many calories we take in, what foods we should eat, and the amount of time we should spend exercising.
If most of us think that diet maintenance is too much work, then this is where a smart device can step in and help us. We need something that can be fine-tuned to the caloric needs and intake of a physically active street dancer. This future device could help us follow a calendar based on the nutritional needs for activities we’re training for. We see an early example of this in the wildly popular Nintendo Wii Fit. That project is devoted to a mass audience with elements of yoga, strength training, and balance exercises. But for a street dancer, we may need a more advanced device to help us monitor what areas of our body we need to develop - ie, muscle mass, flexibility, core strength - while giving us feedback on our dietary status.
Any smart device of this type only underlies how important the long-term effects of dieting play on our ability to dance. While we’re not recommending any specific diet plan, what we’re hoping for is a venue for smart devices and medically-approved diet methods to collaborate for a better long-term plan for street dancers.
All dancers yearn to express the music with their bodies. It’s the heart of our soul and the core of our being when we move. But how do we embrace technology to deepen our understanding of the music? If musicality is defined as the extent to which a dancer illustrates the music through movement, we honestly have to embrace the fact that some dancers are more skilled at this than others. There are some dancers who naturally hear the music while others are close to tone deaf either by inexperience or circumstances. So is there a visual way to illustrate music and in turn, musicality?
Do you remember the screensavers that Windows Media Player would display when you played your favorite songs? You’d see colorful patterns and trails radiating across a black screen, informed by the pulsing beat. Let’s imagine how this visual display could be taken to a higher level to help dancers with their musicality. Combining holographic technology and possibly augmented reality, what if there was a device that street dancers could wear to help them see visual patterns in a musical track? This could be a small visor or a projected layer in front of the dancer’s face that tracks changes in the music. This kind of setup could be used as a teaching aid to help dancers hone in their musicality. It wouldn’t be intended as a featured requirement for their performance.
It’s been told that master chess players can see color patterns on the board for their upcoming moves. Could that be an effective teaching tool for dancers or would we be veering to close to repetitive, button-pushing like in Guitar Hero and Dance, Dance Revolution? The details for such an invention would need to be worked out. But why not embrace a visual approach to teaching musicality? Many of today’s youngest street dancers struggle with understanding the music if they haven’t been taught properly or aren’t naturally gifted in this area. Technology, in its best educational intentions, can be embraced to enhance our quality of life as well as our appreciation of our bodies.
Hanson Robotics presented a video demonstration of a robotic portrait of author Phillip K. Dick a few years ago at the annual TED conference. Using a humanoid figure, the engineers infused the robot with audio and text transcripts from the author, creating an eerie replication of his personality with which an audience could interact. What if we created robotic/animatronic portraits of street dance OGs and pioneers? There may come a time when robotics engineering becomes so advanced that the visible differences between a human and a robot will be negligible. In that possible future, how will our dance culture and education be affected by robotics? (Photo above is from a Google Images Search for the Honda ASIMO robot.)
It’s funny that some of the original pioneers in poppin’ embraced robotting as a style. The clean isolations and hard dimestops distinguished them from the funkiness of lockin’, although Slim the Robot from the Lockers was known for a reputable command of his robot. Today, we can wonder what would happen if we learned the original styles from artificial intelligence. Imagine a highly mobile, physically versatile, animatronic version of an OG dancer like Skeeter Rabbit or Fred “Penguin” Berry teaching a future generation. These resurrected versions would teach based on data compiled from movement data and motion capture information based on the original teachers. It’s a giant leap to imagine this scenario but it could offer some interesting possibilities for the future growth of street dance.
There are some complications. We have to explore whether these resurrected versions would simply teach the concepts as established by the original teachers or if they could evolve and adjust these lessons. If they don’t evolve, then these new teachers would be historical records of the original styles. They would preserve history. If they evolve, then it’s a whole other ball game. Now, we’re entertaining how an advanced form of artificial intelligence could inspire humans to move. We see past and current examples of poppers creating movements inspired by cartoons, machinery, and animals. So is it such a big jump to imagine these advanced robots teaching dance to future humans?
Many science fiction stories have explored the fusion of human life with artificial intelligence. Is there a future for street dance in this possible universe? Our dance culture has always been influenced by our social context and cultural trends. Youtube is a social networking and video sharing phenomenon that has changed the perception of street styles worldwide. In a future where artificial intelligence lives side by side with humans, we can imagine how dancers will react to this through their dancing. By then, our science fiction fantasies will be closer to becoming a reality.
One of the hottest topics in the hi-tech world these days is augmented reality. The concept involves layers of information and media being placed over a primary surface. For example, at the recent TED conference, a Microsoft presentation demonstrated a map of Pike’s Place in Seattle with real-time live video being streamed onto highlighted areas of the location. Last year, the Yelp app on the iPhone snuck an augmented reality feature called Monocle into its design, allowing users to view layers of restaurant info and ratings as they viewed locations through the camera eye. You might even remember fictional examples of this phenomenon like in Minority Report where Tom Cruise manipulated multiple image layers with his hands. So what does this all have to do with street dancers? Well, if we could pioneer the use of augmented reality technology with the human body, we could learn a lot about how our bodies are being stretched, molded, and tested by our unique movements. (Photo above is from a Google Image Search for augmented reality.)
Bboying, popping, and locking have only been around for a little over thirty to forty years. Our first generation of street dancers are reaching their fifties and sixties. We don’t know the full extent of our physical activities on our bodies yet. Today, we go through physical conditioning, diet training, and general health maintenance. But can we use augmented reality to aid in our growth? Imagine a bodysuit that a bboy could wear as he undergoes a heavy practice session. Afterwards, he could analyze the stress and tension on his muscles, bones, and joints by consulting augmented layers of info projected from the the body suit. His heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels could also be measured. We’re seeing early examples of this kind of data gathering as seen in the Nike-iPod collaboration for runners. From the success of that project, we can see that there are folks out there who want to know more about their bodies. In the future, augmented reality involving health measurements could teach us more about the state of our physical condition before, during, and after our dancing.
What if this health data was shared? The Nike-iPod project allows runners to share their runtimes, distances covered, and other points with fellow participants online. Would the comparison of health data drive our street dancing into a competitive sport because it involves numbers? Or would we gain a deeper appreciation for how our dance affects our health since we’d see diversity in the numerical results? It would be compelling to see health data that is compared between members of a hip hop choreo team during a performance. We could appreciate the shared health experiences that the group undergoes. And if there is a member who is experiencing a health issue, we could be more aware of it and attend to their needs.
Augmented reality could also be visualized in another way, as images or media projected on the body of a dancer or in front of the dancer. Having visual information playing in front of us would alter the traditional experience of dancing. While there are some dancers who mentally see and feel images as they move, the literal experience of having images play before you could either be distracting or it could be coordinated in a way to enhance choreography concepts. What if augmented reality images were used to move a choreo team in one direction on stage? Or what if words, phrases, or visual concepts were projected onto a dancer that the audience can see as part of the performance? These are just a few of the most promising possibilities.
What remains to be seen is how far we can push this visual technology into a partnership with dancers. The health maintenance and data collection will likely be one of the initial fields we venture into as more concern is raised for the quality of life for dancers. As we explore the possibilities, it’s going to be exciting to marvel at our new views on the human body in action.
It’s been documented that the bboying in the 1980s gained wider media exposure after moving into the underground art scene in Manhattan. It’s possible that if this crucial transition didn’t happen, then hip hop culture could have evaporated. But when members of the Rocksteady Crew performed at NY art galleries, their dance passion entered a new arena by becoming a point of fascination and a commercial product for others to latch on. Are we experiencing a similar situation with the LXD performing at the TED conference in Long Beach? Or is this a viable solution - that we bring our stories to new stages for other audiences to discover?
There will always be young people who want to dance. They find their self-expression and their refuge in the art form and the community. But the culture may only stay within certain borders if no one takes up the challenge of carrying it into new territory. That’s where the push for new stages comes into play. Let’s focus on the advantages. Bringing our stories to new audiences introduces new voices into our company. Our dance becomes analyzed, commented on, and discussed between minds of different perspectives. We can feed off of this energy and come to see our dance from a different angle.
What underlies this movement is an openness to be flexible. Our dance culture is organic. Yes, there are roots and history that we should preserve. But we also have to allow for room so that our imprint can be made on its long lifeline. Bringing our stories to stages outside of our usual borders highlights the value of entertaining different critical perspectives. And this ability to do so will often spark ingenuity. Our stories need to move into new venues so that they can also be interpreted in new forms that we might not have considered before. What works for the LXD is the union of many different kinds of street dancers along with extraordinary physical athletes. A poppin’ crew or a bboy crew on their own might not consider that approach when their primary focus is to battle in competitions.
So what are the new stages in the future? Are they in front of non-traditional, non-dance-focused audiences? Or do we explore dance pieces in multiple media formats from film to online video to holographic projections? The answer could be all of the above. But no matter what form they take, we can’t stop dreaming. We’re at a crucial fork in the road almost thirty years after the original street dancers were created. Our choice to either preserve without innovation or to remember and to break new ground will will affect how the next thirty years of our dance culture unfolds.
One of the most insightful stories we’ve heard is how the early generation of Long Beach-based bboys would write down their moves and concepts in notebooks during the 1980s. Remember, back then, they didn’t have easy access to digital video cameras or web cams. It was hard to record your moves and easily play them back for research purposes. Today, it’s the opposite. There are endless videos online of young bboys, poppers, lockers and other street dancers practicing in their bedrooms and garages. The motives behind these videos can range from self-promotion to a request for peer critiques. But wouldn’t it be fascinating to recover some of these notebooks from the 1980s and study them?
By going back in the past, we wouldn’t be copying what our predecessors did. The goal would be to learn how they approached obstacles in their dance and then creatively solved the problem. We’re looking for how their brains work, what guided their thought processes, and the context of their discoveries at the time. Nowadays, it’s easy for a beginner bboy to focus on moves and work towards cleanly executing a windmill or an air chair freeze. But what about the approach behind the move? How do you get into it and out of it? What parts of the song do you want to accentuate with certain movements?
That’s where the notebooks come in. They also serve as historical documents that tell the story of our predecessors in ways that still photos and videos can’t. Remember how you used to make time capsules when you were a kid? Some day in the future, another lucky kid would find your capsule and marvel at the toys, books, and trinkets that you put into it. These notebooks from the old school bboys are like our time capsule. Their stories are preserved through the thoughts, musings, mistakes, and accidental discoveries that are recorded in these pages. It makes you think about what would happen if we recorded our dance discoveries and preserved them for the future bboys and bgirls to come.
It’s unlikely that this will ever happen, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see a broadcasted event where different OGs talked about their histories and experiences with street dance styles? We see panels held at conferences like Zulu Gremlin’s Pro-AM Tour and Hip Hop International. These are rare chances to see some of the luminaries in the street dance world talking together in one place. For a new school generation, they have an opportunity to listen, ask questions, and absorb insight from these mentors. But a broadcasted debate panel would be especially intriguing for the poppin’ world. More than bboyin’ and lockin’, poppin’ has a wildly divergent life history depending on who you ask. Whether it’s the Electric Boogaloos, the OG poplockers of LA, the G-style camp, the Boppers, or the Wavers; there seems to be no one agreed upon history of how poppin’ originated or how it developed into so many different camps.
So getting all these OGs together to discuss and debate in one place would create interesting results. We’ve only see heated debates flare up on Internet forums or in Youtube videos. But to have physical bodies forced to hash out their differences in person is something else. We’d cut through the miscommunication, deception, and misinterpretation that has plagued the poppin’ scene for years. Yes, it would still be difficult to find issues to agree upon in a debate panel, but it can be one small step in the right direction. Filming and broadcasting this panel online would also be informative for many new school poppers who couldn’t attend the event. With this in mind, we’d also need a neutral moderator to help navigate the panel and allow each of the participants to have equal time in sharing their thoughts.
As mentioned earlier, this kind of an event is unlikely to happen in today’s poppin’ climate. There is too much pride and fear that prevents the different camps from coming together. But if there’s a small possibility that this could happen, we want to entertain the positive results that could arise. We want to to know more about the diverse stories these OGs have to share with us. There’s just too much history there and it would be a shame for it to be forgotten forever.
Compared to the bboyin’ and poppin’ scenes, lockin’ is less visible in the public spotlight. Yet many folks who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s will remember Rerun on What’s Happening? or clips of the Lockers on Soul Train. Historically, we understand lockin’ as being created before poppin’ and bboyin’. It’s the root of our soulful street dance styles so why is it less visible now more than ever? Perhaps it’s because of a void that’s not being filled. While there are documentaries produced by the Lockers, Chain Reaction, and Gemini; there is little representation in the media on the new school generation of lockers. Where are the lockers from Japan, Taiwan, France, and the LA new schoolers?
We see many hip hop choreo teams infusing some basic elements of lockin’ in their routines. But it’s nowhere near the level of dedicated lockers who train in that artform. You have to go to lockin’ contests at How Tha West Was Won or Juste Debout to see the most promising young cats. That’s why we need a lockin’ documentary that captures aspects of today’s scene. The dance form is so exhilarating that it deserves its time to be appreciated by a new public audience. If lockers are featured in a dance documentary, it’s possible that the film could inspire a future generation. Planet BBoy has done that for the newest bboys and bgirls worldwide.
This proposed lockin’ documentary doesn’t have to be the comprehensive film on its history or progression. But it can be a start of a new dialogue bringing current relevancy to the dance. In LA, lockin’ is equally embraced by men and women, often in equal numbers, which is not always the case for bboyin’ and poppin’. We want to see their stories put on film so that the funky soul of this dance is not lost in the past.
What’s the best platform today to tell our stories from the street dance community? Is it the largest outlet possible to reach a mass audience - ie, Hollywood films and broadcast television? Or is it through a grass-roots movement using word-of-mouth and social networking? At this time, there are multiple ways of consuming video clips, text, audio, and live streams for those who are wired into the global network. As street dancers and as visual artists, how do we share our stories more effectively with people around us?
This week, we want to explore various ideas that might stimulate our minds on this question. At some point in our lives, we each were inspired by the sight of a bboy, a popper, or a locker getting down. It touched our hearts and moved us to groove. So, it’s crucial to consider how our dance and culture are represented because a future generation is at stake. Think about the impact. If our stories are told poorly, fewer minds will be inspired and the dance dies with us. But if we push the envelope as well as preserve the past, we’ll show the world that we’re a force to be reckoned with. Dancers are storytellers and we shouldn’t have to apologize for that.
As we move into this new year of 2010, there are a lot of interesting developments on the horizon. One of the most anticipated projects in the public spotlight is the LXD project with Jon M. Chu, Christopher Scott, and Harry Shum. Their cast of characters include several of the most highly skilled and experienced dancers and athletes in many diverse styles. They’re performing at the TED conference this week in Long Beach. A platform like TED allows for this project to become exposed to a larger audience that may not be directly connected to the street dance world. The attendees will see some amazing physical feats but also the potential for stories told through body movement. We’re eagerly awaiting to see the impact this project has on a young street dance nation as well as the rest of the curious world.
The usual suspects on television continue to paint their pictures of street dancing whether it’s MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew or So You Think You Can Dance. They’ve created a pop culture version of our world that has offered commercially viable opportunities to dancers who step into their ring. And it brings a celebrity factor to dancers who have previously been unknown. But it seems that there is a void that is being left behind. The world needs another type of dance show to debut on TV. We need something fresh because there is a hunger from audiences to experience the joys of dancing through dancers they watch onscreen.
Is the solution a grass-roots movement merging filmmaking and street dance stories? What we’re talking about here isn’t the current model of shooting and publishing video clips on Youtube. A more serious effort would involve small teams of dedicated filmmakers making short films, documentaries, and new media projects that capture the textures, details, and innovative ideas that are happening daily in our communities. If film remains a powerful influential force in our global culture, then we need to take advantage of this medium. By making small films that are locally produced, we can take a niche-marketing approach and present the films to our individual communities. These films would give our fellow comrades a visual identity. We can distribute the films ourselves through social networking and build relationships with other communities through sharing these films. This puts more of a human touch on our filmmaking creations instead of being passive with our audiences.
Doesn’t change often come through relationships, after all? Critics might argue that we have become more isolated due to technological dependence. But there’s still a deep hunger and craving in our souls for personal connection. Perhaps we can bring our dance stories into that conversation as we share with people around us.
We have a lot of love for this team. In many ways, they deserve more public recognition, especially in the mainstream media spotlight, than what they’ve gotten so far. We know Pac Modern is driven. Their famous line, “Stay hungry,” is no joke. The guys and girls of Pac have been known to spend long nights outdoors practicing by the Pyramid on the campus of Cal State Long Beach. Anyone who has been to that campus knows how cold it can get during the winter months, even in southern California. At VIBE XV, they displayed their collective raw heart in a high energy set.
You can see a clip of Pac Modern at VIBE XV here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvmkB0FF8Rs
Whether it was the poppin’ section that showcased Poreotics’ influence or the Rocky-themed piece, Pac has a raw sensibility that other teams don’t possess. Maybe it has to do with their training regimen. Or perhaps it’s their aggressive approach mixed with the right amount of sensuality that helps them to stand out. But regardless of their future in the public spotlight, Pac has already established a legacy of dancers who have become some of the most influential performers in the southern California hip hop choreo scene. That’s undeniable. And no one can take that away from this team.
It appears that Kaba Modern is being built as a franchise to last for a long time. Most of America and the world is familiar with the six KM members who performed on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew: Jia Huang, Cindy Minokwa, Yuri Tag, Lawrence Kao, Tony Tran, and Mike Song. With the mentorship of KM founder Arnel Calvario, the Kaba Six have gone on to be the public face for the larger family which includes Kreative Movement, the UCI collegiate Kaba Modern, and the alum group KM Legacy. This last group staged an impressive performance at VIBE XV, playing with a storyline about a simple-minded young man stumbling through various misadventures on his life’s journey. Or at least that’s what it appeared to be.
You can see a clip of Kaba Modern Legacy’s performance here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT4xKGmRMpM
Humorous, crowd-pleasing, and chock full of the now trademark precision expected from their choreography; KM Legacy was playing to their hometown crowd at VIBE. Maybe the more interesting question is not how their performance turned out but what the future has in store for them. Are they positioning themselves to be a professional dance company, now independent of any ties with the ABDC label? What can the group offer to the hip hop choreo world that will be groundbreaking? It’s interesting to see what kind of creative work this group will generate in the next few years, especially with a cast of post-college age dancers who can bring a maturity that’s unique to their collected experience. There are dance communities outside of Los Angeles in the U.S., and even around the world, who still look to the Kaba Modern name for inspiration. So now, the question becomes can this alum group fill those big shoes?
Unity LA really stood out among their peers at VIBE XV. Their style, approach, and concepts on stage were just some of the factors that distinguished them. On a night when there were endless hip hop choreo teams taking the stage, Unity LA was a breath of fresh air. We enjoyed their presentation, their vibe, and passion for their craft. For a performance that drew from lyrical and contemporary influences, the group showcased some of the best expressive feats that the male and female bodies can display.
You can see a clip of Unity LA at VIBE XV here:
The men of Unity LA demonstrated their strength and vigor throughout the piece. The women displayed a different kind of grace, showing us lines that were both sensuous and almost ethereal. A favorite crowd-pleasing moment was when of their male dancers was lifted into the air by his peers on a specific musical accent. You could hear the crowd cheer for that quickly staged, well-executed moment. Can we see more of Unity LA soon?
There aren’t enough words to express the loss that was felt in the dance world when Greg Campbellock Jr passed away last week. Men and women, of different generations, have wept. The old school and the new school have been united in their shared grief. And while we send our prayers and sympathies to Greg’s family, we’re all touched by the heightened awareness of trying to make sense of what happened. Maybe we’ve even started asking if there’s a deeper purpose behind what we choose to do everyday.
Monday night at Homeland was an outpouring of all these emotions. Many of the most influential lockers in the Los Angeles and Orange County communities including Flo Master, Suga Pop, Toni Basil, Loose Caboose and others gathered to share words and memories of Greg. OG poppers like Long Beach Time Bandits (Poppin’ Pierre, Fred), Mr. Animation, Chuco, Kool Boy, Coco, Tabo, Boppin’ Andre, Midnight and several more came to pay their respects. And the new school poppers, lockers, and bboys assembled to celebrate the legacy that they had inherited.
For one moment, everyone raised their hands heavenward for Greg. It was a silence that pierced our hearts.
There was nothing to do but dance. And for about an hour and a half, it was a nonstop explosive cypher where the OGs and the new school shared the same floor. For the new school, it was an opportunity to see some of the lost styles displayed first hand. For the OGs, it was a time to lay down their souls. In those precious moments, it felt like the ground was shaking with the outpouring of raw emotions from all these dancers. Grieving broke into smiles, laughter filled the silences, and new friendships were formed that night.
As the evening ended, Homeland was still filled with folks talking, sharing, and encouraging each other. Maybe that is the most vibrant legacy that Greg left for us. His passing has given breath to new lives that are still unfolding.
It’s only one more week until the West Coast auditions for America’s Best Dance Crew premieres. One of the most highly anticipated teams is Poreotix. Or as we previously have known them: Poreotics. But this isn’t about their upcoming appearance on the show. We’re talking about their engaging performance at VIBE XV.
On stage, they showed precise dimestops and clean isolations with an animation feel in their choreography. Their tutting created patterns across the stage. And their now trademark sense of humor came through at several points in their routine. They have the crowd wrapped around their finger as seen in the pregnant pause placed at the end.
You can see a clip of Poreotics at VIBE XV here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59S7NZj9eXo
These guys were rocking the dark shades that is a tradition for LA poppers. And their footwork was highlighted by the bright red colors of their shoes, which helped them to stand out against the dark stage. Whatever the future brings, this night belonged to Poreotics and their hometown fans. It was awesome.
