I just watched Ben's Aus Ninja interview, and am a little worked up over it. I don't know if this is what Ben would call hate for it, but it's definitely a big Dislike. First of all, it's segregationist, exclusivist to make declarations like "I'm from the streets" (i.e. you're from the studio), "I'm in the underground culture in New York" (i.e. you're a Caucasian wannabe from Los Angeles). To say things like "I know Stretch", "I know the history", "the Underground [which Ben capitalizes] is always going to keep the true information and the real information" just sounds gnostic and wack. The conspiracy theory about the origins of "LA hip hop", credit being stolen from "the original people", doesn't help either. If all hip hop is New York, what of the clowning and krumping in LA? If hip hop cannot be robotic, what about the popping and tutting from Fresno? A freestyle dance doesn't create lines? Voguing and waacking, neither?
This is partly a debate on terminology, what is or is not "hip hop", what is "the real hip hop" (Yuck). On the one hand, it's just a name. What you show and do is ultimately the pudding proof. On the other, if you really care so much about the name, please, by all means, take it, put a patent on it. I've always hesitated and struggled to answer people who ask what style of dance I do anyway. "Hip hop" is usually a convenient reply. Shall I spend half an hour enlightening whomever I meet on the topic? Hand out tracts with the URL to this Educational video?
You know what, this is hate. Hate for your hate, Aus Ninja, big disrespect for your disrespect of fellow humans, dancers you refuse to acknowledge and choose to reject. You vote for a divisive, closed culture, built along apartheid lines. We're not dumb. We are aware of the underground, the streets you so cherish, and our exclusion from it. I don't believe that the "Underground" is the only place of creation. What's the difference between sessioning in "some basement" and sessioning at Studio Wu? What is the difference between sessioning at UCC Dance Studio and AS7? There is space for the streets, the studio, the stage, the freestyler, the choreographer, the student, the "robot". I just would rather live and breathe in a world that is inclusive, that celebrates creativity wherever and whoever the source, that allows the blurring of boundaries. Thank you for what you started and created in the underground. It was a product of your personal situation. But don't hate on those who reside in a totally different context, and denounce them as being unable to participate in and contribute to the art of dance.
3 comments:
Like I said over FB I didn't like the video, but not to the extent that you didn't like it (but then I have a far lower starting opinion of Aus Ninja). I didn't actually see an out-and-out denouncement of studio dancers as incapable of contributing to the dance scene, but found video icky anyway.
Honestly, I failed to see how the video was an "education". Did it go beyond a combination of name-dropping, especially gratuitous near the end (which I think even Ben realised since he started rolling the credits), and a sketchy history lesson? Beyond the mouthing of platitudes?
It's not that he didn't have a point when he spoke of the divide between the "authentic" street dancers and the-- well, the "cleaned-up" studio version, for want of a better word. I think it's especially stark in SG because portions of the divide seem almost racially-dominated at times. But I don't think this divide is uncrossable, or that the "Underground" is so very clearly defined as all that. Our street dancers cross easily into the studio-- think Mazlan, think Maliq. I would say there are some of our peers who traverse both arenas easily-- to the point where you question if there is a need to strictly delineate the two. Plus-- street dancers don't necessarily only freestyle. Does the fact that, say, a bboy works out a sequence of combos make him less of a streetdancer?? Because he doesn't freestyle purely??
In a way I get what you mean when you speak of a struggle to define exactly what sort of dance it is you do. It is so easy to slap a label on anything-- in the sense that any person can say they do hip hop or street but that covers such a wide scope, both qualitatively and stylistically. Perhaps Aus Ninja is fusing the idea of dance with the entirety of lifestyle, if what he has in mind are places where dance exists only and purely underground, where hip hop/popping/boogaloo/whatever is a way of living and not just a dance style. Perhaps that's what he is saying when he purports to take street dancers more seriously?
The instructor for the waacking workshop I took in Sweden highly highly highly recommended Imperial House of Waacking. But if dance is as much about mental attitude as technique and practice and training, I'm not so sure I personally can accept this imperiousness. :S another factor against going for his workshops!
hey fred, just came across yr blog after some facebook whoring and additional clicks :) love yr writing, and totally have to agree with you on this post. i came off the video thinking, huh? i get the msg abt giving credit where it's due but what's with all the hating? if your dance gives pleasure to yourself and others, it's definitely legit in my opinion. in the near future, maybe the classes you go to or the classes you teach won't need to be classified anymore, and will just be on a first name basis, like "Fred, 4.30pm-5.30pm, Level 1, bring shoes" that kinda thing. Ha! :) keep dancing!
omg candy i just saw this. hello! "bring shoes" LOL.
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