Disney Channel's "Shake It Up"

Recently, the Disney Channel premiered a tween-female buddy comedy series set in the world of a Chicago area dance show called Shake It Up. A few familiar faces from LA's professional dance scene have appeared including BBoy Monster (Luis Rosado) and members of Quest Crew. While the show is a sitcom following the misadventures of its two female leads, we have to wonder what impact a show like this could have on a young generation of TV viewers. After all, in the past ten years, we haven't seen any high-profile narrative-driven storylines on primetime or cable networks. We've mostly been inundated with reality shows like Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. Are we going to see more dance-driven narrative series on the horizon?

Shake It Up captured 6.2 million viewers with its premiere, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's the second highest premiere for the channel behind the 2006 premiere of Hannah Montana. With heavy promotions that included releasing the premiere episode on iTunes, Disney is clearly putting marketing muscle behind the show to give it some legs. It's a clever strategy since the channel relies on grooming future young stars that are triple threats in acting, singing, and dance. So for a generation of pre-teen and tweens out there, a show like Shake It Up can glamorize aspects of the dance lifestyle, making it more accessible to a mainstream audience.

We're not sure yet how Shake It Up will handle the cultural education of dance to the masses. For now, at least in its premiere episode, dance education isn't on its agenda. It's not that kind of show. Like another Disney Channel hit Sonny With A Chance, Shake It Up adopts the "show within a show" format that places its viewers in an aspirational environment. Some kids idolized Hannah Montana for her lifestyle of being a modern day pop princess. With Sonny With A Chance and Shake It Up, there's a subtle nudging towards creating a colorful, enticing vision of the entertainment industry. It makes Hollywood look kid-friendly.

Perhaps Shake It Up could become a vehicle for new viewers to get exposed to different dance styles. If a kid sees BBoy Monster for the first time on the show, will she be inspired to learn how to do a six-step? Let's hope that the casting folks on this show are keen to expose our young dance fans to some fresh talent. Like American Bandstand and Soul Train, this Disney Channel show might be one in a long line of TV gems that inspire kids to get up and dance.

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.