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 Bay has alot of its talented dancers that move to LA to chase after a "career" in dance. Which from the elders I have talked to, has been undermined due to the abundance of studio dancers willing to work for little pay. This type of hopes and dreams story corrupts alot of freestyle dancers in a "particular scene". I've known many "dance only" type of nomads in my life, in America, LA is one of the only places these people can actually work and make a living. When you have this type of living necessity mixed in with the culture (to put it plainly) shit gets fucked up. But along the lines of "same old event, same mistakes being made" your absolutely right. "Street dance" cultures are not doomed to be underground. The events are certainly very much the same, mistakes are still being made; however, there are more of them and with greater substance (in LA) - thats for sure. Also recognize that I am speaking about freestyle based dance scenes :). "Street Dance" is such a narrow term...kind of like "Urban Dance". When someone says "Street" all i think is BBoy. All the other club/underground dances were never done in the streets like bboyin revolutionized.
ReplyDeleteNone the less great post. I'm not from LA, never spent alot of time in LA just visit here and there and have alot of family from/ current living there. In general I compare the freestyle dance scene with that of Europe, which I have seen EXPLODE over the past 10 years, shit their events are starting to leak int the US. I hope I didn't misinterpret your article. Again, thanks for sharing :)
-Co FLO (Soulshifters, Circle of Fire, FLO-ology)