The “I” In “Ego”
The “I” In “EGO”
For a while now a lot of people have been saying that the issues I’ve been raising about the UK scene and the state it’s in, have been negative and doesn’t show UK in a good light to people here and abroad.
Well people the issues are the issues and if you prefer to sit back and focus on the “positive” which in my eyes is simply just exsitisting within the community and reaping the benefits of the hard work the generations that came before us have done, then go right ahead, but I choose a different path.
Instead of sitting back and focussing on the “positive” aspects of the scene I choose to point out the issues (aka the negative in some people’s eyes) that everyone seems to ignore.
These certain things are stopping the growth and preservation of something I love!
The Street Dance Kulture.
Part of the problem in this scene is the attitude of dancers who are meant to be the pillars of our society yet they have a certain passive nature when it comes to addressing issues within there own community.
You hear it a lot from a bunch of different people.
“Dance for yourself, I dance for me, I love dance, I love music, I dance to express myself, people learn a little foundation and they get an ego! People starting politics are just letting there ego’s get in the way” etc
Hmm so let’s take a look at the word ego shall we.
Ego is a Latin word meaning “I”, cognate with the Greek “Εγώ (Ego)” meaning “I”, often used in English to mean the “self”, “identity” or other related concepts.
Interesting right? Hahahahaha
Saying all this is fine because dance is expression through movement and you can do that all day to whatever the fuck you want and however the fuck you want!
No one is complaining about that.
But when we start to use words under the umbrella of Street Dance Like; Popping, Locking, BBoying, Hip Hop, House, Waacking, Vogueing, Krump etc
You are the adopting more than just a DANCE!
Your adopting History, Music, Foundations, Culture!
Things the generations before you have left behind for YOU!………US!
And you have to represent that if these are the titles you wish to take on as a dancer or a teacher/educator.
I know we/ I am not perfect and I was once one of the people just taking the labels without actually understanding what they meant to promote my classes etc
But now there are enough people around who know and can begin making a change, because we now need to set a standard not jut for ourself but so that can be passed down for the later generations, otherwise it will die!
Now going back to the whole “I” mentality and the other problems it faces.
[pause]
Just because something has been or is a certain way ie the whole commercialised “streetdance” and “hiphop” problem within the UK, which to most people say isn’t a problem for the underground community as it doesn’t effect us at all and nothing WE do can change it.
Notice how I used WE a moment ago.
In actual fact people aren’t judging the situation with the idea of a collective body in mind they are just thinking about there own values and the personally inflicted limitations they have put upon themselves.
And are now judging other people based on this.
Never Judge A Person Based Upon The Assumption Of Your Own Abilities And Will Power.
Kashmir D. Leese
If we always think of I and never as WE.
As in WE as a collective community.
Nothings will ever change, Because everyone is too busy dancing for themselves and there own endeavours.
You think of your selfs as single individuals without the power to change a thing so you sit back and chill as the world comes crumbling down.
Think about it….it’s the same way the government controls society.
Who gives power to the government? We do! The people! Without us they cant do shit.
Because as a collective we are stronger than just ourselves.
[pausex2]
Another attitude
“if people wanna find the real stuff they will find it”
This is something I’ve heard on a few occasions.
So………
In a world were your constantly being falsely told that this is hip hop and this is street dance, saying that it’s solely down to the person to find out the truth is a bit of a joke.
Because saying such a thing would imply that, the person actually has a conscious choice in the matter.
Were in actual fact they don’t!
Because why would you look for something you already think you have?
Most people are what I call “surface lookers”
Basically looking at the surface of something like a word, for example; hip hop dance.
They walk into a class advertised as hip hop where someone is teaching personalised choreography (not the actual foundations of hip hop) and are doing it to pop charts (and not hip hop music) and the people accept it as this because they are expecting the teacher to know what they are talking about.
Being a teacher is a position of authority and as a teacher you should know what your teaching and that’s what people expect from a teacher.
Not everyone goes to a class and then goes home to research in depth what they just learnt, some people need help.
So I’ll say it again, why would you look for something you already think you have?
[pausex3] the last I promise :p
As a black empathic man I’ve done my fair bit of research of the things my people have been through.
And it hurts me to see how much we take for granted in this day and age.
Education and the preservation of our cultural aspects of life should be treated as gold because knowledge is power! Words are power!
Why do you think the slaves were never taught or allowed to read?
Because knowledge and words are power!
Why is it that we still think Hip Hop is just a trend?
Because of we all figure out that it’s more than that then it’s more power to the people (all races) and we can’t have that can we?
Remember this is more that just a dance so don’t tell me words, terminology’s aren’t important when a word can help you better understand the feeling, energy and history behind a movement, therefore giving you a greater understanding of the movement, which in turn will help you better express yourself.
I love dance, music and people!
But I don’t just dance for myself, I dance for the preservations of my/our dance culture.
Kashmir D. Leese
