Will Our Street Dance Culture Grow in 2011?

What is our street dance community going to look like in 2011? If we just look at Los Angeles, it's possible that we're not going to see tremendous growth in our local scene. The reason? Lack of exponential growth internally and externally. The older dancers in their late twenties and early thirties are moving away to other life priorities. A younger generation in the late teens and early twenties has stepped in. But we don't seem to be learning from our predecessors' mistakes. We're repeating the same blunders in running events and building our community. Sure, we have a little more technology on our hands, but we haven't been using it to its full potential.

Is our culture doomed to exist only within a niche environment? On its own, we have always been an underground scene. We don't normally take measures to be inclusive and invite outsiders into our circles. Often, it's easy to just focus on preserving what is currently in our scene as a way to create our own secret world that we inhabit. There are pros and cons to this approach. Of course, it is wonderful that we find a place where we belong and where we can share common passions. But do we become too narrow-minded in closing ourselves off to the larger outside world? Our mentality to keep things "raw" and "underground" can lead us to self-limitations if we don't continue to evaluate the bigger picture of where we're heading.

Maybe that's why there have been talented dancers who have left our community. It's hard to pinpoint exact numbers but there are some who have vocalized why they left the scene due to the overbearing challenges of being a part of it. It became difficult to pursue goals they set for themselves with the current way our culture functions. How much talent have we lost due to the inefficiency, miscommunication, and narrow-mindedness that plagues us? It could be alarming if we saw the numbers.

Where do we go from here? If we were to make New Year's resolutions for 2011, could we find ways to execute them successfully? Let's start to think about where we want to be as a community next year. How about three to five years from now? As we start to envision this big picture, maybe it'll help us to iron out the kinks in our current situation.

The Challenge to Create Organized Change in Street Dance Culture

We've touched on various reasons why there is disorganization and lack of growth in today's street dance culture. There are several causes of why the scene remains an underground culture that is misunderstood and misinterpreted by an uninformed mainstream audience. For folks who are trying to make a difference in today's dance community, one of the biggest challenges is managing people in a self-sustaining, creative collaborative community. It's not easy mobilizing a group of people and motivating them towards a goal.

The nature of our community has favored talented individuals. But global change comes from individuals working together as teams. And teams require charismatic leaders to foster a vision and manage their team members in clever ways. We don't have enough of these charismatic leaders in today's street dance culture. We have well-meaning event promoters and business-minded ones who want to make lots of money. But few people are inspired to want to help volunteer at an event. It becomes a chore. It's just too much of a hassle to be involved with supporting a jam especially when the schedule runs late, there's lack of central leadership, and there's no clear communication channels.

How do we bring better management to our street dance events? This may be a generalization but we don't see effective management strategies used in producing these events possibly because few of the promoters and event leaders are drawing from the needed experience. It has become almost a joke that street dance events run late and are unorganized and chaotic. So it's not a surprise that outside collaborators don't want to work with us. We've struggled to bring in investors and sponsors because we haven't proven that we can handle a profitable venture.

Maybe the street dance scene needs a re-education for its event promoters in people management. We don't necessarily need more money. We need to learn how to communicate more effectively with our willing volunteers and to bring the best out of them. Can we inspire them to look past our financial limitations and dream up creative cost-effective solutions? If we can inspire a culture of creative collaboration, then we're taking the first steps towards building a strong dance scene. Our best resources are always our people.

Is Harry Shum Jr the new Fred Astaire?

We've been waiting a long time for a young actor or actress to step up to the plate as a singer, dancer, and thespian. In the early to mid 20th century, we had Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly along with ladies like Ginger Rogers and Cyd Charisse leading the way. The hip hop scene hasn't seen someone like that at all, even with dance superstars like Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers performing in films, stage shows, and commercials. Often, street dancers are only featured for their dance skills. But now, there's an interesting scenario developing on Fox's TV show Glee, which we've previously featured. On that show, actor and dancer Harry Shum Jr is gradually emerging as a more visible cast member during Glee's second season. He's displaying some acting chops while getting his moments to dance in front of the camera. Is he our new Fred Astaire?

Check out Harry with Matthew Morrison in an homage sequence to Singin' In The Rain in this episode of Fox's Glee:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/192338/glee-the-substitute#s-p1-so-i0

We don't mean to put any pressure on Harry or dancers like him who may have these acting opportunities. We're just excited for them. Harry has said in a Hulu interview for The LXD that he doesn't bill himself as a popper but that he embraces elements of many different styles and fuses them into his own flavor. He's shown this sensibility in his featured dancing moments on Glee. His career is escalating. He started out as a bit part and is reportedly going to become a cast regular in the coming year after the Superbowl episode in 2011. That's big news because he's made bigger professional strides into acting in television and film than any other featured dancer from the Step Up 3D and LXD camp. And he's got a fan following. If you run a search for Harry on Twitter, you will find many fans praising him for his good looks and dance moves.

It would be exciting to see where Harry's career takes him next, especially if he decides to step behind the camera and direct or produce. Already we've seen him credited as a choreographer for The LXD with Christopher Scott. If he takes on directorial duties, he could be one of several dancers who might lead a new revolution of dance in mainstream media (his LXD cohort Christopher Scott has directed one of the LXD's second season episodes). And this isn't necessarily just for hip hop, but for all dance styles. The difference here compared to the slew of reality shows out there is that dancers would be in top creative positions to influence and create stories. Their unique tastes and aesthetics would bring a breath of fresh air to our current climate.

We don't pretend to be giving advice to Harry or other dancers in his position. We don't have the answers. But we are cheering them on as they continue to make their mark in the media world. We hope that he and other professional dancers will make wise, saavy decisions as they chart their careers. The world is ready for dancers who shine in front of the camera with their movement but also as thespians who can make us laugh and cry.

The Glee Question: Can It Happen For Dance?

Fox's Glee is one of the hottest tv shows on primetime networks in the past two years. What was once a curiosity has now become a pop cultural phenomenon, fully embracing the American Broadway musical, love for showtunes, and the show choir subculture that exists in many of today's high schools. Sure, the characters whom we love on this show are probably more colorful, interesting, and well-written than their real-life counterparts. But it's brought music and the love of singing back into America's consciousness without framing it in a reality show format.

Yes, Glee would have a harder time getting on the air if it wasn't for American Idol. That's why it made sense for Fox to broadcast Glee given the network's success with the infamous singing reality show. The cultural impact? We're still witnessing its progress as a new generation of youth discover songs from twenty to thirty years ago as hit iTunes downloads from the show's cast. So the question is: can we see a show that brings our love of dancing to the cultural mainstream in a non-reality show format?

Three decades ago, we had Fame. There hasn't been much on primetime shows since then. Even So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew are shaped around reality shows. Dancing is a much harder nut to crack then singing. The musical format is more commonly understood and shared since we often see drama clubs in high schools. Many of us have had exposure to singing through musicals or musical films from the Golden Age of Hollywood. With dancing, it seems harder to tell an emotional story on its own. And we've seen the lack of strong acting skills among dancers even in Step Up 3D and The LXD. That's not the case for musical actors who can sing, act, and even dance a little. So drawing from Broadway, a show like Glee can bring in talented actresses like Lea Michele and Jenna Ushkowitz to play convincing characters on screen because they've had the training. Where are our Fred Astaires and Gene Kellys for the dance scene?

It would be amazing to see a show like Glee for our dance generation. No, it doesn't have to be the same format or use similar characters. We'd just like to see a dramatic or comedic show set in the street dance world and bringing its richness and variety to the masses. Typically, street dancers are not seen as "full" characters in films or shows. They're just performers who do amazing things with their bodies. But we don't cry with them as we do with Lea Michele or Jenna Ushkowitz or Cory Monteith on Glee. That's a shame because dancers possess so much passion and drama in their souls. Why can't we see that in a well-written and well-acted story?

Influence in the Online Era

Today, we're seeing a new generation of street dancers influencing a worldwide audience outside of film, tv shows, and live performances. Those mediums are still incredibly powerful. But the past five years of the Youtube era, since the website's beginning in 2005, have allowed a skilled dancer who isn't in mass media productions to be influential on others. That is an incredible development. Now, a dancer can self-publish her own videos online and create an impression if she's reasonably skilled.

Most footage of old school street dancers that is publicly available today are usually from mass media productions: tv shows like Soul Train and Solid Gold, films like Breakin' and Beat Street, and recordings of live performances in the 1970s and 1980s. For this mass media, we relied on a small group of tastemakers - the producers and filmmakers - who determined which dancers would appear on screen. Perhaps these dancers had to audition to appear on the show or get a featured role in a film. But we lack a visual record of the street dance culture that existed at jams, sessions, and non-mass media occasions during these years. There's very little documentation of this scene, so we can only draw our own mental pictures based on impressions. In 2010, an ambitious dancer doesn't need to wait for MTV or a Hollywood studio to break their name to the public. She can do it herself. That's tremendous power for a dancer highlighting the potential that she has to chart her own career and control her public self-image. So today, dancers in mass media and those who are getting down in their garages can both influence a worldwide audience.

Of course, when video becomes a populist medium like on Youtube's platform, we deal with overcrowding and the proliferation of too many dance videos online. Every minute there is a considerable amount of footage being uploaded onto Youtube. Not even Google's search engine algorithm can uncover every valuable gem in its library. One could argue that an ambitious dancer today needs to be even more saavy and clever to break out from the crowd. But the ability to self-publish has already transformed our landscape despite the crowded space. Anyone can come out from anywhere and make a splash. And that is enough to mark a clear historical difference from the 1970s and 1980s.

The potential that lies in self-publishing runs deep. It suggests the possibility for street dancers to carve their own career opportunities independently from Hollywood studios and mass media. Some business-minded dancers have already done so. Even dance crews that appear on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew keep their reputations in the public eye by marketing themselves, booking gigs, and extending their popularity run from the show. Whether it's the Beat Freaks or Poreotics, these crews are prolonging the financial rewards of the show's exposure by self-publishing online: creating videos, websites, and blogs to satisfy their fans. No Hollywood studio or tv network is going out of their way for them.

What will be the result of this new movement? Will the history of our street dance culture become more complicated as there now our multiple media examples of our styles floating around? Possibly. Or we may just need to make a stronger, more organized effort to curate the media that's out there. It seems that's what's missing from today's street dance scene. We have an overabundance of visual material that's being shared online. But there's no one central curator or group that is making the connections among the material like a professor or cultural critic would do. We need them soon though. The rate at which we're uploading material online is growing exponentially and we need sharp minds to interpret it for a larger worldwide audience that wants to understand.

Creating an IMDB for Street Dancers

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) had its early origins in 1989 via a Usenet news group. In the 21 years that have passed, it's become the go-to database for movie information among film professionals and laymen. Want to find the latest info on your favorite celebrity? Look her up on IMDB.com. There's a huge amount of data on IMDB that creates a sprawling portrait of film, television, independent shorts, and video games on a global scale. It's a fascinating sociological study. So why can't dancers have something like IMDD, albeit at a smaller scale, to reflect our history and contributions to the world?

Lack of organization and lack of documentation are just two of the biggest reasons why there's never been a comprehensive database for dancers worldwide. We know the level of unprofessionalism within the street dance culture in Los Angeles. So in the past thirty to forty years of our underground scene, we haven't been documented successfully in any organized way online. There's no data to pull together because no one is gathering it. It's floating out there in the ether. That's a tragedy.

We could learn so much more if there was an organized effort to track street dancers' artistic and professional contributions. We'd see a history of the theatrical shows as well as performances on camera for film and TV shows. We could learn more about a dancer's career. We could identify hot spots around the world where dancers are getting hired for work. A more detailed picture of our lives and community could emerge with an IMDB-like database.

It would also help get our names out there. It can be a self-promotional tool, which many independent filmmakers know after using IMDB to create their own profiles. In an age where there's too much information online, we need ways to organize and highlight the main points. Otherwise, we get lost in the crowd. Perhaps a database for dancers could be initiated if we started to track information from professional dancers affiliated with agencies. Or if we assigned documentarian roles to folks in different dance scenes and asked them to chronicle the lives of their dancers.

Opening up a database would require reaching a critical mass of users which could then create a movement for street dancers to document themselves out of their own volition. Doing this would mark a change of attitude in the way we do things. Not only would we see more data being compiled, we'd be taking responsibility for our careers and preserving it for future generations.

Where Will The New Ideas Come From?

We seem to be at another crossroads in LA's street dance culture. The media maelstrom for dance has subsided. It's no longer the hot new trend on TV to feature street dancers. Now we must take personal responsibility to move street dance culture to the next level through our independent projects. We can't rely on Hollywood to invest in our future. So now, dance crews and event promoters are racking their brains to bring our artform to the next level. In this time of reflection and reinvention, where are the new ideas coming from?

Perhaps we have to start thinking more globally. There are dance communities thriving all over the world, partly inspired by the spread of viral dance videos online. More teachers are traveling internationally. And crews in other countries are putting their best resources together to promote themselves. Take the Australian crew Who Are These Robots. With high production value, they have been talked about online and within inner circles in LA's poppin' community simply by a few short Youtube videos.

Check out this video from Who Are These Robots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Fnt7fKe2c

For these four guys, they've done something that no other recent LA crew has done. They've established a recognizable name for themselves by an online video introduction. It's no secret that there's a lack of organization among LA street dancers. We're not the most professional in the way we handle our culture. So can we step it up? Otherwise, we risk being the ones following trends rather than setting them ourselves.

While LA continues to innovate within its street dance community, we have to humbly recognize that other great ideas are originating elsewhere. And these new ideas can inspire us to take the game to a higher level. Event promoters have been stuck in a creative plateau for years doing local events. Most jams seem the same year after year. But we're starting to see a crop of new promoters coming up in 2010 locally. We need them to keep innovating and moving the whole community experience forward.

Great ideas can come from anywhere. So why not learn from them? They can inspire us to go in new directions and set higher standards for everyone else. With faster online communication, the rate at which we get exposed to ideas is only going to exponentially grow. We have to keep up with the pace. The challenge will be to maintain a desire to explore greater depth and substance in our artform with the faster rate of broadcasting our ideas to the rest of the world.

Working Through Our Miscommunication

One of the hardest challenges to nurturing a community is keeping the channels of communication open. Sounds easy to do, but it's hard to execute. Take a hypothetical situation: you organize a group of people of different ages, social and economic backgrounds, and ethnicities. Each person brings his own bias, baggage, and worldview to the table. It takes level-headed leaders to moderate such a discussion. It takes even more resolve to build a community from it. Miscommunication - that prickly thing which happens when we misread each other's cues - plagues us every day.

It's a natural human phenomenon. At the root of all online disputes on dance forums and Youtube comment pages is miscommunication. This breeds misunderstanding. We're not designed to move as one homogenous unit. We have our individual quirks that make living with each other complicated. Sometimes, it's unbearable. But the opposite seems even worse: to live isolated lives so separate from each other that we are doomed to our lonely existence. So we still seek each others' company and ideas even if it leads to arguments. We don't want to be alone.

Miscommunication doesn't necessarily need to be avoided. It just has to be managed. Good ideas can come out of miscommunication. Great ideas can emerge when they are guided by a visionary. It's all about your frame of reference. We all have a frame of reference by which we judge the world. Sometimes, we need to listen well to each other to compare our frames of reference. That way, we can cut through the hurtful kind of miscommunication which has negatively affected our culture. A visionary can help others find common ground with a shared frame of reference, which can also be inspired by their individual perspectives.

When we talk about history, foundation, and aesthetics; miscommunication is always lurking around the corner. Without extensive historical documentation available to the greater masses, our street dance culture is very prone to miscommunication. And we're facing mainstream media who portray dancers with familiar stereotypes. Can the scholars and documentarians within our street dance culture take a stand? Can they make a united front to help clear the air about different aspects of our community? That's a place to start if we hope to grow freely without being shackled by miscommunication.

It's Hard to Adapt

While street dancers may adapt to changing environmental circumstances that determine how they live their lifestyle, it's often harder to adapt to generational differences. Our culture is over thirty-something years and our society has changed its landscape many times over. Even the ethnic demographics are different today compared to the dancers of the 70s and 80s. More than ever, it's hard to adapt. We face different needs, expectations, and ways of communicating within and outside our current culture than our predecessors twenty to thirty years ago.

Often, the first conceived solution is to recreate the past. Bring it back to the old school. Create the circumstances for a virtual time capsule that our current generation can step in to. But that's challenging. And it could be considered unimaginative. The challenge is for us to dream and re-invent the way we gather, interact, and share our dancing. Can we capture the soul of our dance culture while putting it in new clothes? Sometimes, asking a current generation to replay what was done in the past is insulting to them because it doesn't capture their uniqueness.

The tug-of-war that goes on between OGs and the new school will always be there. We can't ask either camp to change who they are. But what we can encourage is better understanding and greater interpersonal communication. Both sides can learn from each other. The OGs bring a history and wealth of experience to new minds. And the new school bring clever ways of approaching our culture with faster technology and changing demographics. And as street dance culture continues, more generations will be added to the mix. There just won't be one old school and one new school. We'll need to differentiate the eras and create a platform for more communication.

It's a fascinating social experience. Street dance is a young culture compared to other dance forms which have been around for decades or centuries. But we're currently one of the most vibrant. And we possess plenty of room to evolve rather than staying stagnant. So where do we go from here? How do we adapt?

Longevity Is Rare

Time is a fascinating phenomenon. We can't control it. We can't escape it. And for street dancers, it's a force that has an effect on our bodies as we age and heal. We often think of longevity as how long we can keep dancing. But we can also consider longevity as a needed quality in growing our community. In Los Angeles, there's very little that lasts for long stretches of time in our dance culture. Events come and go. Sessions get hot and then shut down due to lack of finances. Even star dancers have their run in the scene and then move on to other pursuits. Street dance culture has often been a thing that happens, not last in one state for a long time.

So how do we introduce longevity into street dance culture? There are few institutions that persevere and allow us to build upon. Sessions are one of the key aspects of building community. Currently, there are long-running sessions like Homeland and Groove Night that have lasted over 10 years or so in the greater Los Angeles area. Other sessions will pop up here and there, but they tend to last only for a period of time. Fortunately, street dancers are adaptable. We can be thrown out of a venue, but we'll eventually land somewhere else. Or we just dance on the concrete outside.

Longevity would take us in a different direction. If we could build on a communal foundation, it increases the chances for more opportunities to expand on our interests. There are more resources at our disposal. Partnerships form. Crews get together. And a greater degree of organization is likely to happen. When people become more relationally and financially invested in something, they are more likely to build on it in order to evolve. We need longevity in our street dance culture in order to build from the mistakes we've made in the past.

But longevity is hard to nurture. It takes dedication, commitment, and more than a herculean effort from passionate leaders to sacrifice daily. Do we love our dance culture enough that we would bleed for it? Maybe that's the key question that we all have to ask. Longevity may not be prevalent if we're not willing to give more than we take.

Time Flies, Community Lasts

One thing we can never get back is time. It seems like yesterday that we were kids. Or we were in high school. Or we just finished college and we're looking for our first post-grad job. Before you know it; life has taken its winding, bending, always fluid course. Time flies. The street dance community isn't immune.

Our younger brothers and sisters may not have that frame of reference yet. When you're in high school or college, the world still seems brand-new. You're figuring out things on your own, sometimes for the first time. So when you dance too, street dance community can feel so present. You can easily forget about the past. Not just what happened thirty years ago. But the weight of those thirty years. Any OG dancer can tell you how that feels. When you live with something that's been a part of your life for more than three decades, it runs deep in your veins. It's hard to let go.

Tastes change. Politics evolve. But the one thing that remains is our community. As we grow older, we lose touch with our classmates, former lovers, and one-time close friends. We start our own families and our lives that become framed by their needs. The beauty of street dance community is that it can keep us connected to each other. More than any social network, true vibrant community allows us to grow and work out our flaws together. That's why class reunions are always awkward. So much time has passed that we're no longer connected to each other in meaningful ways. The ties we had as classmates are gone.

But dance community isn't on a graduation schedule. The artform keeps us united in our common passion. And as we grow and evolve, we find ways to make our time together meaningful. It's better than having a time machine. We don't have to regret the past. We can enjoy the present and move to the future.

The New Secret Underground

A new dancer can introduce himself to the rest of the world by uploading a video on Youtube. A new crew can do the same. What effect does that have on street dance culture as a whole? Before the rise of Youtube in 2005, you earned your name by competing in contests, stepping into cyphers, showcasing, or battling. There are many talented dancers who have never appeared in a Youtube video to this day. Some have never been talked about on online forums. They're an invisible part of our history whether by choice or circumstance. So for those who self promote, are they more relevant to our culture because they're "seen" online?

Online video sharing hasn't encouraged a deeper understanding of foundation in street dancing. There are many self-labeled poppers online who don't show hitting technique, clean isolations and dimestops, groove, or even the feel of the different sub-styles. Plus, we now have a seemingly larger viewing audience online who watch these videos, comment on them, and share them with others. A large portion of this new audience is not informed of true foundation. They appear to not have a deeper understanding of poppin' technique. This is understandable because widespread teaching of concrete foundation isn't happening as fast as these videos are being circulated online.

And now, new dancers can hype themselves by posting a video and promoting their image by getting as many views as possible. It's a popularity contest that runs along the same mentality as PR firms in Hollywood and Madison Avenue. In the long run, this had to happen. With the recent explosion of dance in mainstream media, it creates a herd mentality for aspiring performers to capitalize on their dance when money and fame are involved. Sad, isn't it? Now, that doesn't mean every dancer online is seeking those goals. But suddenly, we have to become more wary of our own intentions and to cross-check our motives.

Perhaps all this attention-seeking online will lead to a renaissance in street dance. It may create a "secret underground." Much in the same way that grunge rockers reacted against the corporate culture and rock n' roll of the '80s. Online videos, social networking, and forums are our media landscape for dancers. Those who shun this kind of spotlight may start to move away from seeking exposure. This might spawn a movement of new ideas and encourage dancers to return to the pursuit of purely developing their art form without financial gain. A reactionary movement seems imminent since street dance is becoming more over-exposed in online media.

We're waiting for a revolution. Already, there are circles within Los Angeles that know what concrete foundation is and they're continuing to train and teach it. They're innovating on top of foundation. These dancers will emerge as the most highly skilled, along with those world-wide who are on the same page. No amount of video views will take away from their raw skills. And those who are just hype will fade away in time.

A reactionary movement needs to happen. We're dying for authenticity in a dance culture that is struggling to maintain its soul.

The Illusion of Fame

Perhaps one of the most disturbing trends in today's street dance culture is the illusion of fame. Fame is a mark of Hollywood. It's a byproduct of the 24/7 media machine. Faster communication technology feeds our insatiable desire to find out more information. And it elevates the cult of celebrity. Now, anyone can be heard, seen, ogled, and worshipped. It's a strange phenomenon.

When you're part of an underground culture, there is an element of fame when you "get known" for your dancing skills. But prior to the rise of the Internet, "getting known" was mostly limited to your local scene. There would be a few high level dancers that everyone would know about through word-of-mouth and occasional appearances on television, film, and underground tapes and DVDs. Now, dancers can see each other through online videos regardless of the physical distance between them. Anyone can be discovered by uploading their own video on Youtube. "Getting known" can potentially happen at a much faster rate than ever before.

Fame can subtly change our expectations. It may infect our goals. For a younger generation, many of our new school dancers are subconsciously hoping to validate their investment in training by becoming "famous." Think that it isn't true? Well, then ask yourself this question: would you be satisfied if no one ever knew or applauded your skills as a dancer? Can you imagine still pursuing dance even if you never were recognized for it or gained any financial or social benefit? That's a tough question to answer. Suddenly, we realize that fame might be creeping into the goals that we've set for ourselves as dancers. Is fame a goal for you?

Why does fame taste so good? Because it feels good when others praise us. We feel like we matter. Suddenly, we exist and we have relevance because our existence is not only defined within our minds. We can be over-achievers who want to give meaning to our dance journey by adding the medal of fame to our credentials. It's a pretty one, isn't it?

But it never lasts. Fame is fleeting. It's fragile and breaks easily between your fingers. Brittle as it is, it haunts us. It becomes an addiction. We get that high when we're in the spotlight. And when we're no longer there, we feel like we need it. It's spellbinding. We need something to give us that addictive high again. Worse comes to worse when we turn to other self-destructive avenues to find that high.

Sounds familiar? Fame is a tricky, slippery animal that is rarely caught. And once you do get your hands on it, your whole paradigm changes. Who do you trust? How do you see yourself differently? How do your friends and family see you differently? What do you think you're entitled to? All the questions you ask suddenly become about you.

Those who receive fame are not necessarily doomed to self-delusion. There are people who use fame to better the situation for others whether it means drawing attention to volunteer causes or investing in the education of a younger generation. But we know that fame can draw darkness out of us. It doesn't inject something new and dark into us. It just brings out the flaws that were already there. And it magnifies them.

The Threat of Violence

Are we reaching a state of chaos in street dance culture, especially within the U.S. poppin' scene? Recent debates have popped up online in forums about a popper named King Mike who allegedly punched Jsmooth and then fled the scene. There will be ongoing controversy about this incident for weeks to come. Is there a threat of violence growing within our dance community? Many street dancers have shared in personal testimonies that they credit the dance culture for delivering them from violence. Now, we're questioning if our future generation will be facing this threat from within.

What's the source of this concern? Are tensions between the different camps reaching a boiling point because of an online war of words? We've seen how miscommunication and misunderstandings can be aggravated by the constant digital bickering. Some have argued that it has brought a culture of negativity into our community. Some claim that it has instilled fear in young newcomers. It's hurting the entire culture. After all, why would anyone want to be part of a dance culture that is known more for its drama than its celebration of dance?

Maybe all of us in the U.S. poppin' scene need to consider where our anger stems from. Will acting out of anger bring healing or harm? Things are unhealthy. It's no secret. We're affected by what we read online via forums and see on videos. And we keep checking these sources because it's part of our staying connected with the greater community. Not everyone has the ability to travel in the same circles at regular weekly sessions, club nights, or jams. So the negativity that we see online shapes our perceptions of others. We can misinterpret what someone else said. For some, it may inspire violent action or confrontation. In the heat of the moment, reason rarely wins.

We are not in a culture that easily forgives. But that perhaps is the only thing that will bring healing into our current situation. If one alleged violent incident happens and goes unchecked, it can potentially open the door for other incidents to happen. Right now, fear is the ruling factor, infecting the hearts of many young dancers. And it's not healthy.

Alternate Histories of Street Dance Online

Now that there's an overflow of videos, comments, and online debates online about street dance culture; it's not a surprise that there are alternate histories floating around. What really happened back then? Did this dancer truly study under this OG? Our problem lies in the fact that most online debates are between second-hand and third-hand sources. We aren't seeing the first person eyewitnesses joining the conversation. And without a central historical document or organization helping us to tie it together, we're more than just a little confused.

What do we do? When second-hand and third-hand sources debate historical anecdotes, we often see the discussion get heated. And there's little fact-checking and quoting viable references that can be publicly checked and accessed by everyone. If we applied the Scientific Method to this problem, we would need to have a hypothesis and check it against the results of our experiment. Here, we can develop a sense of our history based on initial research and first impressions. Then, we can cross-check our narrative with eyewitness accounts and any available physical evidence.

Maybe that's why videos depicting street dance culture in its early years are so coveted. They are our only undisputable source of documentation, especially in raw form. Unless they're edited or narrated, they represent the closest we can get to experiencing that time period through one defined lens. But there seems to be a lot of historical footage that isn't available on Youtube. In fact, they probably still reside with private owners who aren't willing to make them public for different reasons.

We need to push for authenticity in how we understand our history. If not, we'll lose the forest for the trees. Online discussions are plagued by the fact that it's hard to tell who you can trust as a reliable source when most users have anonymous handles. Unless you know someone personally, it's hard to trust their words. So second-hand and third-hand sources start on equal footing in an online debate, by default. These discussions get heated and we don't know where to turn. Is there a way to check this? Ebay has its users rate other users based on the helpfulness and reliability of their reviews. If we used something like this in online historical discussions, we would be using crowd-sourcing to help us traffic the information flow.

Another solution is to gather the most reliable and articulate voices on street dance culture in a conference setting. Then, encourage them to debate and create a narrative together for our history. Perhaps there is no endgame to this strategy. We may still get a handful of histories. But the practice of regularly debating and discussing history in the pursuit of plausible accounts brings a little more clarity. However, there's very little financial incentive these days to do something like this so perhaps this is why we haven't seen it done on a large scale.

Is an endgame possible? Can we create one authoritative narrative for the many styles within street dance culture that becomes the historical foundation for future generations? That's a difficult task. But seeking authenticity is necessary. We need it in order to empower the future generation with knowledge so they can take the dance further.

Reaching The Point of No Return

There comes a point in every freestyle dancer's journey where you realize that there's no turning back. Everything that once mattered seems to melt away. And suddenly, you've become innately aware of who you are when you move. We spend many hours training and sharpening our technique. We study and analyze our role models. And we stay up late at night until the early hours of the morning, dreaming about how to express our souls through our artform. You know how this feels if you've been there. How naked it feels to bare your soul. Somehow, you've now become your own dancer. You're authentic and putting your true self out there.

This seems to be the Holy Grail that all freestyle dancers search for. We seek originality but it's hard to find. And in a media-drenched, hyper-visualized world; it's hard to step away from the digital noise and find yourself. But maybe it's not so hard if we take time to reflect and explore our souls in solitude and private quarters. Writers can jot their thoughts down in a stream-of-consciousness manner. Musicians can jam in long fits of inspiration. As dancers, we groove and explore movement concepts that are shaped by the music around us. Let's celebrate the power of finding yourself in the quietness.

Take a look at the mirror. You may see a reflection, but it's only that. Take a closer look and you'll see glimpses of your soul as you keep gazing. It's hard to look deeply, especially with someone else when we are challenged to be intimate. When you dance, can you imagine staring into the mirror and seeing your soul's reflection? It's an abstract concept but one that makes sense when you let yourself go. Celebrate that moment when you encounter it. Treasure it in your heart. There may be the beginnings of the next phase of your artist's journey. You are coming into your own. You're becoming your own dancer.

The Challenge of Venues

One of the biggest challenges facing event promoters in today's street dance culture is securing venues for events. In Los Angeles, that's half of the battle. While our city is more spread out than New York, finding a desirable venue is tough because many club venues like the Avalon and the Henry Fonda/Music Box Theatre in Hollywood are expensive. Even the most prolific event promoters like Cros One of Freestyle Session had to take his event from the Long Beach Aqua Dome to the neighboring Queen Mary boat in 2004 due to complications with the city officials. For smaller-scale promoters, it's equally challenging because you want to find a venue that has good parking, isn't too far for your audience to drive to, and is affordable within your means. As they say, location, location, location.

Finding a place which has good air conditioning and ventilation is key. Lighting and good power sources are other considerations. Plus proximity to nearby gas stations and restaurants can be helpful especially if dancers want to grab something quick. You also want to secure a venue that has decent sound-proofing so your music doesn't bother the neighbors. It sucks when they have to call the cops to shut down your event. These are all technical considerations to keep in mind.

How easy it would be to have a regular secure location for every event. Los Angeles is a city of transition. There always seems to be a free flow of people in and out of LA, all pursuing different dreams and encountering various realities. New York may be the city that never sleeps. But Los Angeles is the city that never stops moving. Even during the hours of high traffic. What's hard is when we don't have that secure location to build a foundation for our events. Imagine if we did. It would be much easier to direct human traffic to the event so folks don't have to constantly look up addresses for the jam they're going to. They'd know the venue by heart based on past experiences. Familiarity can breed a sense of community because we know what to expect. In a culture which is often defined by fluidity, we could benefit from a little stability. And a lot more organization.

But perhaps that's the nature of life in Los Angeles. Always constantly being in motion. Is there a creative way that we can problem solve the venue issue?

XBox 360's Kinetic "Dance Central" Video Game

We've been keeping our eyes on the motion-control video game technology that Xbox has been developing. At one point, it was called Project Natal. Now, it has debuted as Kinect and it's commercially available. Previous generations of gamers have used controllers to play on earlier consoles. Then, Nintendo popularized the wireless controller with its Wii remote. Now, you don't need a controller with Kinect. When you move your body, use gestures, and speak out loud; this new add-on to the Xbox 360 will track your movements and commands. One of the early Kinect games is Dance Central, which allows gamers to hit specific poses in a rhythm-based game. And this has curious implications on how future generations will perceive dance.

Remember Dance Dance Revolution? In the early 2000s, this was the go-to party game with its shiny dance pad controller. You would tap up, down, left, and right with your feet in various combinations that played on screen. Some folks even elevated the gaming to a form of performance art. In the mid 2000s, Guitar Hero took off and brought rhythm-based gaming to a facsimile of music performance. Playing that game and others like Rock Band allowed anyone to experience the fantasy of being a rock star without every having taking a music lesson. All you had to do was push the buttons. The result? Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people were exposed to a music-playing experience they may never have pursued without hard work and practice. Plus, younger generations were getting exposed to genres of music that didn't require illegal downloading of mp3s online.

So, with Kinect and Dance Central, it looks like a new crowd of gamers are going to embrace a form of choreographed dancing that will be a populist experience. With the level of difficulty set to easy for a game like Dance Central, anyone with the ability to move can simulate a dance experience without ever having to take a class or to train. Will it make better street dancers for the future? Probably not. But it could introduce someone who's completely new to dancing to the joy of movement. And then later, they may move on to taking an actual class or learning a dance style.

One danger is if the public's perception of dancing only gets limited to choreographed dancing. What we see as team choreography on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew or in movies like Step Up 3D is easily digested by the average viewer because it creates a pretty picture on screen. The mainstream public can appreciated choreographed dancing because even if you don't know the moves, you can see how synchronized a group is moving with the music. It's an amazing visual to see a group of people moving as one. But hopefully, we won't forget freestyle dancing when it's done by soloists. This is the heart of street dance culture. And unlike choreographed dancing, it's not always pretty on screen and it can be harder for mainstream audiences to read. Maybe that's what it boils down to: uninformed mainstream audiences are looking for the "cool moves," while street dancers appreciate the feel and groove behind our dance.

This kind of video gaming isn't a bad thing for our culture. Dance Dance Revolution didn't lead to a watering down of street dance. Youtube, Hollywood movies, and reality TV shows have had more of a detrimental effect, or so it could be argued. DDR is a rhythm experience and can't fully encompass the soulful experience that one endures when you freestyle to the music. The same could be said for Dance Central. You're just gaming without a pad or controller. Perhaps we might see certain elements of street dance styles introduced into future renditions of Dance Central. That could be an interesting way to see street dance and gaming culture collide.

Sometimes You Just Want To See People Dancing Together

It's true. Sometimes, you just want to see dancers sharing with each other in a very honest and natural way. Street dancers do it in cyphers. Despite the negativity that brews within inner circles online, we're reminded that our dance styles can still bring people together.

Here's a case in point. On Monday, November 1, 2010; several lockers and waackers got into a cypher for Junko Sasaki (member of The Waackers) at the weekly Homeland session. Junko was returning to her home in Japan after spending a few years here in the U.S. Dancing for her in that cypher was a way to express their love for her. Imagine if a group of singers got together and freestyled some tunes for a friend who was going away. This is the same thing but just with passionate, moving bodies.

You can see the cypher here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynd8uYra6lk

Folks in LA's street dance culture have always seen friends come and go over the years, especially if these friends are from overseas. Visas usually run their course. And there comes a time when our overseas friends must return to their lives back home to start a new chapter. It's sad but true. It's the natural course of our lives. It's a changing of the seasons.

Maybe this cypher video represents something for the rest of us who couldn't attend that night. We all share similar experiences of having to see a friend leave. If only there were ways we could send them off without having to say goodbye. Those friends have had an impact on our lives. Our stories are intertwined with theirs. These bonds are hard to break because they cut so deep.

And yet, as we've heard, life goes on. It always does. With time, new friendships are formed and old ones are renewed. Growing up often means having to say goodbye and knowing even though it hurts, it's still ok.

Who Are The OG 6?

Are the OG street dancers on the West Coast getting more organized? Respected waacker Dallace Ziegler announced that she and a few other OGs like Alpha and Steve "Sugarfoot" Notario are forming a group called The OG 6. They're involved in an all styles dance contest at an auto show in Las Vegas on the weekend of November 27-28, 2010. This is good news. We need the OGs to step up and show a united front. It bodes well for the younger generation to see their elders working together for the greater good.

Perhaps Greg Campbellock Jr's passing earlier this year has something to do with this. Many OG and new school dancers mourned the loss and we've all had to face our own mortality in the ensuing months. We're realizing that this life we have now doesn't last forever. Time is of the essence and we need to mobilize in order to grow the culture from its current state.

We've often talked about the wealth of information and wisdom that the older generation can bestow on the new school dancers. But it's not just dance training. Our culture is a free-flowing, ever-changing community that mirrors the outside world. We're connected as surrogate brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. There's something deeper going on here. If more OGs join forces and present a united front, they would be acknowledging that they prioritize the well-being of their younger generation. Sometimes, a young person just needs to hear that someone believes in them. That spark of hope may just be what they need to unleash something powerful within them.

Digital Archiving Of Street Dance Culture

Why is archiving history so important? When we preserve the past, we have a context to measure our present and to envision our future. We can learn from our mistakes and build upon our successes. An organized effort to archive street dance culture has not been achieved on a widespread, international level. There are individual pockets of archivists preserving photos, transcripts, and film clips but there is no central organizing body. We need it.

Street dance has moved online. Our culture has been digitized and uploaded in frequent video clips, photo streams, and status updates. We're more aware of each other's activities. There's a greater general knowledge that is being shared in digital form. But where do we look online for a one-stop site that has it all archived and contained?

This is a crucial time for archivists in street dance culture. If we don't take action to preserve our culture, we could potentially lose knowledge of who we were. Much of our shared information are on venues that are created by corporate entities: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Picasa, and Google. What if one of these companies goes under? Look at what happened to Geocities in late 2009. This online community of user-generated webpages was created in 1994. Through the mid to late 1990s, Geocities was the place to be to create your own website, collecting an array of sites capturing user's hobbies, activities, and personal profiles. Yahoo! bought Geocities in the late '90s. In the 2000s, we moved on to other sites as the social networking revolution took off. Then, Yahoo! closed Geocities in late 2009. Now, all that personal and cultural data are gone.

The solution? Fortunately, an online organization called the Archive Team has crusaded to archive as much of Geocities as possible in large torrent file now available to the public. Their work will be a historical record of a time when the mainstream public first interacted with the World Wide Web. That kind of information isn't stored in any film, book, or photo album. Those websites are cultural documents that will gain value over time.

What if we lost all of our Youtube videos and our Facebook pictures? Today's generation of street dancers will lose their personal histories online if they haven't archived their data. Social networks come and go, but if we store our cultural history, we can upload and distribute it in other venues for posterity. We need to start a movement to archive our street dance culture because it won't last in these current online sites forever. As dancers, we live in the moment and favor spontaneity. But to further the culture, we need to start thinking long-term. Otherwise, we'll wake up one day and discover that the past fifty years of our lives as dancers have disappeared as quickly as one can push the delete key on a keyboard.