Groove Night Inspirations

Visiting Groove Night at Debbie Reynolds Studio last night was refreshing. Why? Because it's always encouraging to see dancers from all over the world sharing a common language in one place. We need more of that. And we need to foster venues where street dancers can continue to gather and grow together.

In the past few years, Groove Night has quickly become one of the most popular practice sessions in the Los Angeles area. It's sponsored by the Groovaloos, a well-known hip hop dance troupe that has staged their own touring show "Groovaloo" and won NBC's "Superstars of Dance" earlier this year. Established in 1999 under Bradley "Shooz" Rapier, they've fostered a collective of talented dancers who are highly regarded in Los Angeles street dance culture. You can see their work at www.groovaloos.com.

What makes Groove Night work so well? An open atmosphere. Great music. And a central location in North Hollywood, which is a prime location for many aspiring professional hip hop dancers. There are many similarities that Groove Night shares with Homeland, based in Long Beach. In fact, many familiar Homelanders were at Debbie Reynolds last night. Perhaps some of the Homeland community culture will cross-pollinate with Groove Night. You can see some of Homeland's community at www.myspace.com/homelandlb.

So even with Groove Night and Homeland, why is it hard for us to find regular practice sessions in Los Angeles? Well, this economy isn't helping. Whether it's the money needed for gas or a few bucks for an entry fee, there are plenty of factors that would convince us not to go to a session. But think about the session organizer who has to rent a studio space, hire a live DJ, and maintain the facility after its use. It's not easy to run a weekly session if it isn't profitable for the venue owner. Usually, we have to find places that are charity-driven or funded by the local city government. But for a studio owner, allowing a regular session is great promotion for the venue as it brings new faces to your premises. There are opportunities to promote other classes and events held during the week.

Another reason is that it's hard to create a community culture. It takes a strong leader and a supportive team to change the way things are done. Every session will take on the personality of its host. We've all experienced this. Some sessions are intimidating to attend because there are cliques and no one talks to each other. Some sessions are filled with career-minded dancers who only want to interact with people who further their career. And there are sessions where no one attends because the host and his team haven't advertised it. Over the past 10 years in Los Angeles, there have been several session spots that have come and gone. While there's a season for everything, it's sad to see some of these great spots disappear for lack of community-building, support, or less than stellar management. An example of how things have changed in a positive direction is Homeland where BBoy Iceman has overseen a positive change in the community, even with cyphers celebrating dancer's birthdays or marking the departure of international dancers returning to their home countries. Sometimes, there have even been cyphers to mourn dancers or their relatives who have passed away. Gestures like these cyphers make us all feel like that someone cares. Whether it's joy, grief, or sadness; it's powerful when we know that someone else feels the same way.

A third reason why maintaining a session is challenging is the need to be adapt to the changing street dance culture. New faces come into sessions all the time. There will be new needs. A session host or support staff need to be flexible to adapt to changing tastes and music choices of the attendees. Even within the span of one year, a session's community can change rapidly as dancers often have fluid lifestyles, moving from one place to the next. International dancers come in waves and it's crucial to create a welcoming, hospitable environment for them. Even if we share the same dance language, it's hard to have conversations afterwards about classes, places to look for apartments, or good restaurants if everyone has a different native tongue. Embracing an international audience and building relationships with repeat attendees, who have international backgrounds, can alleviate this challenge.

Sessions are our second homes. As dancers, they're a place for us to practice our artform but also a venue where we build relationships. We're already living in an increasingly isolated modern society. Anything we can do to bring change is always welcome.

Dance and the Aging Body

As we age, how can we adapt our bodies to keep dancing?

Some of the greatest dancers in all genres have learned to adapt their bodies as they pursue their craft over a lifetime. It's only natural to do so. Every day we grow older. When it comes to our muscles and bones; we deal with atrophy, reduced mass, and longer recovery times after injury. Hip hop dance is one of the few genres where the original generation have been doing it for about thirty-something years. Most likely, they're in their 40s or 50s. This hip hop generation is still young enough to not have experienced the onset of advanced age. What will it be like in ten to twenty years when they're older? How can the younger generation take better care of their bodies with some foresight?

To adapt our bodies, we'll have to draw from many sources. First, we can learn a lot from our doctors and physical therapists. The state of healthcare is a controversial issue nowadays. But that only underlies the great importance of health in our national population. Physical therapists can teach us a lot about our bodies, muscle and bone structures, and ways to strengthen ourselves. They can inform our training. Therapists can guide us to watch out for high-impact movements in bboying that might take their toll on our wrists, ankles, and knees. They can inform us of daily exercises we can perform to increase our muscle flexibility in popping without tearing ourselves apart. Ballet dancers are aware of this so why aren't we? Our regular training regimen should include these exercises to protect our bodies along with the development of our muscle memory. Sometimes we get caught up in the exhilaration of performing a routine but then forget about protecting our bodies for the long-term.

Long-term thinking needs to be on our minds. As a second crucial step, our doctors can play a role in helping us to learn more about our bodies over time. Dancers should understand the human anatomy. Maybe we all should have a crash course in anatomy for starters. If professional athletes have on-staff physicians to help them train, then we should foster more collaboration between dancers and doctors. Doctors will gain more knowledge about how our specific movements and training regimen develop the body over time. And we as dancers will have the medical support needed to give us more longevity. Currently, there's little financial support for this kind of relationship, but it would be powerful to start a medical movement towards such an initiative. More formalized research studies on the effects of hip hop dancing on the human body would be eye-opening. Perhaps this will come from individuals branching out from the field of sports medicine. It just takes a few serious efforts to bring greater information to our community.

Finally, as a diet-crazy nation, we can embrace stronger measures in what we take into our bodies. Whether it's food or drink, maintaining a healthy diet for a lifetime seems to be one of the strongest strategies we can employ. Along with this concern comes the need for mental and emotional well-being, which can affect any dancer. When we're stressed out, it's easier to get injured. We make shortcuts and pay the consequences for it. Our diets can also waver with our emotional states. So attention paid to our diets and well-being should be on every dancer's mind. Medical expertise should play a role in this as we build stronger relationships with our doctors and physical therapists.

Perhaps we can also look at cultures outside of ourselves and ponder how their aging population maintained their health. Whether it's through the practice of Tai Chi or yoga or the embracing of an organic lifestyle, finding solutions for the aging dancer is going to be a growing field of study. There are no easy answers in the short term. But if we start looking for answers, or even just good ideas, we can lay the groundwork for the next generation.

More Than A Dancer

A new generation of street dancers are coming up. Many are in their teens to early twenties. If they're in school, they're juggling classes, relationships, family responsibilities, and work schedules. How can they find time to dance? If there's only so much time in the day, then something's got to give. At times, it seems like we choose dance over everything else in our lives. If you ask yourself who you are as a person, and the answer is "dance...and only dance," is that a problem?

It's a hard question. We all love dancing. It gives us an outlet to creatively express ourselves. When we dance, we feel free. It's our number one passion. And we want to share it with others who are equally passionate. Our community becomes filled with other dancers. And soon, we live our dance as a lifestyle, not as a physical exercise or a hobby. Dance becomes part of our identity.

There's so much good that can come out of this especially for those of us who are talented enough and find the right circumstances to pursue it as a profession. And there are many of us who have a healthy balance of work and school and pursue dance non-professionally. But what about the rest of us who aren't doing it professionally but are convinced that we should? What about the younger members of our community who are still in school, figuring out who they are and what their lives are all about? Anyone who has gone through their college years can tell you that it's one of the most exciting and confusing times in life. For all the dancers in that demographic, this is for you.

Please don't give up school, work, and your responsibilities. There's so much in our daily lives that can help us to grow in our character, persistence, humility, professionalism, and dedication. As much as dance is part of your life, you are more than a dancer. Yes, it's your passion. But what about when you don't dance? Who are you at your core? How would a friend describe your character? When facing failure, what is it about you as a person that drives you to overcome your struggles?

We're walking a very subtle line here. Clearly, there are extremely talented and fortunate young dancers who should make the transition from being a student to pursuing dance as a career. And there are those who embrace dance as part of their lives. They're content to not pursue it professionally. But there are many others who aren't being honest with themselves. They're choosing dance as the definitive statement of their lives without thinking through what that entails or taking the rigorous steps to build a livelihood on it. For them, dance is an escape from their daily reality. It's easy to practice with friends, enter contests, and take dance classes when we're financially supported by our families. It's much harder when you move into financial independence. We can spend a lifetime trying to figure out who we are as a person and what is the meaning of our lives. So it's easy to say "I'm a bboy" or "I'm a locker" or "I'm a popper" when we're subconsciously looking to fulfill our identities. Is this you? Are you searching for who you are and only filling in the blanks with your passion for dance?

One of the healthiest things you can do is take a step of humility and ask the opinion of a mentor at an older life stage. Ask that seasoned veteran for his or her advice on where you are with your dance. Listen carefully and let it sink in. Know who you are and be willing to discover more of yourself, even if it seems really scary. This mentor can provide a reflection of yourself when you really need to hear it. Hopefully, he or she has the life experience to share and the ability to articulate appropriate advice.

Perhaps this will become one of the most meaningful relationships in your life. When we're honest with ourselves, we know that we all need guidance, a helping hand, and someone to show us the way. We stumble blindly when we're afraid or too proud to listen. But we're not meant to walk alone on this journey. There is a desire within humanity to be relational and to live in community. No one should be forced to do so, but a choice should always be presented. There's always a choice that can be made.

The Need for Business Sense

How can we ensure that dancers have more opportunities in the entertainment industry?

We need greater business sense and strategy in our careers. Now is a time when there are more opportunities than ever to launch ourselves via reality television shows, national tours, stage performances, videos, and teaching master classes. This past weekend, We are Heroes won the title of America's Best Dance Crew on the aptly titled MTV show. For these five ladies, the next year could be a turning point in their professional lives. They'll have to make smart decisions on what gigs to take, what ones to pass on, and how to nurture a following that will support them financially for the long-term.

Professional dancing, especially for hip hop, has usually been seen as freelance. Unless you're skilled and lucky enough to land a teaching job, most hip hop dancers have to work from one gig to the next. They stay relevant and connected to opportunities through their personal network. Friends recommend friends who are on time and deliver the goods. This system will likely continue, but how can we add on top of that? Are there measures that we can take to build better support for the dance community?

Within the U.S. entertainment industry, especially in Los Angeles, dancers are unfortunately low on the totem pole. In film and television; writers, directors, actors, and producers dominate the creative roles and financial rewards. Unions such as the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) wield great influence and have appeared in the public radar with highly televised strikes in recent years. In this universe, dancers aren't seen as providing the creative content or direction that governs film and television. Often, we're the special effects in a dance movie or playing backup to a pop singer on stage. Only in recent years have we seen dancers as personalities or reality TV cast members on shows like So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew. To a young generation, these dancers are celebrities worth following.

If dancers become media figures, then there are more opportunities to capitalize on that career path. Product endorsements can follow. Multi-platform media deals can be negotiated, especially if a dancer is talented in acting or singing. These dreams aren't new or unfamiliar. Can we see dancers being regarded in the same public spotlight as pop singers and musicians? We've seen indie musicians start their careers from self-promoting on Myspace. Singers have concerts. Can we see dance crews build a financially profitable stage show venture like the Groovaloos? If music makes people feel something that they want to feel again and again at concerts, then we should be able to do this with our dancing as well. One question to ponder - can a hip hop dance performance make you cry?

We have to show the public that the lives of dancers are worth hearing and seeing. Our stories are compelling so why not bring them to the masses? When dancers have more opportunities to share who they are, where they've been, and what they're going through, there will always be an audience who wants to listen. It's easy for an uninformed audience to see dancers as superhuman beings, but we're really human at our core. We face the same struggles, pressures, and failures that anyone else faces. One of the most successful Broadway shows of all time - "A Chorus Line" is proof. Whether it's conveying these stories through stage shows, documentary films, video blogs, or even books, we can make this a coherent movement.

We need to have business-minded dancers who know how to creatively promote, negotiate, and nurture a community that appreciate our art form and our stories. Dancers with business expertise or like-minded partners are key to this development. Elm Pizarro and his staff have done a terrific job launching the Boogiezone.com community in southern California and worldwide. Classes are regularly marketed and taught. Shows are promoted. Social connections are made. We need more of this and more business dialogue with the entertainment world outside of our dance community. We have to defend and fight for our earnings and creative roles in professional collaborations with writers, directors, producers, and actors. As dancers, we need support from folks who'll defend our best interests. If we cross over more into the entertainment field, we'll need writers, directors, producers, and actors who are on our side. The way dance is being regarded in the public eye is changing. Let's see if we can do something new and exciting with this.

We also have the Internet and social networking. These are democratic tools that we're already using to connect with each other. It will only take a few saavy minds to creatively use these tools to bring more opportunities to dancers. Can we use these tools to create platforms where dancers are more front and center in television shows, films, and stage performances? Having the right idea and organizing the right team is all we need. The money will come when the idea is rock solid. These social networking tools are especially useful for building an audience from a younger generation who is already communicating with Facebook, Twitter, Ustream, and blogs. We can use them to convince producers and investors that there is a legitimate paying audience for our work.

In the end, the most important thing for us to do is dream. To dream that opportunities we don't see now will be possible tomorrow. When we allow ourselves to freely dream, our minds open up to a future that may never have been imagined. Creative ideas spring from this freedom. And with this influx of new ideas, there may be a few winners that change the professional world for future dancers.

If The Whole World Danced...

Imagine everyone on this planet getting down. That would be one huge block party, wouldn't it? We'd need a dance floor that spanned continents for the biggest circle known to mankind. But seriously, dancing is part of the human experience. Moving your body to the music is wired into our soul. So why do some people see it as less than important in our present day global culture?

If we look at specific communities in world history, dance seems to have played a central role in community building. From the social balls of Victorian England to the celebration of Carnivale in Brazil to the fierce displays of Maori warriors in New Zealand, dance in its many forms united people. We felt a common bond through a shared musical experience that led us to groove together. We laughed, we mourned, we celebrated as one with dance. And we grew as a community.

Some might say that we are increasingly more isolated in today's technologically fast-paced global culture. Social networking, the Internet, and individualized lifestyles can lead us to pursue our own paths, often separate from a community. We can be independent, self-sufficient souls living among other independent, self-sufficient spirits. Even in a sprawling city like Los Angeles, it's entirely possible to live on your own, go to work, and never have any true human contact with another person for long periods of time. You travel alone, eat alone, and watch TV alone.

Somewhere along the way, we lost our sense of community. Spending time together has been redefined in context, whether it's IMing each other while we're on the go or checking up on our friends passively via Facebook status updates. What can we do to remedy this? Can the human race really sustain itself if we split off onto our individual paths, forsaking the value of community?

Now, it should be clarified that not all of us have chosen this path. There are plenty of community-builders and participants out there. But we can't deny that there are some of us who are isolated from community. If you'd like to change that, let's not see your current situation as an unchangeable fact. There is a community out there for you and there are people who want to know you and be known by you.

So, where does dance come into the equation? More and more, the value of dance as a performance art form should be elevated along with its value as a community-building force. Whether it's a cultural performance or a social gathering or a celebration of a friend's birthday, dance needs to be valued. We have to create a world where our children value it and embrace it for all that it can add to our lives. Dance education is powerful because it can introduce a child to creative self-expression, the value of training and discipline, a path for self-discovery, and a place in artistic history that helps to inform personal identity. Sometimes, we can discount the value of the arts when we don't foresee a professional career for our children in that field. But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be a part of their lives.

We've all heard the call to support the arts. Why not also keep our eyes on community? Especially for teenagers and young adults, dance community is a second home for them. It has given them refuge and a place to be free from their troubles. It will be important for older mentors to guide these young souls when they're looking for direction. From there, relationships form, and from relationships we lay the foundation for community.

In the end, dance gives us a reason to celebrate. And we often want to share our joy with others. That's all the more reason to bring dance back into our lives and to make a true difference in another person's world.

Real-Time Web and Street Dance: Memory, Artificial Intelligence, and History

The real-time web is one of the most talked-about topics in technology circles today. We're moving towards real-time sharing of video, audio, still images, status updates, and personal experiences via Twitter, Ustream, and the upcoming Google Wave. For street dancers, we can either choose to embrace this technology or to reject it, especially in the areas of memory, artificial intelligence, and history.

Either way, there may be advantages and disadvantages. Previously, we viewed dance videos on Youtube, shared pictures on Flicker, or caught up on reviews of stage shows via blogger.com. We experienced the content of these sites after the event occurred. Now, with real-time web tools, what will it mean to have the constantly streaming material as part of our social dialogue? There will be so much more content online that we'll need to find ways to extract material that's relevant to us. Otherwise, we'll drown in the digital deluge.

For memory purposes, it may mean that we'll have even more unedited audio-visual content of hip hop culture in large quantities. We'll no longer be limited to videos of a short length depending on how much our camera's memory card can hold. Imagine witnessing an entire bboy competition from start to finish - every moment either compelling or boring. You'll have a window into that event, witnessing it from one angle or many angles edited together. Somehow, we'll have to figure out how to edit our experience of the event otherwise our memory will overload. We'll need editors, filmmakers, and narrative guides to help us experience the event in a concise way that's still bearable to watch. Any film or TV editor can tell you how draining it can be to watch through thousands of hours of dailies on a production.

However, it could make a person's daily life more visually personal. We can follow media celebrities and new Internet celebrities via their Twitter updates. Imagine following constant video streams or snippets of your favorite dancer if they strapped a small camera to their body. Would that be compelling or would it bore you to death? Privacy issues would be redefined, that's for sure. We would see more of an individual dancer's lifestyle if they chose to broadcast themselves. This was the case with Justin.tv a few years ago when the creator of the website broadcasted his life 24/7 using a small webcam and wireless feed.

As the amount of digital content increases through streaming, we may also see the rise of artificial intelligence online. Now, this is all hypothetical and it borders on the boundaries of science fiction. But what if we could collect a library of performances and dance moves from an established dancer via advanced motion capture technology? Could all that data be translated into a sentient being that would be like an A.I. version of that dancer? Would this "bot" be considered a legitimate teaching model of that dancer's style? Or as human street dancers, would we start to interact with dancing A.I. online especially with the rise of virtual worlds like Second Life? The heart and soul of dance is so inherently human that it's hard to imagine a future where we can interact real-time with robot dance partners. It's similar to classic arguments about robots being able to dream or being capable of creative acts like humans. Some of the greatest science fiction films and stories from Isaac Asimov to Phillip K. Dick have touched on these themes. But this is a future that may be coming soon.

History is a final area where we can see the real-time web having a significant impact. Actually, how we interpret history is the more relevant issue. With greater streaming of content comes greater quantities of historical records to interpret. We'll need scholars and documentarians with distinct viewpoints to share their perspectives on our times. As we moved out of the 20th century, we've seen documentary filmmakers like Ken Burns give us his spin on baseball, World War II, and American Jazz. We've seen photographers like Robert Frank give us his vision of a mournful, haunted America in his book "The Americans." History is often described as the narratives of those who wrote it. Our street dance history will be no different.

But one difference with the real-time web is that we all can play a role as those historians. Each one of us can choose to be the next Ken Burns or Robert Frank for our street dance culture. With the constant streaming of video, images, audio, and status update texts; the historical material is available for all of us to make useful for our specific purposes. We don't need to go to the Library of Congress to dig up old records on an event or to hunt down a personal source who has old photographs. We can track our own documentation of our culture. This is very empowering, considering that historical preservation is a hugely debated topic within hip hop culture.

Hopefully, history won't be given less value in our culture with the rise of the real-time web. Our attention span may be drawn to what's happening "right now" versus what happened days or years ago. In a faster paced world, we still need the passage of time to process our memories, feelings, and experiences in order to grow as individuals and a community. Real-time web and streaming technology can't do that for us.

So the rise of the real-time web could mean a more constant collection of personal experiences via media online. Think of it as a "collective consciousness" that's evolving. While it may not immediately change they way we dance, it could affect the way others experience our dance in visual, audio, and text form. Ultimately, it's a tool that we can either choose to use or to relinquish. It may make it harder for any developing underground dance culture to be "underground" as long as someone is documenting it. But it can also open up a culture to new voices who want to participate. With that in mind, the future is truly wide open.

Video Games Inspiring Dance

Can video games inspire dance moves?

Sure, why not? At the very least, it can be an experimental exercise to entertain. The story goes that skaters have played Tony Hawk video games and experimented with different move combinations inside the game world. They'd see cool combos and then try them out in their backyard. As street dancers, we don't have many examples of dance video games. But a few years ago, there was a title called "BBoy" that was released on the Sony Playstation 2 and PSP. The gameplay involved button combinations made on a controller leading to move combinations on screen. Poppers are known for seeking out inspiration in the world around them from robotic toys to aquatic fish to Bugs Bunny doing an Egyptian King Tut pose. We could look at gameplay interfaces as sources of interesting movement.

It wouldn't be surprising if extreme martial arts tricksters looked at the Street Fighter series for crazy kick and jump combos. Street Fighter is a worthwhile movement reference to look at since the postures, jumps, punches, and kicks could be reinterpreted into dance moves for bboys, poppers, and lockers. The challenge is to take these moves out of a fighting context from a game, and then reinvent it with our dance sensibilities. Perhaps it could lead to new types of dynamic moves we've never seen before. If you've ever heard bboys talk about power moves, it's like they're discussing the possibilities of putting a series of windmills, 90s, air flares, and hand hops into different combinations. Poppers could adopt a similar approach if they looked at moving between diverse styles like animation, tutting, waving, and boogaloo.

And what about melding or fusing bboy-inspired moves with popping-inspired moves? When we start looking at moves as isolated units, it's possible to start hybridizing. Yes, it's important to distinguish how these two dances are different from each other. But experimentation can be a free canvas where inquisitive minds are liberated to play. It's possible that a whole new genre of street dance can emerge from this kind of approach.

Video games are often playful as well. Sometimes, it's easy to forget the playfulness of Mario, Luigi, and Pac Man. But game animators have invested their talents in creating unique, personality-driven movements for these characters. We can draw from this playfulness and inject a new sense of fun into our dance.

If anything, video games are a reflection of modern day 21st century culture. They reveal how our visual vocabulary has been influenced by computerized, digitized, animated movement. And it's filtering into our dance sensibilities. Our communication landscape is changing so why can't our dance influences?