World of Dance Pomona 2010: Blended Projekt

Blended Projekt performed at World of Dance 2009, and they're returning for the 2010 showcase. Founded by Valerie Ramirez in 2001, this crew has fused clogging with other dance styles in the spirit of their crew name. Does the mix work? Well, they appeared at the West Coast Regionals for the fifth season of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew, but they didn't advance to the national competition. This shouldn't be the final word of their entertainment value as performers though. We'll have to see what they can bring to the stage at WOD.

You can see a clip of Blended Projekt on ABDC here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3XgB2Vlt2I

Here is their Myspace website:

http://www.myspace.com/theblendedprojekt

And here is their Facebook website:

http://www.facebook.com/theblendedprojekt

Footwork is their strength, which is an advantage they have over many choreo crews in the LA and OC scene. Usually, we don't see large crews showcasing intricate footwork. Instead, they're flat-footed with some hops and skips here and there. We're hoping Blended Projekt inspires other crews to embrace fancy footwork.

World of Dance Pomona 2010: Beast Mode

Remember Taeko from Fysh N' Chicks? She was one of the talented dancers in this all-female crew who appeared on America's Best Dance Crew season one. Beast Mode is one of her follow-up projects. And we're curious to see what impact they have on the dance world when they perform at World of Dance Pomona on April 10. Their crew lineup gives the impression that they're an all-styles crew with a unique flair.

They're coming across as more than a crew - their goals are representative of an entertainment company. Beast Mode even has a song - "Let Out The Beast" available for purchase on iTunes. Coming music and dance together as recording artists appear to be aspirations for some of the members.

You can check out Beast Mode's Youtube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/BeastModecrew

And you can see members of the crew performing at Level 3 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mLkLyNY7cI

They're very ambitious. But what will they bring to the table at WOD? We're chomping at the bit to see what these beasts will unleash on stage.

World of Dance Pomona 2010: Klaamation

On April 10, the World of Dance Tour returns to the Pomona Fairplex for its third rendition. It's shaping up to be one of the most anticipated WOD events because hip hop dance has reached a critical mass in the entertainment industry. How long will the public's love affair with our culture continue? It seems that everywhere you turn, there's a new dance crew popping up. Or a hot choreographer is being hyped by friends in the know. So an event like WOD becomes the showcase to make your mark. It establishes new stars who'll be on everyone's Facebook status updates and tweets days after the show.

Klaamation is one of the groups scheduled to perform. They've made a name for themselves in various circles in the LA scene, but there are few videos of them online. More than any other group, they have a mystique about them simply because most of us have never seen them. They've been vocal with online journalists though including Blogging Best Dance Crew and DanceTag.Tv. Klaamation auditioned for this past season of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew, but their talents have not been revealed to a wider audience yet. Maybe World of Dance will change that.

You can check a Youtube channel for C-Bread, one of Klaamation's members, here:

http://www.youtube.com/danzkidd

We're waiting to see what this crew is all about.

Community: Dancers from Carnival, aka The Choreographer's Ball

In the early 2000s, there was no hotter spot than the Key Club on the last Wednesday night of every month. You had to be at the Carnival - otherwise known as the Choreographer's Ball - which was a showcase of up-and-coming choreographers and entertainers. The Key Club is a small venue so a crowd would assemble early, maybe around 10pm, and cyphers would be going off before the show started close to midnight. There was an innocence back then, which can't be found at the higher profile Carnival which exists today at the Avalon in Hollywood. But what started as a small community of professional dancers and aspiring dancers has exploded into a wider network.

At Carnival, the saying was that "anything goes." And things certainly did. Some showcase pieces weren't family friendly, incorporating adult and sexual content. At the same time, there were daring, creative pieces that pushed the envelope of choreography. Every Carnival was special in its unique lineup of talent. The JabbaWocKeez made an appearance at Carnival long before America's Best Dance Crew was even a reality. And members of the Groovaloos were commanding the cyphers before their stage show was realized at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. Being at Carnival was like seeing the early years of today's defining dancers and crews in the Los Angeles scene.

The community has grown since then and continues to develop. Now, street dancers have taken notice and are performing on stage at Carnival. Young choreographers from the collegiate choreo scene are seeing Carnival as a way to showcase their talents and book gigs after performing. Carnival isn't just about hip hop - it's embracing of all dance styles and performance tastes so the umbrella is very inclusive.

Maybe that's what makes it so special as a phenomenon in the LA dance world. Other cities have taken on the Carnival model including New York and Houston. But the Los Angeles Carnival will always be near the epicenter of what's happening in the different dance scenes thriving across the Southland. You have to be there at the next Carnival to see it for yourself.

Community: Dancers on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance

The phenomenon happening on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance is very similar to what's going on with MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. We're seeing a community form through an alumni network of dancers who've performed on the show. But the difference is that we're seeing more diverse interactions between dancers from different styles and worlds. Several seasons of SYTYCD have passed and we've seen many of these dancers go on to other gigs and television shows. But what makes this community so compelling?

The reason is that our dance scenes are still segregated even in this new century. It's human nature to be comfortable with people who share similar experiences, interests, and backgrounds. But it's unique television show experiences like SYTYCD that are cross-pollinating for future generations to expand their horizons. After all, the conceit of the show is to push dancers out of their comfort zones and to challenge them to embrace other dance styles.

This can only help build a unique community of professional dancers - all with individual life stories and artistic tastes. Can you imagine what would happen if we saw more fusion, genre-bending performances between SYTYCD alums outside of the show? Think of the quirky crews and dance companies that could shape the tastes of upcoming generation as well as the larger public. They could really help redefine how we see dance portrayed and choreographed on the stage and on film.

There's a lot of promise stirring within this community. But it will take proactive leaders to unite and conceive a vision using their talents. We saw glimpses of this with the SYTYCD dancers interacting with the LXD troupe. Can we see more of this in the future?

Community: Online Forums & Youtube Dancers

It's official. There is such a thing as a "Youtube dancer." Definition: someone who was introduced to a dance style first through exposure via videos on Youtube instead of through a first-person experience or through film, television and other traditional media. A Youtube dancer is also someone who primarily learns dance moves through watching videos and copying these movements. It seems nowadays, that this term has a negative connotation more than a positive one. At the same time, a community is forming through online forums like bboy.org and Youtube channels. It's a blessing for those who don't have immediate access to other dancers. If you can't find them in your local scene, you go online.

So, there's good and bad with this burgeoning online dance community. It's not a tightly kept secret. But what's amazing about this new dance community is that it has introduced many new voices into the mix. It's democratized the hip hop dance community in the context of online conversation and media sharing. Anyone can be post an opinion. Anyone can upload of video of themselves. Conversations are started. Miscommunication occurs. Rebukes and correction happen and over time, awareness grows. No dancer is truly alone online. There are millions of eyes watching you. Or at least a video of you.

In the online world, there's also no clear authority. OGs may have respect in their local scenes in person, but on the computer, very little of that respect translates into pixels on screen. Entering into an online conversation on a forum or a comments page of a Youtube video is like being bombarded with endless voices. It creates a din that makes it hard to be heard or to hear. Most folks tend to take what they see as evidence, so a dancer can feel pressured to put their material in front of the camera in order to be seen as legit in the online world.

We're only about five years into the Youtube world of online dance. But forums have been around for years. Could this mean that our conversations about dance will change with each sea change in technology? What happens when real-time social networks pop up among a cloud of users in a localized area vs. the more global networks of already established venues like Facebook and Twitter? We may be more prone to being influenced by technology than we'd like to think.

Community: The Crews of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew

Yesterday, we looked at the group of dancers involved with the LXD and Step Up 3D. Today, it's the crews who've appeared on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. After five seasons, there have been a handful of crews who've emerged to continue their career through teaching workshops, high profile performances, and collaborations with music artists on tour and in videos. Is there a community forming among these crews? Of course, but it's more behind the scenes.

Networking is crucial to any profession. So for these ABDC crews, they're wise to stay connected to each other. Sharing managers. Trusting familiar sources for jobs. And collaborating together on new projects. The Beat Freaks, Fanny Pak, and Kaba Modern share the same manager with KM founder Arnel Calvario. Renown street dancer and businessman Zulu Gremlin has advised many of them whether as teams or as individuals. To survive in the entertainment business, these crews need each other for support as much as they are competitors in some circumstances.

Due to the exposure coming from ABDC, the collegiate choreo scene has probably seen the biggest growth in ambitious young teams coming together with future hopes to become professional performers. We've touched on how there's an emerging "performance culture" happening in southern California right now with bigger venues being staged for events like the World of Dance Tour. Everything is getting a little more professional. And there's an undercurrent of pressure to find legitimacy in one's dance by getting famous. It's not clear yet how the high profile ABDC crews are reaching back to affect this scene, but they're definitely being upheld as role models.

For these ABDC crews - like Kaba Modern, Fanny Pak, Super Crew, JabbaWocKeez, We Are Heroes, Beat Freaks, and Quest, a professional circle has emerged. You could easily think of them as an alumni network for the show. Just like the generations of Real World and Road Rules cast members, these dancers are part of a legacy that the show is leaving behind. The question then becomes, "will this legacy inspire a greater appreciation of hip hop in pop culture?"

Community: Step Up 3D

It's rare to find a dancer who excels simply on their own. You could say that every great dancer has an equally stellar community that has backed them and nurtured them. It's true in almost every artform and discipline. This week, we're looking at different forms of community that have sprung up in the street dance culture. Today's focus is on the collective of dancers involved in the upcoming Step Up 3D film directed by Jon M. Chu.

MTV's America's Best Dance Crew may have reason to be anxious. It seems that in the past couple months, Jon M. Chu's tribe of dancers and incredible athletes have captured the public's imagination. They stole the show with their appearance on the recent season of So You Think You Can Dance. They debuted to a larger global audience at the Oscars ceremony. Buzz is building for the LXD online series. ABDC was probably at its peak during the third season with the rivalry between Quest and the Beat Freaks. Since then, the show hasn't captured the public's imagination with anything new although the ratings are strong for the fifth season. Meanwhile, the LXD dancers have teased the general public with their performances and whetted appetites, promising something we've never seen before with its unique cast.

They've formed a tight-knit community of professional dancers from various scenes. And it's going to be compelling to see the work they produce over the next few years. For young viewers, these dancers will be their role models because of their media exposure. While Youtube provides a window for anyone to search for specific dancers, the folks in Step Up 3D will be immortalized because of their contributions to the film. History will likely repeat itself in the way that the Rock Steady Crew made a deep impression on youth culture in the 1980s through their appearance in Flashdance. Even You Got Served continues to stick in people's minds, especially the solo from abstract dancer Elsewhere in the final competition.

This group of dancers in Step Up 3D seems to have evolved from the ACDC vs M&M Cru online battles in spring 2008 to the LXD project to the upcoming film. It's time for many of these talented dancers to get their chance to shine in the spotlight. There's definitely a generational sea change that has happened since 2003's You Got Served. Many of Step Up 3D's dancers were in their teens and early twenties in 2003. They were getting started in their styles, and now they're front and center before the film cameras. We're hoping this professional tribe of dancers will have opportunities to interact with a wider fan and audience base, now that social networking technology is so accessible. Perhaps this will further the spread of our dance culture beyond anything we've imagined.

Listen In: La Roux's "Colourless Colour"

Our song for the week is La Roux's "Colourless Color." We've been jamming on tracks from their album.

You can check out a clip of "Colourless Colour" here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CazhoE1TyWI

Enjoy!

Innovations: Emotional Storytelling Through Street Dance

The more street dance styles grow up, the more we find ourselves wanting to tell stories that resonate deeply with emotions and life experience. It’s only a natural process. Conveying emotions is not new to our culture or to dance in general, but the movement towards telling a narrative with emotions is only starting to be explored. Madd Chadd has been interviewed in Dance Spirit magazine on how his work with the LXD has opened him up to a new area in his dance. The Groovaloos have hit on many life experiences told through their nationally touring show Groovaloo. And the bboys of Expression in South Korea have inspired a new generation of breakers through their Marionette show.

For most new school street dancers, it’s hard enough just learning foundation and getting the technique down. Our current social climate is dominated by training for battles and contests with the occasional showcase. So telling a story hasn’t been a priority. But we need to tell stories. If we are to create opportunities for ourselves to get paid and to offer an entertainment product that other people will buy, we as dancers have to become storytellers. The world wants to hear stories because experiencing a narrative is part of our inherent search for meaning.

As street dancers and hip hop choreo heads infiltrate the entertainment industry more and more, we’re discovering that we need to command more of our careers through creating a unique product that causes others to knock on our doors. Not the other way around. Can dancers be seen on the same level as actors in an Academy Award winning film? Why not? These are different artforms but it’s possible that one day we’ll see a dancer’s performance powerfully move an audience through a narrative.

The challenge we’ll have to overcome is to introduce and establish a vocabulary for our dance that an uninformed audience can understand. Actors have dialogue to inform their performance. Without dialogue, dancers rely on their visual physicality. As filmmakers and dancers unite, perhaps we’ll see this new language develop.

Innovations: The Death of the Dance Video

Dance videos aren’t what they used to be. Or at least, our anticipation and cherishing of them have changed. With more widespread video-making technology, we don’t treasure the videos that are posted on Youtube. We’ve consumed these videos at a faster rate than ever before. We favorite them with a click of our mouse. And so, it’s not as special when a video gets released online from a dancer. We used to wait in great anticipation for a VHS or DVD release from an OG or shell our forty bucks for the last Freestyle Session tape from the Armory. Now, we can go to a contest and look it up on Youtube the same night.

Will this change when live-streaming video becomes more accessible to the greater public? Possibly. We may start seeing dancing being viewed as sporting events with live broadcasts dominating the channels online. But what we’re yearning for is envisioning the future of the dance video artform in a new light. We can’t go back to the way things were. But dance on film, especially street styles and hip hop choreography, still have many opportunities that remain unexplored. Or at the very least, these ventures have not been revealed to the public yet.

Today, we see specific Youtube clips inspiring a kid to dance. Ten years ago, it was a video compilation like Detours that launched a wave of new school dancers to embrace street styles with an abstract flair. We’re hoping that a new form of dance video can emerge; something more put together than the quickly recorded clips found on Youtube. Will it be more interactive? Will the LXD project bring a new conversation to the public by having its dancers interact with its audience? Technology is at a different state now than it was ten years ago, so the new dance video should embrace that.

What we have seen so far is a deconstruction of the traditional dance video into clips found randomly online. It has become more democratic and has allowed dancers of different styles and skill levels to be seen. But can we build from this? Can we envision dance in a new way on the two-dimensional image plane? We’re hoping that a new generation will embrace filmmaking and dance in an inspired fusion project.

Innovations: The Controversial Choreo Styles of Mike Song and Tony Tran

The collegiate hip hop choreo scene has been developing in southern California since the early 1990s. With that movement, there have been choreographers who have borrowed from different street styles while incorporating their own flavor. On the other side of the fence, street dancers have often felt cheated by some hip hop choreo dancers who have allegedly taken their moves and used them in their routines without giving credit to the original creators. Today, the situation is no different. The controversy is still there.

The world has been exposed to a new generation of hip hop choreo dancers through MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. In Los Angeles and Orange County, we’re seeing kids, teenagers, and college students praising the choreography of guys like Mike Song and Tony Tran. Both dancers are part of Kaba Modern Legacy and the original six Kaba dancers on the show. But street dancers rarely consider these choreo heads a true representation of street styles. They’re something else. It’s possible that guys like Mike and Tony are influenced by street dancers they know or whom they’ve seen in contests or in Youtube videos. Plus, they can get basic training from fellow street dancers offered through private classes. So what is really going on here? Is this new school choreography a true innovation or is it a “watering down” of street styles that some vehemently denounce?

For this new emerging choreo scene to be considered an innovation, a clear foundation needs to be established. That hasn’t happened yet. It may be too early to make a judgement call. But what could be considered an innovation is that more choreo dancers are getting exposed to street styles and incorporating it into their work at a faster rate. This is a good sign if we consider that really ambitious choreo dancers could create that foundation we’re looking for if they persevere in their craft. One of the downfalls of the choreo scene is that individual flavors of choreographers can be hot for a while and then quickly disappear without any longevity. As a result, the community can’t build on an agreed upon foundation and move their artform to a higher level.

Coming out of this, the dialogue between street dancers and hip hop choreo heads will have to improve. It’s unfair for street dancers to always look down on choreo heads for what they do because a great artist can emerge from any circumstance. So maybe innovation will come about when both camps really start to work together on creating something new that truly is a fusion of both of their interests.

Innovations: Total Body Control and Isolation by Slim Boogie

There's one dancer that's catching a lot of attention in early 2010 in LA. His name is Slim Boogie. Representing Funk Assassins and Machine Gun Funk, Slim has come up in the poppin' scene by consistently competing in local contests and establishing his reputation worldwide at the recent UK BBoy Championships. Poppin' enthusiasts have seen video recordings of his sets via Youtube, which only furthers others' awareness of his skills. Locally, many new school heads revere Slim and are in awe of his repertoire. He's kept a low profile in the online dance community. And his ability to have a highly evolved level of total body control and isolation is becoming a model that other new school heads are studying. His hitting technique has been influenced by many teachers including Tabo, as seen in his mixing of animation, bopping, and dimestopping. Watch how he dances with his arms, legs, core, and head. There are details happening at almost every level.

Here is a clip of Slim battling against Lobo at the King's War Poppin' Battle held in LA on Saturday, March 13, 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX5QyJySJmI

How will he evolve next? Will he take on other styles like waving and tutting? Every dancer has started their journey with the inspiration that comes from advanced dancers they admire. Slim has become that for many young dancers in LA. We wonder what his impact will be years from now on the overall street dance community as he continues his journey.

Innovations: Transformer Style Finger Tuts by Jsmooth

This week, we're kicking off a new series on innovations happening inside the street dance community, either in LA or around the world. Many of these discoveries are coming from personal observations or word-of-mouth passed around within our community. These innovations could be in the area of technique, approach, use of dance, historical significance, or cultural context. So, we're spreading the net very wide as we touch on different topics. Today, we're sharing a video clip of popper Jsmooth talking about his creation of a new style of finger tutting - Transformer style. Check out the clip here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3U0PdYc1QQ

Many poppers in LA and across the world know that Jsmooth has popularized finger tutting through demonstrating it during international competitions like Juste Debout and U.K. BBoy Championships. He also showcased a set during the recent TED conference in Long Beach, causing Dance Spirit Magazine to refer to his movements as that of a "master puppeteer." Few other poppers in the scene have had as high of a profile as Jsmooth when displaying this style, so it's significant that he is naming a style and owning it. It's as if he's taking familiar pantomime hand movements and bringing a new level of articulation and complexity to them. For poppers, there is now a new level of detail added to their dance - primarily in the fingers of their hands. In 2008, finger tutting was all the rage in the online dance community. Now, it's evolved. Jsmooth's description of imagining panels that open, build, and close like a Transformer is an inspiring concept that proves you can find the kernel of a great idea anywhere.

Listen In: La Roux's "I'm Not Your Toy"

This week, we're checking in with a song from electropop group La Roux. Their track, "I'm Not Your Toy," was featured in one of the sets from VIBE XV at UC Irvine earlier this January. It's no surprise that La Roux has been catching a lot of attention here in the U.S. and in Europe. (Image above is from a Google Images Search for La Roux's "I'm Not Your Toy.")

You can check out a clip of "I'm Not Your Toy" here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew_c5ewoVQk

Enjoy!

Expanding The Scene: Sharing Outside Of Our Community

Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to share about what’s going on in our local community to the rest of the world. The video-making tools, the blogging, the twittering, and picture-sharing via online networks is growing exponentially. It just needs to be organized. As we wrap up this week, we want to ponder how our community could be affected if we took bigger steps in revealing our culture to non-dancers outside of our world.

We’ll always have an underground community. No matter how exposed street dance gets pushed into the public spotlight, there will be folks who want to keep it underground. It’s a natural process that has gone in cycles for the past thirty years. What’s different today is that we individually can take steps to start conversations with people and tell them about what we do, what our lives are like, and what we love about our dance. Maybe there will never be one source for all this information - not one online forum, blog, twitter site, or Youtube channel. But every contribution that a dancer makes to the global online conversation about dance is shaping perceptions and people’s understanding of our history.

This is a theme that we’ve visited before, but it’s worth reconsidering because the expansion of our scene could depend on it. Youtube opened up the street dance world to a new generation in 2005. Now, there’s a glut of material online - dance videos, postings, articles, blog posts. People are going to get confused. We can help them. We as street dancers can become spokesmen and women for our stories and personally converse with an audience.

Make a personal Twitter site. Create your own Youtube channel. Become a regular contributor to online forums and share your thoughts. Post it on facebook. Make that personal connection. We have to look at the outside world as a potential audience of future street dancers who are at this time, uninformed. They just need a little direction and we can provide that together.

Expanding The Scene: Music File Sharing

It’s been over ten years since Napster rocked the music industry. The online file-sharing movement continues in new forms whether it’s LimeWire, BitTorrent, or other p2p programs. While music file sharing changed how record labels do business, it’s also changed the way street dancers have evolved their dance. This is very apparent for Los Angeles poppers who once danced to old school funk than new school G funk and now embrace drum n’ bass, electro, dubstep, and glitch. Sharing music online accelerated the sensitivity of our ears to different sounds. And it pushed us to evolve our movement in ways that weren’t previously imagined.

Music has always driven new directions in dance. You can look at breakbeats accompanying the rise of bboying. The use of synthesized drum claps inspired the original generation of poppers to hit. And the fierce sound of “dark hip hop” developed alongside the rise of krumping in the early to mid 2000s. But while we can spend endless hours discussing the ethics of music file sharing, we’re focusing more today on how we’re hurting ourselves if we aren’t generous with sharing our musical inspiration. In the turntablist culture, a DJ might keep a few tracks secret in order to maintain an edge over a competitor. There are dancers who are equally secret with their music, but it can only hurt us in the long run.

The more we hide our music from each other, the less opportunity there is for us to interpret the music and introduce new approaches that can inspire everyone. We have to understand that we individually interpret the music in unique ways. While there are copycats and biters out there, a true artist is confident in his own abilities and knows that he can continue to evolve. Sharing music is simply a foundation to start inspiring the whole community. It doesn’t automatically give us moves or ideas. We listen to the music and interpret it with new ideas.

What new directions will emerging music inspire in our street dance community? Imagine if we hadn’t heard of dubstep or glitch or dark hip hop. Where would we be? Being a street dancer today means also being a music enthusiast. And when you enjoy music, isn’t it better to enjoy it with others? The next time you hear an inspiring track, share it with someone who you think might like it too.

Expanding The Scene: Forming Crews

One reason that the bboy scene has flourished in southern California through the 1990s and 2000s is the endless number of crews that formed and competed. The poppin’ scene has experienced similar growth in the past five years with more crews at local contests. We still haven’t seen this happen with the new school lockin’ generation, but a good sign is that they’re growing in numbers. Forming crews is an essential part of expanding the scene because it encourages training with your friends and builds the group personalities that define the local culture.

But what about starting all styles crews? Back in the 1980s, bboy crews had poppers and lockers. You needed to have multiple styles in order to match up against another crew. If they sent out their popper, you needed to have one to go toe-to-toe in a battle. Now, we see segregation in styles. It’s rare to see bboys, poppers, and lockers battling together as one unit. Part of this is due to the street dance scene splitting off into various communities over the 1990s. When the new school discovered these new dances, they gravitated towards a particular style because that’s how it was most accessible. You went to a practice session that was for bboys. Or you took a class from the Electric Boogaloos in the early 2000s to learn their boog style.

Today in 2010, there might be opportunities for us to go back to all styles crews. The collegiate hip hop choreo scene has grown. More Gen 2 new school dancers are participating in the choreo scene as well as the underground contests. Collaboration is going to happen. Wouldn’t it be awesome to see a crew with bboys, poppers, lockers, waackers, hip hop urban freestylers, and choreo heads all together? In some ways, Culture Shock LA has pursued that model in recent years. But we’re not seeing all styles crews showing up at contests.

It seems that all styles crews will appear more at choreography showcases like a VIBE or a World of Dance event. These crews have an advantage by having members excelling in different techniques. That only gives them more options in their choreography. Perhaps what we'll see in the future is a new breed of all styles crews forging the path for more diverse routines as they become more about showcasing than battling.

Expanding The Scene: Specializing Your Dance

What’s troubling to see these days is young Gen 2 street dancers who are taking on too much at one time. Do you find yourself learning the six-step but then getting distracted to learn the fresno and then alpha kicks? Does it seem like there’s never enough time in the day to practice your bboyin’, poppin’, and lockin’? Maybe a wise thing to do is simply to take a step back and relax. Take it one step at a time. Specialize in one style.

Otherwise, you’re going to drive yourself crazy being schizophrenic in your dance training. Or you become an all-styles dancer but never a master at one thing. Bboyin’, poppin’, and lockin’ are extremely hard dances to learn. Physically, they challenge your body. Mentally, they test your perseverance and humility. There’s plenty of benefits in sticking with one style and fully experiencing all the hardship and challenges. We learn from our scars, our mistakes. If we encounter a challenge and run away from it by experiencing another style, then we shortchange ourselves from truly learning. The current Gen 2 new school needs to hear this insight.

Dancing can drive you crazy. Yes, we often hear about the freedom and joy that comes from finding yourself as a street dancer and experiencing something spiritual with the music. But training in a style can break you down emotionally. It can tear at your patience and self-worth. And you can finish a long session time wondering why you ever got into this dance in the first place. If you find yourself in this place, remember: everyone has thought the same thing.

Don’t run away from what challenges you. Embrace the challenge instead of diverting your attention to another style that seems momentarily attractive. Stick to your guns. You will eventually reap the rewards from all your perseverance.

Expanding The Scene: Gen 2 New School Dancers

What will it take to raise the skill level of street dance worldwide? Bboyin’, poppin’, and lockin’ are entering into our pop culture lingo. And there is a growing “laboratory” of dance ideas being exchanged online as filmmaker Jon M. Chu described at the LXD performance at TED 2010. But in today’s scene, it seems unlikely that a newbie popper can reach the level of a Madd Chadd or a Frantick without guided instruction and consistent training within a strong community. Even in southern California, the strongest and most progressive street dancers are being created through a combination of intense practice sessions, personal mentoring by the OGs, and regular battling experience. Can we expect a greater number of high-level street dancers to emerge now than in the past?

What usually happens is that a few, dedicated students will rise to the height of the their skill level because they persevered and pursued their craft no matter the cost. Everyone else who doesn’t commit falls to the wayside. We’re see this happening right now with the Gen 2 dancers coming from Orange County. Several of them started in the collegiate hip hop choreo scene. They got bitten by the bug and sought out sessions spots such as Homeland, J.U.i.C.E or Saint City Session to further their skills. Meanwhile, their less-committed peers don’t engage these resources and thereby fall behind in their growth as dancers. In the early 2000s, it seemed that several of the Gen 1 new school were coming from the rave and drum n’ bass scene. Now, it’s schools like UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton that are starting points for Gen 2 street dancers.

To expand our scene, we need Gen 2 to step up and seek proper instruction from the OGs. We need OGs to be more available and generous with their time to teach. Gen 2 can’t simply rely on Youtube for their street dance education. It’s a legitimate place to get your first exposure to the culture, but don’t limit yourself to viral videos. And there has to be more opportunities created for OGs to travel and teach worldwide. Right now, there are Gen 2 dancers in far reaches of the world who have no personal access to other dancers. They’re starving for truth.

Our OGs can play a crucial role in these Gen 2 dancers’ lives as mentors and creative inspiration. The future progress of our culture depends on how far these Gen 2 dancers can push themselves. Right now, it may by fun to just dance in a collegiate club without seriously challenging yourself. But if you want to grow and push the envelope, you have to treat it as seriously as finding a job. You must seek out OGs who are willing to teach. You have to challenge yourself. The future is truly in your hands.

Listen In: DJ AK's "Dancin' Robot"

Take a minute and listen to DJ AK's "Dancin' Robot" from his E-Sides and Unreleased album. Love the title! When the beat drops, you will want to "do the robot" to this new g-funk jam. (Photo above is from a Google Images Search for DJ AK's E-Sides and Unreleased)

You can catch the track here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL16Q8CQLyk

And you can check out DJ AK's myspace site here:

http://www.myspace.com/djak69

Enjoy!

Business Smarts: Altering Your Lifestyle

To conclude our series on Zulu Gremlin’s H4 business class, we’re touching on his insight on the need to alter your lifestyle. Any serious dancer knows that you have to make sacrifices in order to pursue dance professionally. Unfortunately, many aspiring dancers aren’t committed enough to commit. Their diets stay unhealthy. Their work ethic remains languid. As a result, their skill level plateaus. They will be less prepared to take advantage of opportunities that come their way. It’s sad to see these dancers frustrated.

The key is to persevere. This quality is at the heart of altering your lifestyle. According to Grem, alteration involves adding training, self-education, and a commitment to realign your abilities with business interests. An inspiring example of this concept in action are the poppers of the LXD as seen in the 2010 TED conference. There’s been much buzz about the group since they became exposed to a larger audience outside of the street dance world via the conference. Now, they’re poised to reach a global audience with their upcoming performance on the Oscars this Sunday, March 7, 2010. Madd Chadd, Jsmooth, Frantick, Aja, and Shonnie Solomon are just a few of the poppers who graced the TED stage. They exhibited some of the highest level of artistry in their individual styles in this TED perfomance. And they are a part of a larger movement to bring street dance outside of the usual context. We wouldn’t be surprised if each of these dancers have made significant alterations in their lifestyle to reach their current state.

Are we committed to pursuing our passion at all costs? That’s a question you have to ask yourself if you’re considering moving into becoming a professional dancer. For some, there are higher priorities whether they are education, families, relationships or a calling in another career. For those who feel called to dance professionally, then everything must be leveled towards this goal. The quicker you alter your lifestyle, the less personal resistance you’ll have from other areas of your life. You’ll be freer to take on opportunities that come your way. After all, it takes time for any dancer to grow, mature, and excel at their craft. The more you can free up your schedule to do this, the easier it will be to get closer to supporting yourself financially through dance.

One final note. Altering your lifestyle doesn’t mean changing who you are at your core. You’re simply changing circumstances and schedules to maximize your potential as a dancer. It doesn’t require removing good, worthwhile qualities in your character. In fact, taking this step can only help build perseverance, patience, and confidence in yourself as you commit to a potentially life-changing decision.

Business Smarts: Broadcasting Yourself

If you position yourself as a marketable dancer, then you need to package yourself in ways that others can buy into your story. You’re creating a public self-image that will be your best advertising campaign. It brands you. These are just some of the thoughts that Zulu Gremlin shared at his business class at Culture Shock LA’s H4 conference last Sunday. Today, we’re focusing on the need to broadcast yourself. It’s closely related to our earlier discussion about packaging.

The tools to promote yourself and your work are easily available online. We can create grass-roots movements using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube to attract a following. With these many channels available to the general public, it’s become a necessity for dancers to broadcast their achievements to remain relevant as well as to celebrate their ventures. Got a great set from the last VIBE showcase? Make sure to put it online and share it with the rest of the world. Anbu Black Ops has done that with their VIBE XV performance. And it’s quickly being spread virally around our dance community.

There’s so much noise online that dancers have to be saavy about how they broadcast their accomplishments. We have to take cut through the cloud to get our point across. With these social networking tools at our fingerprints, we’ve become our most immediate agent and manager as we interact with the larger public. Coming from the street dance culture, we can take that guerilla, street sensibility inherent in our approach to dance and apply it to marketing and advertising.

So being a marketable street dancer now means having an online presence and persona. Celebrate your accomplishments. Let others know what you’re up to. Otherwise, the fear is that you will get lost in the shuffle. While these ventures should not take priority over crafting your artform, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of what it takes to build a following. When you’re broadcasting yourself, you’re taking control of how others will perceive your market value.

Business Smarts: See Yourself As A Writer

We’re returning to our thoughts on Zulu Gremlin’s business smarts class at the H4 conference with a look at expanding the role of dancers as writers in their career. In Los Angeles, it’s not uncommon to find aspiring writers wherever you go. But for dancers, we often don’t see ourselves as the originators of stories. We see ourselves as performers at first. But this isn’t a push for street dancers to become screenwriters. What we’re looking at is how dancers can protect their ideas and be seen as originators of stories.

In the entertainment industry, the writer still creates the blueprint for what will later become a film, a television show, or a new media, web based series. We always need someone to come up with the original concept, even if it’s not in a script form. Anyone can come up with a story idea, which makes the entertainment industry a wide open playing field for newcomers. Dancers have the same opportunities to create concepts that will become amazing stories. So how do we protect our ideas?

According to Grem, we need to learn how to write down our ideas in synopsis format or even a treatment. That allows our ideas to be presented in an acceptable format within the entertainment industry. It’s not a bad idea. Ideas for movies are passed on daily through synopses and treatments at all of the agencies in Hollywood. Ideas are commodities that are traded, negotiated, and revised everyday, seven days a week. If you write a synopsis, you can email or mail it to yourself in order to claim copyright protection with the stamped date. Protecting story ideas is just as important as protecting our dance moves and styles.

So we need to consider expanding our talents as a street dancer. We can write stories or we can write the kernels of the original idea that will become something bigger later. Regardless of our writing abilities, let’s take steps to make sure that we earn what we have worked for. It can only increase our market value in a competitive industry.

Business Smarts: Revenue Streams

We’re continuing with our post-discussion thoughts on Zulu Gremlin’s business smarts class at Culture Shock LA’s H4 2010. Today, we’re pondering the issue of revenue streams for street dancers. It’s not a secret that we need money to survive in this tough economy. For most dancers, earning cash from our passion isn’t considered a steady income. So what do we do? How do we survive? This is where Grem talked about identifying the viable revenue streams and realigning our lifestyle to target them.

After a dancer gets major media exposure, the three most popular sources of revenue are performances, endorsements, and education. You can quickly get hired to perform at showcases and concerts. Clothing, shoe designers, and product companies will want you to act as spokesmodels for their wares. And there will be interested dance students who will want to pay to learn from you in a class setting. These three areas should be high priorities for a street dancer who wants to earn income after media exposure.

But after time, these revenue areas may become more infrequent. So this is where residual income is relevant. If a dancer has the opportunity to negotiate points or fees from participating in a film, television show, or music performance then residual income will maintain a cash flow over several years. This is key since being a professional dancer is essentially a freelance career. It’s rarely a nine-to-five job, five days a week. When you look at high profile film directors and actors, residual income plays a big role in their payoff. Film and television writers know this as well as seen in the writer’s strikes that happened in 2007 for the Writer’s Guild of America.

What Grem encouraged in his discussion is for us to start thinking proactively about these revenue streams. We must realize that there is no one single source of income that can support a professional dancer in the current state of the industry. So we have to have a multi-pronged strategy. That shouldn’t be hard for a young generation that is adept at multi-tasking. We just have to focus.

Business Smarts: Packaging Yourself

This past weekend, Culture Shock LA held their annual Hip Hop Has History (H4) conference at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center. It was a day filled with dance classes, discussion panels, and an all styles battle to end the night. One of the most eye-opening sessions wasn’t a dance class but a discussion held by Zulu Gremlin, who runs the Pro-AM Tour and has advised many street dancers in the professional entertainment industry. Many of his insights are valuable to today’s aspiring dancer. And it’s unfortunate that few dancers ever take the time to educate themselves on these business smarts. We’re going to devote this week to touching on some of the ideas that Grem shared at the discussion. Today, it’s about packaging yourself.

If you want to be a professional dancer, you have to look at yourself as the sole proprietor and the brand. This was a powerful insight that Grem imparted to all of us. Music artists know this business tactic. Whether it’s Snoop Dogg, Eminem, or Kanye West; the high profile rap artist has spun off many entities that carry their persona or brand name. Multiple revenue streams result from an artist’s namesake. For dancers, our persona becomes the commodity. Dance crews on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew have created a brand name for themselves, but most of them are still serving to further the brand name of the show. Only a few crews like the JabbaWockeeZ have branched off on their own.

Being a brand communicates an idea and a feeling to the consumer. Look at the biggest American brands including Disney, Coke, McDonald’s, and Apple. Each of them conveys an image that the consumer trusts. You know what you’re getting when you buy one of their products. For dancers, we have to indicate to a buying audience, a producer, or an employer what we bring to the table. It’s fine to be an all-styles dancer or a specialist. Just make sure you clearly communicate that when you package yourself as a dancer on the market.

Zulu Gremlin’s insights come from his own experiences in the entertainment industry as well as feedback from peers. We’re thankful for his generosity in sharing these ideas and for opening up our eyes. It’s time to think about how to present ourselves in a more professional manner if we are intent on becoming professional entertainers.