Was At Breakin Convention On Friday And I Have To Say For Me The Highlight Of The Night Was Serial Stepperz.
As They Really Showed The UK Audience What A Real Street Dance Crew Should Look Like!
For Example In This Country Dance “Crews” aka “Performance Groups” Get Caught Up With Trying To Be “Tight” aka “Cheerleader Type Tightness” On Stage And Forget What It Means To Be Tight On Stage As A Street Dance Crew.
*UNITY OF EXPERIENCE, EMOTION, FUN & DANCE!!!!!! NOT MOVEMENT!!! BUT DANCE!!!
Pay Attention People! I’m Using Big Words! DANCE!
A Street Dance Crew Is Made Up Of The Individual Skills Of Each Dancer In The Crew, Thus Making It Unique.
Most People Here Have This Backwards, They Don’t Really Have Any Personal Freestyle Skills Based Around A Specific Street Dance Discipline, Yet They Try To Form A “Street Dance Crew” With The Majority Focus, Of Following The Personalized Choreography Of The Team Leader Thus Creating Clones Of The Leader To Manifest In The Group, Because There Is No Room For Personal Development.
Serial Stepperz Used Choreography, Real Hip Hop & House Dance With A Splash African In There To Spice Things Up And They Smashed The Show To Piece’s!
If You Was There You Would Know!
Jonzi D Himself Got On Stage After And Said I Think This Is The First Time In Breakin Convention History (9years I Think) That I Felt The Audience And Himself Wanted To Get On Stage And Dance With The Performers………………….Anyone Else Find That Weird?
Why Did It Take 9 Years For A Crew To Show The Essence Of What Street Dance Is Mean To Show And Make People Feel????
Each Of The Serial Stepperz Are Dope Individual Dancers And Thats What Makes Them Stronger As A Crew.
Key Thing To Remember That Works Everytime! I Call It The “Street Dance Checker”
When Watching A Street Dance Performance And The Show Doesn’t Make You Dance In Your Seat Then It Ain’t Street Dance lol
The Waacktitioners are the first UK crew to specialise in the Waacking style, we aim to learn, share, and bring a platform for this dance to the UK. We have learnt and continue to seek knowledge from pioneers of the style around the world.
Join us for a workshop to have fun and find your Waacking groove. Whether you‘re a beginner or have trained in the style already, you’ll learn something that you can take away with you and use to develop yourself and your own dance style.
Date: Saturday 23rd October
Time: 3pm-5pm
Venue: Centre Stage Studios Maryland, 1 Gurney Road, E15 1SH
Cost: £5 for 1 hour, £8 for 2 hours
What to expect …
3PM-4PM: History of Waacking
Basic Elements of Waacking including: arm drills, groove, footwork, flicks & grabs, posing, elegance and attitude.
4PM-5PM: Musicality and Creativity in Waacking: a range of creative exercises designed to help you to get comfortable with the basic elements, develop your freestyle and release your inner-waacker before you ‘shake your groove thing’ in a mass Soul Train finale.
Through this workshop we want to pass on what we have learnt so far. We are fully aware that opinions differ on ‘what waacking is’. Through this session we will endeavour to give you an objective insight in to what waacking is, as we have learnt from our many mentors and inspirations. Everything we teach is passed on and/or inspired by the following legendary Waackers and current dancers within the waacking scene: Tyrone Proctor, Ana Sanchez, Victor Manuel, Shabba Doo, Archie Burnett, The Amazing Waack Dancers plus Kumari Suraj, Aus Ninja, Eva Schou, Waackeisha and many others.
This is a fundraising event and the money will go towards bringing Waacking OG’s to London for everyone to learn from and to help our UK scene to grow.
I know some of my posts are late but ya know its done for a good reason or maybe i’m just lazy lol
My trip to New York in one word would be Amazing!!!!
Even though i was there for just one week, i took in a months worth of information and cultural experience .
My overall goal going to New York was was simple to go and experience…………..and experience i did,
Luckily my work with The Smash Bro’z eg. (Trying to raise money for a trip to Las Vegas for a competition) sparked the interest of a man called John Babb who runs the website;
www.experiencemyculture.com
His main interest was my passion for learning and gaining more experiences , so he generously offered to part fund my trip to New York in the hopes i would return with valuable experiences that i can put into practice on my return to the UK
But since i was gonna be in New York around the time of a very well known competition called HDI (House Dance International) I thought i might as well enter that while i was there
So flights booked and i was on my way!
luckily for me the day i arrived in New York was the day of the competition :/ lol Jet Lagged and still giving it my all
Below is the video of my preselection for the Category House Dance at HDI 2010, its only half of it because the memory on my camera was full and i didnt realise but its all good!
Enjoy what little bit i have
I didn’t get through the preselection but still i had fun and it was a worth while experience but next year i feel sorry for the competition :p lol because I’M GONNA COME HARD!!!!!!
Ok battle talk aside as i said before my main goal was to go an experience and luckily for my the friend i was staying with was no other than The Man Himself Byron Cox, a very well know respected dancer who knew his history!!!!
He runs a website called
http://www.housedancer.com/
Which is all about promoting house dance culture! The website is at the forefront of a Company/Group called THDP (The House Dance Project)
The House Dance Project is an effort to share the rich cultural experience associated with Underground Dance Music. The dancers, the DJ and the music together provide a fertile playground for all who genuinely enter the garden. The music and the culture have evolved from its simple beginnings; and the dancer and the dance followed suit. The eccentric dances of the Paradise Garage; the smooth lines of the “Lofters,” and the point of departure at the Sound Factory Bar provided the backdrop to the stylized movement vocabulary known as “house dance.” Throughout the site, we will attempt to educate and illustrate various elements of the culture and hopefully inspire everyone to experience it for him or herself.
So already this project was everything i wanted to be about. Preserving the history and culture of a dance style which brings so much to the table.
Many other things that i knew but became consciously aware of while in NYC was the;
5 Element of House Dance
*Jacking
*Skating
*Footwork
*Stomping
*Lofting
Jacking being the foundation for House Dance and finding out that in the late 80′s, Chip E told the world it was “Time to Jack.” Jacking was a term coined in Chicago for waist-centric launch and recovery dance of house. The Jack represents the control factor in house dance, manipulating the energy by gathering it on the snare and releasing it on the high hat.
It is a playful dance that allows for both bold and discreet movement, in both large and small spaces. The dance uses the entire body, not just the feet. Whether fast or slow, on the floor or in the air, lounge or club, the Jack is the foundation.
So much knowledge was so accessible from pretty much anyone involved in the scene, most of my learning came from the nights we was jamming in the clubs or just speaking with people who were around in the era of the House Dance Movement.
I’ve got to say that i well more in love with Lofting!!!!
Following the trend of social dances in New York, the eccentric dances of Paradise Garage formed the basis for the Loft style of the mid 80’s. As the “New Jersey” sound took hold in New York, the loving reinforcement of the music became the catalyst for the dance form. Clothing and environment played a large part in the styles development. Many practitioners opted for formal attire, including dress shoes and slacks. Many of these dancers opted for spins and footwork instead of fast movements or floor work. Others felt the movement should be natural and the clothes should allow the body to freely interact with the music. This group would often wear athletic shoes and gym attire while challenging the limits of their bodies.
The movements are broken into various sets:
• Soft, flowing, movements accentuating the relationship between the members and the music
• Short footwork with emphasis on the innuendo versus raw speed or power
• Large, athletically challenging movements with emphasis on grace and control
Lofting for me had a certain essence about it that made is mesmerizing to watch and do!
Below are some pictures of me training after Byron’s Class In NYC =]
My aim now is to learn as much as i can from my experiences and bring them back and share them with the wider dance community in Birmingham and The UK since this knowledge isn’t widely distributed.
If I was to sum up the whole competition HHI in Las Vegas in one word, it would be “NotHipHop”
I know your thinking HUH?? But don’t be confused thinking kashmir your wrong “NotHipHop” is two words………weeeelllllll not really! Considering the fact the Hip and Hop are two different words but when put together make ONE and bring you a different meaning entirely
That’s called Street Language, one of the 9 elements of HipHop and I’m usingit to create the word “Not HipHop” because other words simply can’t describe the feeling the competition gave me!
The theme song for this competition pretty much speaks for itself and I’ll post the video of that soon as I recorded it live while I was in las vegas lol some funny stuff :p
Anyways already knowing that this competition was a little commercial because that’s what the majority ofcompetitions in the world are like. And the first thing that gives that away issssssss………. THE MUSIC!
I think the first thing that kinda raised my brow was THE AFTER PARTIES!?!?! they pretty much occurred every night after a days event went by!
In honest words of myself and many other people that was there!
The parties were embarrassing!!
Nothing but commercial music for 99% of the time!!!! This is ment to be one of the official WORLDHIPHOPchampionships After parties and for someone who didn’t know anything about the street or hiphop culture would have come into that room and left thinking “YEAH!! Lady GAGA is HipHop”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! HELL TO THE NO!!!!! “Not HipHop” My Friends!
This poses a pretty large problem for people who know real HipHop and actual cares about the uplifting of the culture because right there you have misrepresented HipHop happening right in front of my eyes!
What made it worse was the dancers and frankly I was very disappointed with the majority of the dancers at this event especially the BBOYS!
They had no sense of music! Don’t get me twisted they had musicality but they had no sense of music! Its different and….
I’ll explain!….. a breakbeat comes on! Bboys go crazy and cyphers start! Next track lady gaga bboys still going crazy un phased by the music and this goes on and on………..who see’s the problem? Yes? No? Come on people work with me,
For those who don’t know the original style of HipHop is BBOYING! So in all respects they should be at the forefront of the HipHop army driving and keeping the culture alive but NO!! There music and culture is being misrepresented rightin front of them and they supported it…. How??? BY DANCING that’s how!
I’m sorry but when that crap came on I stopped moving and so did many others, because they understood what was going on! But many many many people did not!
People may even give the excuse to me! “Arr u can’t dance to this! your ment to be a dancer etc blah blah blah”
If you think that your dumb! Lol
And people think I only listen to hiphop where as if uwent through my ipods you will see I have every genre of music on there and I like music for being music in every form.
So that’s why I always tell people I can dance to anything and if needs be I can smoke people to anything! “My” music”their” music, it don’t matter I’m a dancer full stop.
But the problem was bigger than that! Dancing to it ment you supported it, were as we stopped dancing andcomplained! It even got to the point a few after parties after the first where we had to booo the DJ just to get our point across! After 2 or 3days of the commercial crap enough real hiphop heads managed to start a revolution and booed the resident DJ OFF!!!! and a real DJ was bought in a day before the finals! So we had one good after party of music that reflected the so called title of the competition “World HipHop Dance Championships”
IT ONLY LASTED FOR THAT DAY ( ‘_’)
OK Let your mind wonder from what you’ve just heard as I flash into a different scenario…………..
In the UK ” Not HipHop” competitions there’s a certain craze that’s been going on for a few years now and that the “Sound Effect Era”
Which to be honest annoys the hell out of me and I always knew deep down why but I could never put it into words until my time in Las Vegas.
I was at a HipHop seminar where a man would ask a few OG/Pioneers/2Generation Dancers/HipHop Organisers question regarding HipHop Culture and Dance etc
One of a few comments that stood out to me was regarding soundeffects used in music and was spoken bya “well known” ( ‘_’) dancer and choreographer Shotyme and he gave his reason on why dancers use sound effects in their music, he said, “The thing that is missing in the HipHop Dance Culture today is being replaced by sound effect becausepeople no longer understand the music or how to groove” and I was like “o s**t” it was correct what he was saying……………and……….another person was preaching on the fact that certain television programs and Competitions were killing The Street Dance and HipHop Culture and everyone on the panel was nodding there heads, including Don Cambellock and Boogaloo Sam the inventors Locking and Popping………
I was standing there thinking “What the F**k are you doing here if you think that” the man who is paying you to be at these competitions happened to be the organiser of HHI and America’s Best Dance Crew. The two biggest dance competitions in North America and the exact thing they are complaining about on the panel?!!?/!/(:/
I’m sorry but I was a tad bit confused on what was going on here!
So tell me how we (The Smash Bro’z) were ranked 36th out of 50 countries when we used only 2 dope hiphop tracks, not 10 and with no sound effects, just music groove and dance.
Fair enough it wasn’t the tightest bit of work but given the circumstances on how 2 people dropped out and we had to fly 2 replacements over to vegas last minute to rehearse on the day of our round and still go out and inspire tons of people (NOT THE JUDGES) I think we did well no???
Usually I would say the UK but after vegas I can now confidently say the majority of the worlds “HipHop” dancers focus more on costume, hair, make up, flips and sound effects rather than actually doing HIPHOP on stage! I dunno if its just me but A LOT of HIPHOP and STREET dance shows seem to resemble cheerleading??!!?!? ( ‘_’) am I right or what? Watch some cheerleading on youtube and then some “Street Dance” groups/shows like Diversity or the majority of groups that enter these so called HipHop and Street Dance events you see around the world today, then you’ll see what I’m on about!
In this world the four main elements of HipHop are Flips, Sound Fx, Choreo, Costume. Lol
(Luke ‘TJ’ Lentes)
I call it Urban “Cheerleading” a lot of people call it HipHop or Street Dance! Either way its “NotHipHop”
If I was a pioneer I wouldn’t be too happy with the way things were going “Shoulder Popping”, “Pointless Uncle Sam Points”, “King Tut” or “Finger Tut” for a whole routine, flipping and flapping arms about to added sound effects :/
Music is so beautiful and vast that to me I don’t need to add anything to music because I understand it for what it is! There is no excuse for adding a sound effect into a song. And some people said that our piece wasn’t artistic enough?? Huh?? Really?? Well what is artistic? Something that looks visually entertaining or innovation while still keeping to the foundation of the dance? And I’m referring to a group called “Pro Phenomenon” from france! Youtube them.)
Cheerleading to sound effects isn’t artistic its wack! Because in an actual sense everyone who is moving to a sound effect is dancing off beat!!! Right? Because its not music so if I popped in a silent part of the music that would be considered popping off beat so why is it ok to do it with a sounds effect?
To me it just shows a lack of understanding of MUSIC!
And that should be a dancers one true purpose….
The relationship between Dancer & Music is Key!!!!!
A few more issues I wanna raise and one is the lack of socialization between countries :/
I went over there looking to mingle like a pringle lol
Only to find people not returning my hello’s, waves or smiles! I got bare air time
For me the best part about travelling to competitions abroad is to talk to people (maybe because I don’t win many competitions :p lol) anyways talking to new people helps to build a stronger network and dance community but instead people just stuck to their groups and walked, talked, ate and chilled together!
As soon as I got to the hotel which was around 12.30am lol I wanted to meet people, but I found that everyone wasn’t as open as I was and this was the case for a few days but for some other people it lasted the whole competition!
Can’t say I’m dead surprised because the HipHop and Street dance culture nowadays are perceived as anti social people always walking around with Headphones on etc
Yes HipHop wasn’t spawned from love, flowers and pretty things! HipHop was born from the oppression of black and latino people and they didn’t all have nice backgrounds, some were drug dealers, street hustlers etc and obviously had a certain attitude about how they carried themselves.
So I think modern day HipHop and Street Dancers try to put it on without actually coming from the background because obviously things have changed and now that HipHop attitude has been substituted for arrogance and that helps no one!!!!
Last issue I think and its mainly for the UK!!!!
FREESTYLING!!!!
IF YOU DONT FREESTYLE THEN YOU ARE NOT A HIPHOP OR STREET DANCER! FULL STOP!
And I’ll tell you why!
WITHOUT FREESTYLE THERE WOULD BE NO HIPHOP OR STREET DANCE!
Freestyle is the essence of HipHop Culture and without it, it can not grow or innovate.
Ballet has been around for hundreds of years and its still the same! HipHip has been around for 37 years and look how much it has changed since its conception!!!!!!
Its amazing isn’t it????
I never usually compare dance styles because I LOVE all forms of dance and try to do as much as I can including ballet but a few days ago while teaching, a mother came up to me and asked me to tell her little daughter why its important to be individual and an answer popped into my head that I never thought of before and I used ballet as an example. I said:
” The individuality of HipHop makes it perfect for human’s state of mind because with ballet its stressful, because ballet technique is all the same and there is no individuality because of it, the only way to be individual is to be better than everyone! “Be The Best” which makes the dance very stressful because of competitive levels, where as with HipHop its not about being the best its about being DIFFERENT! You don’t have to be the best to be the best! we as a hiphop culture don’t judge on the who is better at the technique but who takes the technique and does something amazing with it! So there is no stress, well there shouldn’t be lol
I’m not really finished with this post but for now its concluded and I’ll add all the other stuff soon
Hope its given people something to think about?
BASS Festival Double Bill of Hip hop and B-Boy dance:
Insanity Isn’t and Fresh Genes
25 June
Live @ mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham
£10 / £7 concessions
Smash Bro’z new dance piece Fresh Genes depicts the journey and discovery of a young scientist who is on a mission to find a cure for the misrepresentation of Hip Hop in the UK. The scientists then discover a new gene – the ‘Hip Hop’ gene. West Midlands based Hip Hop dance collective Smash Bro’z recently won first prize in the 2010 UK Hip Hop Dance Championships.
Insanity Isn’t, written & Performed by US based Rudi Goblen tells the story of Acey who, whilst trying to sleep through the American dream instead wakes to an American nightmare. He finds himself plagued by financial burdens, media propaganda, religious beliefs, keeping up with the Jones’, and apocalyptic prophecies. B-Boy movements, rhyme, beat box and live music weave together his journey back to insane sanity.
www.macarts.co.uk
BASS Festival Double Bill of Hip hop and B-Boy dance:Insanity Isn’t and Fresh Genes25 JuneLive @ mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham£10 / £7 concessionsSmash Bro’z new dance piece Fresh Genes depicts the journey and discovery of a young scientist who is on a mission to find a cure for the misrepresentation of Hip Hop in the UK. The scientists then discover a new gene – the ‘Hip Hop’ gene. West Midlands based Hip Hop dance collective Smash Bro’z recently won first prize in the 2010 UK Hip Hop Dance Championships.Insanity Isn’t, written & Performed by US based Rudi Goblen tells the story of Acey who, whilst trying to sleep through the American dream instead wakes to an American nightmare. He finds himself plagued by financial burdens, media propaganda, religious beliefs, keeping up with the Jones’, and apocalyptic prophecies. B-Boy movements, rhyme, beat box and live music weave together his journey back to insane sanity.
Just letting you know that I’ll be entering House Dance UK today in london represting Birmingham/UK.
If you in london and can make it down then do so because its going to be a dope night
Info is below.
SUNDAY 20TH JUNE
9PM-3AM
@MADAME JOJO’S
( PICCADILLY CIRCUS STATION )
1VS1 HOUSE DANCE BATTLE £300 & BAG OF GOODIES TO WIN
or maybe i’m just lazy lol
but its all good!
