Inclusiveness in Our Community

It breaks our hearts to see that there's still a barrier between the street dancing community and the collegiate choreography scene. How can we make a difference here? In the past year and a half, we've explored some of the differences between both worlds. The street dancing community has always been a wily, unstructured group that doesn't function around any one institution or organization. Meanwhile, the collegiate choreography scene thrives on a structured world of showcase competitions, rehearsals, and the college life. One is raw and uncensored; the other is organized and built around academic affiliations. You could say they're from two different worlds.

So why even care about making a connection between these worlds? The street dancing scene has thrived on its own for over thirty years. And the collegiate choreo scene in LA and Orange County has been growing since the early 90s. Different strokes for different folks, as the phrase goes. We've been okay staying within our comfort zone. But what we're missing out on is an opportunity. It may be difficult to blend a street dance competition with a showcase. But learning from each other is never a loss. Both communities have strengths that the other can benefit from. Poppers, bboys, and lockers in the street scene have a courage and fiery freedom in their freestyling. They have a history and foundation to build on. They have a raw spirit. Collegiate choreo dancers have an eye for mobilizing a large group of people on stage. They are community-oriented and their teaching methods are designed to educate many students at one time.

We're not proposing that the street scene or the collegiate scene make over the other in their own image. Both should retain their true identities. But why not start an ongoing dialogue to educate and share with each other? There's evidence of misinformation among the collegiate crowd on solid foundation for street styles. The plethora of videos on Youtube are an example. And the street scene can often misjudge choreo dancers as "biters" while overlooking the skills choreo dancers have in creating pleasing images of many dancers moving together. We could influence each other in positive ways that we haven't even imagined yet, if we were only open to starting a conversation.

That's all it takes. A few leaders from each community to start talking and sharing and understanding together. Are we as open-minded as we think? Are we subconsciously insecure about our own skills if we constantly bash others who are different from ourselves? It may be human nature to be afraid of someone not like us. But we still can have a choice to decide on how to act on that fear. We can either turn away from each other or take a chance and listen.