The Progressive DIY Movement in Street Dance

There's a movement afoot in the street dance world and it's all about "doing it yourself." DIY is nothing new in the larger scheme of this world. From the most visible to the quietest revolutions, DIY has always been an aesthetic that allowed people to take things into their own hands and make their voices heard. It's a form of social disobedience that rallies against the status quo. It allows us to envision how our world could be different. Like creative problem solvers, we re-evaluate the way we do things, we take it apart, and then restructure it into something more amenable to our goals.

Ever heard of Etsy.com? Thousands of artists and craftspeople are showcasing and selling their homemade creations on that site. As an online community, the Etsy folks could be declaring their independence from the commercial consumer culture surrounding us. Isn't it strange that a lot of our decisions are affected by the products available to us? Did you ever question that there could be alternatives to your defining your lifestyle besides the clothing, health products, accessories, and even entertainment that you find in your local mall? The T-shirt design business is another reaction to this consumer consumption lifestyle. There are plenty of online T-shirt design communities who crowdsource design ideas and sell them to a devoted niche audience. Many of us choose that path instead of going to the Gap or Abercrombie & Fitch.

So how does DIY relate to street dancing now? We're reaching a saturation point for street dance in mainstream media. There are signs that the mainstream public is tired of seeing the way dance is portrayed in formulaic Hollywood dance films or reality TV shows. So dancers are doing it for themselves. They're making their own Youtube channels. They're creating their own platforms for generating and nurturing their fanbase through Twitter. And they're grabbing affordable digital cameras and editing software to harness the available technology to represent themselves through shared media online.

DIY is crucial to our growth because we need to constantly evaluate the health of our culture. If we leave it in the hands of others who don't have our best interests, then we are easily exploited. No, we don't necessarily need to make millions or gain celebrity in the public sphere through our do-it-yourself operations. But what we can strive for is integrity. A self-realization that what we have accomplished is relevant and true to aesthetic and community goals we have for each other.

That's the healthiest thing we can do when we do it ourselves. We're learning along the way and making a statement by challenging others to see another way of life. We don't have to be defined by what consumer culture feeds us. It's this challenge to change perspectives which can keep our culture fresh and inventive.