Definition of a Dancer
April 26th 2006 13:35
Definition of a Dancer
I've been thinking... on how many people see hip hop dancers...
example 1, a person asked me how i make my moves, i.e. "which clips do you copy?"
example 2 "i love doing hip hop....its so relaxing after a tap class... a chance to mellow out"
example 3 "wow you dance? are you part of *insert group name here* "
example 4 " yeah im with this crew. im a dancer. we did this show at *yadayada* one time"
now, lets take a look at the definition of a dancer in the terms of hip hop
in HIP HOP dance, dancers originated as soloists, that is, individual dancers with amazing skills, some that often banded together to form extremely well known crews, such as Rock steady crew in NYC, or the Electric Boogaloos in California.
To consider yourself a dancer, to do routines is not enough. you must have individual ability to move to the music. You must have personal skills, wether good or bad. if you cannot move by yourself when music comes on, then you are not a dancer. you do predetermined moves to the music, moves that can be "cut and pasted" to other songs. You must let the music move you, dance with a personal connection to the music you are dancing to.
for example one....i find it strange how people assume that hip hop dance is all the same. that movements cannot originate anymore. People thought for decades that new dance styles could not emerge. a perfect example is the recent emergence of krumping. a definite new style to each other hip hop style, yet influenced by all styles. Why can i not find inspiration for my own moves? why must i have bitten moves from video clips? the truth is that a lot of so called "dancers" give true dancers a bad name. By biting and reusing old moves from movies and videos, instead of letting their own skills influence them. True dancers, although some times their moves may resemble others that you have seen, it is on a personal level that they create those movement sequences. This is not biting, this is (to borrow from biology) something i call convergent choreography. dancers interperet music and move their bodies in similar ways, and thus similarities occur.
a personal practice session, that is,attempt to improve skills, by a guy in cali
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6F3xQVZ1Cmk
for example 2 i will say this. If you do not have the passion for hip hop dance, if it is just a relaxation session for you, then you are not a hip hop dancer. its all well and good that you relax with it, it helps you feel good. but dont characterise yourself as a dancer if you do not strive for improvement in your style. this is for ANY kind of dance. true dancers have styles that they train HARD for. they train and practice and spend time perfecting their art and improving. because they WANT TO. they do it because that is their passion. you are not a dancer if all you do is bite moves and do not attempt to develop your own skills.
this is a tap dance group that is GOOD. i know nothing about tapping, but you can see the devotion that these people have had to bring together a routine this well. http://youtube.com/watch?v=49zR2s-fy2I&search=tap%20dance
on the other hand, a group like the Animated Beat Mechanics, a hip hop group, popping to be precise, train hard to get to this position, and practice together to reach that level of interaction and skill
http://youtube.com/watch?v=504sgP1RBwg
ive made my point.... number 3....
a dancER is not the same as a dance CREW. e.g. for a competition like groove for example, you see a lot of crews coming together. many of thm ignorant about actual hip hop dance. you have to know where you've been to know where you're headed. heres a simple way
GROOVE or BATTLEGROUNDS - Dance crews, audience that knows nothing about dancing, judging panels that consist of 20% actual dancers, the rest are get this... magazine editors, record label reps, and associates of the organisers.
DANCEKOOL or BATTLEZONE - audience that consists of dancers and hip hop enthusiasts such as Dj's and Mc's. Judges of renowned dancing capability, e.g. DK15, poppin sam, member of the electric boogaloo family. that name means nothing to a lot of you, but trust me. thats credentials.
why would a magazine editor know ANYTHING about dancing, or a record rep for that matter. stick to keeping the judges as actual dancers, you will encourage groups to improve better. not trying to advvertise but on personal preference, id rather go to dancekool than groove anyday. granted the venue is smaller and less widely known, but as if i care. the dancers there have SKILL. bboys, lockers, poppers, krumpers. you name it. personal skill. devoted dancers who aspire to greatness and perfection in their art.
Shows like groove and battlegrounds encourage the plague of the hip hop scene right now. pretty boy dancers, and sexy girl dancers. not people who attempt to dance well, but people who want to be known. groups full of people who bite moves and do routines of simple moves that do not improve, and have no personal dancing ability besides ass shaking and grinding. not naming names of dance crews, if you're reading you already know who you are, but many pretty boy groups have no clue of how crap they actually are. they are encouraged by this SHIT judging panels, who see attractive people with bitten moves, and immediately praise them. a real dance panel would see the group's finer discrepancies, bitten moves, cliche moves, unoriginality, attempt to get crowd reactions, lack of individual style and passion for dance.
heres a crew that a lot of you so called "dancers" would not have heard of. but tell me if you think just because you won a biased porrly judged competition, it makes you able to battle these people
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ckiJO0ACVbY
finally number FOUR. the groups thatget big on themselves after winning or getting good places on one of these badly judged shows. or the groups that do 2 shows, or have homeground advantage in their suburbs of being well known and immediately get big on themselves. they go "yeah im in this dance crew *insert name here*."
heres a statement to them. I dont giv a shit about your crew. if you cant dance and do not have the right attitude, then i have no respect for you. if all you do is simple routines with no style that remain the same performance after performance, we cant even talk dance.
there are groups that have been dancing for 5 months that think they are the shit. literally, they think they can step to anyone that comes their way. i've battled these guys. they do an usher walk, shake, do a stupid ass krump, and then walk off. no skill involved. just an ability to be an asslicking copycat. They walk off the dancefloor either getting cheered on by their ignorant ass friends, or shamed at how easily a real dancer was able to beat them.
older generation dancers have no respect for cocky young cats, and i learned that early.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4nifYQAdBFY
then there are groups who have been dancing for years, and show no sign of cockiness. Dancers who do nothing but give assistance to dancers who are beginning, but have the correct attitude of wanting to improve. Groups like Nu skool, who teach regularly and allow beginners to build up their skills and be introduced into the hip hop scene with the correct attitudes. people from groups like groovesteps, who despite having KILLED a competition, walked away backstage thinking that they had not placed. i wont name individual dancers, lest i show favoritism, but those groups are but a first example of crews i have immense respect for. HUMILITY. a real dancer realises that they will ALWAYS be a student, and have no right to act cocky simply because they are well known in their area. A friend asked me why my group doesnt do crowd pleasing songs or routines. because we dont dance for the crowd. we dance for us. simple, big, slow moves are not our style, and loud hype songs are not our style. we do as we do. we don;t care that barely anyone knows who sneaker pimps are. we just dance.
If you have just started dancing, or have been dancing for awhile, if you have that respect for the dance, and humility, and most of all, the ability to recognise other true dancers, then you have my respect.
i dont claim to have perfected my art, nor do i claim to even have good skills. i dont have diverstiy of styl, im not well known, and i do not have complete confidence in my abilities. but one thing i can claim.
I Am A Dancer
-Chux
note 1 please excuse any spelling mistakes or typos, i rushed it. grammar should be good though.
I've been thinking... on how many people see hip hop dancers...
example 1, a person asked me how i make my moves, i.e. "which clips do you copy?"
example 2 "i love doing hip hop....its so relaxing after a tap class... a chance to mellow out"
example 3 "wow you dance? are you part of *insert group name here* "
example 4 " yeah im with this crew. im a dancer. we did this show at *yadayada* one time"
now, lets take a look at the definition of a dancer in the terms of hip hop
in HIP HOP dance, dancers originated as soloists, that is, individual dancers with amazing skills, some that often banded together to form extremely well known crews, such as Rock steady crew in NYC, or the Electric Boogaloos in California.
To consider yourself a dancer, to do routines is not enough. you must have individual ability to move to the music. You must have personal skills, wether good or bad. if you cannot move by yourself when music comes on, then you are not a dancer. you do predetermined moves to the music, moves that can be "cut and pasted" to other songs. You must let the music move you, dance with a personal connection to the music you are dancing to.
for example one....i find it strange how people assume that hip hop dance is all the same. that movements cannot originate anymore. People thought for decades that new dance styles could not emerge. a perfect example is the recent emergence of krumping. a definite new style to each other hip hop style, yet influenced by all styles. Why can i not find inspiration for my own moves? why must i have bitten moves from video clips? the truth is that a lot of so called "dancers" give true dancers a bad name. By biting and reusing old moves from movies and videos, instead of letting their own skills influence them. True dancers, although some times their moves may resemble others that you have seen, it is on a personal level that they create those movement sequences. This is not biting, this is (to borrow from biology) something i call convergent choreography. dancers interperet music and move their bodies in similar ways, and thus similarities occur.
a personal practice session, that is,attempt to improve skills, by a guy in cali
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6F3xQVZ1Cmk
for example 2 i will say this. If you do not have the passion for hip hop dance, if it is just a relaxation session for you, then you are not a hip hop dancer. its all well and good that you relax with it, it helps you feel good. but dont characterise yourself as a dancer if you do not strive for improvement in your style. this is for ANY kind of dance. true dancers have styles that they train HARD for. they train and practice and spend time perfecting their art and improving. because they WANT TO. they do it because that is their passion. you are not a dancer if all you do is bite moves and do not attempt to develop your own skills.
this is a tap dance group that is GOOD. i know nothing about tapping, but you can see the devotion that these people have had to bring together a routine this well. http://youtube.com/watch?v=49zR2s-fy2I&search=tap%20dance
on the other hand, a group like the Animated Beat Mechanics, a hip hop group, popping to be precise, train hard to get to this position, and practice together to reach that level of interaction and skill
http://youtube.com/watch?v=504sgP1RBwg
ive made my point.... number 3....
a dancER is not the same as a dance CREW. e.g. for a competition like groove for example, you see a lot of crews coming together. many of thm ignorant about actual hip hop dance. you have to know where you've been to know where you're headed. heres a simple way
GROOVE or BATTLEGROUNDS - Dance crews, audience that knows nothing about dancing, judging panels that consist of 20% actual dancers, the rest are get this... magazine editors, record label reps, and associates of the organisers.
DANCEKOOL or BATTLEZONE - audience that consists of dancers and hip hop enthusiasts such as Dj's and Mc's. Judges of renowned dancing capability, e.g. DK15, poppin sam, member of the electric boogaloo family. that name means nothing to a lot of you, but trust me. thats credentials.
why would a magazine editor know ANYTHING about dancing, or a record rep for that matter. stick to keeping the judges as actual dancers, you will encourage groups to improve better. not trying to advvertise but on personal preference, id rather go to dancekool than groove anyday. granted the venue is smaller and less widely known, but as if i care. the dancers there have SKILL. bboys, lockers, poppers, krumpers. you name it. personal skill. devoted dancers who aspire to greatness and perfection in their art.
Shows like groove and battlegrounds encourage the plague of the hip hop scene right now. pretty boy dancers, and sexy girl dancers. not people who attempt to dance well, but people who want to be known. groups full of people who bite moves and do routines of simple moves that do not improve, and have no personal dancing ability besides ass shaking and grinding. not naming names of dance crews, if you're reading you already know who you are, but many pretty boy groups have no clue of how crap they actually are. they are encouraged by this SHIT judging panels, who see attractive people with bitten moves, and immediately praise them. a real dance panel would see the group's finer discrepancies, bitten moves, cliche moves, unoriginality, attempt to get crowd reactions, lack of individual style and passion for dance.
heres a crew that a lot of you so called "dancers" would not have heard of. but tell me if you think just because you won a biased porrly judged competition, it makes you able to battle these people
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ckiJO0ACVbY
finally number FOUR. the groups thatget big on themselves after winning or getting good places on one of these badly judged shows. or the groups that do 2 shows, or have homeground advantage in their suburbs of being well known and immediately get big on themselves. they go "yeah im in this dance crew *insert name here*."
heres a statement to them. I dont giv a shit about your crew. if you cant dance and do not have the right attitude, then i have no respect for you. if all you do is simple routines with no style that remain the same performance after performance, we cant even talk dance.
there are groups that have been dancing for 5 months that think they are the shit. literally, they think they can step to anyone that comes their way. i've battled these guys. they do an usher walk, shake, do a stupid ass krump, and then walk off. no skill involved. just an ability to be an asslicking copycat. They walk off the dancefloor either getting cheered on by their ignorant ass friends, or shamed at how easily a real dancer was able to beat them.
older generation dancers have no respect for cocky young cats, and i learned that early.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4nifYQAdBFY
then there are groups who have been dancing for years, and show no sign of cockiness. Dancers who do nothing but give assistance to dancers who are beginning, but have the correct attitude of wanting to improve. Groups like Nu skool, who teach regularly and allow beginners to build up their skills and be introduced into the hip hop scene with the correct attitudes. people from groups like groovesteps, who despite having KILLED a competition, walked away backstage thinking that they had not placed. i wont name individual dancers, lest i show favoritism, but those groups are but a first example of crews i have immense respect for. HUMILITY. a real dancer realises that they will ALWAYS be a student, and have no right to act cocky simply because they are well known in their area. A friend asked me why my group doesnt do crowd pleasing songs or routines. because we dont dance for the crowd. we dance for us. simple, big, slow moves are not our style, and loud hype songs are not our style. we do as we do. we don;t care that barely anyone knows who sneaker pimps are. we just dance.
If you have just started dancing, or have been dancing for awhile, if you have that respect for the dance, and humility, and most of all, the ability to recognise other true dancers, then you have my respect.
i dont claim to have perfected my art, nor do i claim to even have good skills. i dont have diverstiy of styl, im not well known, and i do not have complete confidence in my abilities. but one thing i can claim.
I Am A Dancer
-Chux
note 1 please excuse any spelling mistakes or typos, i rushed it. grammar should be good though.
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