Grass Roots Hip Hop Dance Community

Sometimes, it's easy to take the hip hop dance culture in Los Angeles for granted. There are so many opportunities to train, to compete, and to be paid for what we love to do in this city. Films, television, commercials, music videos and the rest of Hollywood offer opportunities to do business. There's a strange dual nature to how hip hop dance evolves in LA. We have dancers who want to make a living by performing. We have others who just enjoy dancing as part of their lifestyle. And we also have dancers who embrace both paths. Sometimes, we have to take a look back and wonder what would our scene be like if money wasn't involved. What would happen if we went back to simpler times when our community wasn't influenced by money or professional fame?

We're talking about a grassroots approach to dance community. It's still possible and there are many examples of this here in LA that we've touched on before. The underground dance culture will always thrive because young people want to connect with something deeper than what's being offered to them via commercial mainstream consumer culture. There, they'll find community and relationships that will help them to understand themselves on a deeper level as well as their peers. Young people always want to find something to call their own, to establish their own identity, and to express what they're going through in life. Hip hop culture, with all of its elements, has been that medium for many kids for over thirty years. For dancers, this grassroots culture has remained more grassroots than the other hip hop elements because it's harder to make a living off of it. But now, that's changing with the greater exposure that hip hop dance has in mainstream culture.

It's hard to see a new generation get into hip hop dance and then to be tempted by chasing fame in the entertainment industry. Sometimes, it seems like it would be better if they discovered this dance in another city where money and fame were distant factors. That way, they could come to this dance with purer intentions. Maybe this is where the older generation can provide guidance. They've seen it all since the bubble burst in the '80s. Without their advice, today's youth might go down the same path of being taken advantage of by folks who want to cash in on a dance trend. We'll need our elders' wisdom if we want to learn from past mistakes. By standing on their shoulders, perhaps we'll create a new era of hip hop dance that can stand against the destructive forces of greed and fame.