Leaving A Legacy Media-Wise

What will we leave behind for future generations of street dancers? Today's new school learns through classes, sessions, online videos, and archived footage from personal home videos, films, and TV shows from the '70s and '80s. Is everything that we create today boiling down to what we can search on Google, Youtube, and Wikipedia? This is a compelling question because video and film recording was not as accessible thirty years ago. Now, there are a plethora of digital camera phones at every jam and contest. There are more people taking pictures, documenting personal stories, and writing about hip hop dance culture on a larger scale.

So what does this mean for the long term? Maybe it will be easier for a future street dancer to access material about this culture. Anything that can be captured audio-visually or in textual information can easily be distributed online. Powerful search engines are at our disposal and we just need the right keyword or tag. Now, we're going wireless and today's youth are chatting on their smart phones while watching clips. The web - as our matrix of interpersonal communication - is changing too even if Facebook's recent push to personalize the Internet through "like" buttons on third-party sites. With a more personalized web, will that shape differences in how individuals view hip hop dance culture and history?

If the web of the past and present was defined by structured websites, then our surfing experiences are really going to change if we experience a more personalized Web. We already have glimpses of this through extensive Facebook use. If you're familiar with this social network, you may have already discovered new information in pictures, text, and videos through what your friends post on their walls. Facebook has certainly united local dance cultures in a way that public forums never could. If people like to share with people they know, is it possible that pictures and videos of some dance subcultures will only be shared in closed ranks and never with the general public? With a personalized Web, we could see some things fall through the cracks.

And who will future generations look to as inspirations if there's so many dancers posting content online? Rest assured, no matter the social pressure, the dancers with the most impact will be those who have trained in correct foundation and have matured in their craft. These often aren't the ones with the most views in their Youtube videos. We can worry about the glut of dance material cluttering online video channels now, but there's something about true artistic craft that stands the test of the time. Perhaps the legacy that will have most impact are the dancers who have grown up in foundation and are adding their unique spin on the dance. Just as trends come and go, there are some "hot" dancers that will make a big splash and later disappear.

We're hoping that the legacy we leave behind is more than just what's hot now. It's got to be a little more universal, something that stirs each of our souls regardless of our backgrounds. That's when we know that an artistic form has translated across cultural differences. It becomes something we all can share in.