what is hip-hop dance [Music] attention incredible attention attention origins the Hellfire is as pretty as still as a general question because you're going to come up with all different types of answers the party jams in the Bronx is the origins that some people are saying you know with the emcee is on what the b-boys independent really depends who you ask and from what wealth of life you're coming you we do know that in the language of wool off which is spoken in Senegal Gambia that the word hippie H IPI or H epi means to be aware to open one eyes to be knowledgeable been Herson the founder of Fairtrade record label nomadic wax argues that Africa is the true birthplace of hip-hop he says hip-hop is the missing connection between the US and Africa John Leland kicks off his educating new book hip the history with a seductive saying the word hip derives from the West African language roll on and was cultivated by slaves from West Africa there's just one problem the etymology is wrong the origin of hip and its partner hip the words are related is unsatisfying Lee unknown the term first appeared at the turn of the 20th century and quickly became widespread its meaning that this early point was aware in the know and it was not widely used by african-americans there is some debate as to whether the origins of the word hip as we now know it come from Wolof language because there's this gap where some of the scholars are saying that the word hip didn't come around until the early 20s or mid 20s but be that as it may whatever the argument is the definition of the word to me still applies to what we consider hip which is to be aware of what's going on so if you had that definition in West Africa in the mid 20s or early 20s with the Jazz era where all the jazz musicians coming up with jive talk in that they would say that they were hep a GP and you were a hep cat at one point because you knew you know what ban was hot what style of clothing was was good what clubs were popular and so on - now we still have the word hip and even from the 70s you know you were a hit person huh and with hip-hop you have hop which in any language that has the word other than the verb action it was connected to dance so for me when I hear hip-hop I think a knowledgeable person or knowledgeable people coming together in celebration not just dance but you know for an heiress or suggesting that the term held from the phrase to have one's hip boots on which meant to be prepared there unlike the origins the phrase to be on the hip referred to the customary position of smoking two three four obvious problem with the etymology such as the fact that wall up does not generally use the letter H we're ignored the wording question is actually spelled X I PPI it's not exactly what Afrika Bambaataa meant when he coined the term hip hop for the culture I believe in 81 82 but you also had other people saying it again you will find the word hop a lot in the 50s where people who went to sock hops and on the 60s and even with DJ Hollywood and lovebug starski DJ lovebug starski when it's known to me that when DJ Hollywood was spending a party he would have a rhyming cadence which was something that you heard a lot of DJ's do on - on back to DJ's that would spin the doo-wop records and I believe it was said that DJ Hollywood would say something like hip hop - hippity hop - hip hop you know things like that with the whole you know it's on and on and on like hot hot butter you know in the crowd would say popcorn that was with lovebug starski cutting it up for me going back to those origins of that word I look at our child look at the definitions of words and where they come from and that's what it means to me [Music] [Music] you know Fosse and and his you know mentors and his pen and or his peers and we talked about you know balancing as well these cats saw a vision they had they were inspired just like most people who don't who don't come from the culture they come into something and they want to take what they saw right which is why and they do it and they become a hit and what happens is that it becomes so popular - people forget where - started at they began to believe their height as if it was them who elevated this particular thing they're now become are now called these the cats who modernized jazz or they're the modern voice of it and they never say it was this guy it was disguise I was inspired but this guy only with African diasporic people that the mainstream culture that's called a Western culture feel they can just come in learn whatever history orally write it or record it and redefine it we can never go and do that to someone else's culture that's not from that yeah I mean for my pocher they would be one uh so hard about that you know where'd you get your information from it lalalala a lot they can do it they can start their schools up they could do whatever and say hey we this is what we do hip hop hip hop is a concept is a marketing anybody didn't want to so say I'm hip okay when you say I'm hip hop and you want to sell you know saying the support hip-hop you know what I'm saying and they finished wrapping and until you all go buy my CD I'm hip-hop no that's a marketing tool for you to go buy the product you understand what I'm saying it's a concept hip-hop is a concept what I live is a culture coming together it's an actual what Nate what they wanna sell as what hip-hop was founded on it's what I actually live but then they will sell you'll see this and support hip hop you know because I got to put my kids through college I'm sorry no no one person is hip-hop in order to teach hip-hop you have to teach the foundation of it and the foundation are the bounces and there are four bounces that I've found to be very particular to hip hop dancing and they are what I call the deep bounce [Music] they're what I call the boxers so those are the four basic Mouse's I've seen all the dances use one or some combination of those four bounces [Music] I pretended it's an attitude how people live you know it's this whole thing whatever we do it would have to be cool the interesting thing about that is like I think that hip-hop coming from a place that it comes from what the inner city you intended to be this idea of once it gets out into the masses there's no longer a lot of people feel that the hip-hop is bears now I mean because there is they doing it and they're influenced by it they think that is theirs they think that they don't need American culture anymore so they only doing what they see they're not created that's the difference I don't mind of the jazz people take some hip-hop movements but I hate that they're calling what they're doing the new style of hip-hop because they don't dance any hip-hop like if if one of them would stop thinking it because they can learn something that they're dancing because just cuz they can learn visit me in audacity about because 90% of them can't freestyle never left you guys are doing jazz and then trying to add some hip-hop flavor to it to make it your own so you can do it and so the mass public can do it know anytime that you have a foreign culture adopt another culture and then dominate what that culture is on you define it it's gonna change the perspective for people who don't know about the culture always that's going to happen because they don't there's a there's always a missing link and a missing link is you are not from that culture we barely understand English in American culture and we're from it yeah I understand so it's arrogant to think that you can go on somebody else's culture and understand that to the point that you can redefine and tell people what to do with it the point is Western culture adopts hip-hop culture they're adopting it and then regurgitating it with their own language and understanding and defining it out yeah and there are some words that are dead under hip hop there's some movements that our hip hop but rest assured there's a Western construct that Western consciousness that's driving it I think that happens with hip hop and and the thing that I would like to find out is how does that leave behind a lot of information [Music] well I'm from Portugal and uh well hip-hop was over there as a culture is it's really like why deceptive I like the younger audience you know like the younger people but not so much but you know like the older people it's um I wasn't recognized as a as an artist you know like people would not recognize what I was doing up to the point where I would go to the bank and they almost refused to open an account for me you know because they were like wait what's your job and I'm like well I'm a dancer choreographer okay what's your profession no way yeah I'm a dancer my dad's and I choreographed and that's what I do you know so it's it's it's like two different worlds living over there but hopefully it's growing it's getting more and more accepted with time you know yeah maybe from London I think now it's um it's more of a timeless acceptable but it is more fully as you said the younger generation you're fun but people come and you do classes to have fun it's not anything that is taken too seriously which I'm guessing now at this time is a good thing as before you know you'd say yeah um I'm into hip-hop I'm into this and then you get all the negative stereotypes of people associate with it like you say um yeah I like hip-hop so are you mean you must like you know rap music and you must like taking you know smoking this and doing that you just get it was associated with negative negative image but now it's it's kind of like hard you go to class you teach to your hip-hop tracks got swearing in it no one's gonna be like oh my god he just said the n-word so it's showdown and yeah it's what same and anyways with Lynn sweet so I mean they're neutral country there's no nothing but political it's all about fun you that's it and for me is this job a little is mine I'm live out that I'm from Italy but I live very small town hip-hop is not so known as political movement did we just see hip hop like a way of dancing a way of dress so really just more fun in Italy's you know we have everything to have fun we are always smiling no my name is hollow dreams s H Oh double arrow w dreams the Z and for sure it just dreams I represent yo squad I'm a Crump dancer I started off with a lot of hip hop tat modern contemporary ballet I did like a little bit of popping then I didn't really feel that out much b-boying I felt like I couldn't really stick to it because like that's old school a lot of people date that's like that's their thing is that you cannot recruit hard to recreate something other people already built on it's like to them like hard like you'll forever live in that shadow and I felt like I became a Crump dancer because it was some fresh I'm new in something I can also like connect with because it's so aggressive I said Dan sighs oh it's all about expression like for aggression and I saw such a explanation to it that's like you can do what you want I just basically like it's like you break the rules like just like hip-hop Dave and it like they said hip-hop wasn't a real dance that's the Krampus Krampus the next hip-hop like I don't categorize it with hip-hop but you would if you saw it the steps sticks but the contemporary explanation their modern form and like the African the African like the praise dancing they got better with people and you know b-boy now like everything's been done be on it to a point to an extent it's like Oh Rocksteady Crazy Legs they was like the originators give it up put their name in stone and some people after them being you you get that a little bit as son that that that little light come on now you cannot compete that that's a rest of origin right there that's original my name's Bradford Rambo I'm the creative director of projected arts I am from Albuquerque New Mexico and pop dancer a lot of things man hip-hop to me hip-hop is first started with the music I heard our biggie POC Sugar Hill Gang nas Tang Clan when I was growing up but I didn't really live where those things were going on and I've been at that time I was living in Southern Oregon it's a very sheltered white community and dance at the time I played soccer but there was something about the music that really intrigued me there's a really interesting dynamic to hip-hop music that I didn't understand and so for me being a curious kid all I wanted was to was to listen to in trying to miss Jam war so for me it was the music that they've been started I remember first time I got the Sugar Hill Gang original like 14 and a half minute track rapper's delight' I wrote down every single lyric to that song and I think a lot of it too is I was I always considered myself a very good writer and so I saw the artistic quality in rhymes and the poetry the these cats were performing regardless of the fact that it didn't have anything to do with my lifestyle and my my circumstance is growing up I recognized the value and the the aesthetic quality at a pretty young age I think I saw my first dance video of Rocksteady when I was 13 or 14 and one of the guys in the video was mr. Wiggles and so I you know I looked at the deck I remember back in the day what resources were used and now he just you do whoever I think I think I heard that he was in uh sure video I think it was it was like my way or whatever and so I just waited up to late at night to watch the MTV you know when all they did was show show music videos and there he was he was in the middle of the my way video during a cypher he was doing a moonwalk on his knees I wasn't worried so that's when I started to like pay attention to hip-hop dancing but now we have to backtrack because at this point in the game that wasn't necessarily hip-hop dancing that was the commercial interpretation of what hip-hop was thought of to be and what was selling as hip-hop and that's where we get a new a very gray area okay well you know what where is the original hip hop star you know stop the party the party jams you know the rock you know like where does where does that stop and where does the choreography start where does it become Street jazz versus poppy you know but the original leg poppin style is like the hitting of the wrist right boom boom boom boom those movements are poppin movements their original hip-hop moves but you put that with this boom okay I just did the pot with a Boogaloo roll turn it to the side but I didn't do it the way you know there was no boo-boos would have done it I did in my own way so to me hip hop dance then becomes a transition it's it's constantly in motion it's constantly evolving and because white people like myself were listening to music or watching these videos even though we weren't living in the Bronx or living in LA or living in Fresno or living in places where hip-hop was developing we were still influenced by and we were still creating our own interpretations of that and whether that's authentic or not I don't know I don't think I'm in a position to answer that question dance styles of hip-hop whether or not that makes me hip-hop or not again I don't think that's a question I'm trying to answer identify myself as hip-hop I identify with the movements the style music so I hope that's enough [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well we're teaching workshops as a funny concept to me because in terms of hip-hop I don't think the idea of the workshop works that well workshops are something that okay we're at work if we're learning at a studio and then for whatever weekend some master instructor comes in and teaches normally how that would work and say for ballet class for example students have been getting ballet and on the correct terminology and crack movement [Music] as they grown up so that when this master instructor comes in he doesn't have to teach them the terminologies or vocabulary or their technique they already have that with the teacher that they're with so he can come in and give a workshop and do some choreography a combination or whatever it help and ask that what hip-hop that's not really happening because there's this idea that these kids knows movement and they don't when they're using this hybrid of you know lyrical or ballet or modern and maybe dough sprinkle a little bit of hip-hop on there but for the most part you know the choreographers are coming in and they're given their idea choreography which is fine but the students aren't trained in it and they're not going home back to their you know their studios in getting the information so they're just the workshop is only in that day and to me it's not really useful you're paying a whole bunch of money to learn some choreography but that's really not been helping you have an answer it's just that one person and if you don't understand their technique or what they've learned it really doesn't help you but in that sense of a workshop in hip-hop to me it really doesn't work focus on my classes it actually is and something that I've been taught ever since the beginning of my career eight years ago is how to build stamina and how to breathe no matter what gravity I do whether it's groove chill or explosive I always try to build on stamina and and condition my dancers that are in there to how to be funky and explosive but breathe in the middle of it I feel you can execute a number execute a tour a music video you can you can put your fullest into it but you are going to be completely exhausted by the end of it if you do not condition yourself to breathe properly and actually be good to your body and I've taken on a different aspect instead of just the Performing side I want to dig deeper and take it back to the technical side of things and and know that geez looking up to MC Hammer back in the days those kids try to do those routines compared to now where it's just a little bit in the pocket Gang Gang Gang back in day that was all cardio and I think I missed so much of that and I influenced my classes that way and focus on building up stamina and conditioning and brief I love to incorporate in my classes and turned it into is all the foundation of what hip-hop technique and dancer performance are and just kind of a mission it's a big one big pot of gumbo I was never streetwise to what hip-hop really was back in the day because I started at a very late age so if someone was an originator would sit there and turn around and actually tell me that my class is more of a commercial based hip-hop industrial I will respect that it's kind of hard for me to turn around and say that my class is actually hip-hop because I know it doesn't reach the foundations of what hip-hop is popping and locking and in so much house and the techniques of what to do I I don't incorporate that in my class because I'm not of that I'd never trained under that so from what I've learned from from the music videos and the stages and the different choreographers that I was exposed to I would definitely say that I'm more of a commercial Street funk I wouldn't necessarily say hip-hop because I always you you get two different worlds of that you get people that say oh just because it's a hip-hop song they can do the routine to it and it's a hip-hop number but I have a different opinion on that anybody can dance to hip hop so you can do a lyrical number to that it depends on how you're viewing it and how you want to adapt to whatever really is you can either say that it's a feeling and it's not a category and it's the feeling of what the music's giving to you that has that stereotypical hip-hop flavor to it or you can say that it's just a class that's outside of jazz there we go tap in ballet anything else categorized by that that has any kind of execution or more top R&B more underground more you know if there's any kind of as they all say street dance to it they'll just categorize this hip-hop it's a safer bet it's just a category I don't really like to categorize it because hip-hop again is the feeling that you expressed through movement but I do definitely respect the originators it's it's hard because the young generation that that we teach they're seeing so many different aspects of hip-hop and I will definitely agree I'll look at it classically that's not really hip-hop I feel that any person who likes hip-hop culture in general dance in particular should study a little bit African culture and dance just add a few emotional ballet you study the traditional dances going back to the court dance when a gesture then for the King in the court we at one point back in a day remember everybody you peace in the Middle East love that go peace in the Middle East where exactly the Middle East meaning what geographical athlete looking at it or the northern part of it you know so I'm not trying about a political thing but at some point when you understand the different geographic locations have contributed to dance to culture things that we take for granted and this in our present society I think you do some a great service by studying not just dance but culture music no you like rap music the most of us or the order youth now they're not aware that they're getting regurgitated hip hop ie oh I'm going 20 pop class hell anybody when I was fourteen the first time I thought listen like that class was like class was it class to learn how to dance so that whole thing is just a Western construct that went to go to class to learn how to dance you know there's this other confusion where people are saying new style you know you go and seize classes and it's like what is the new style class the the reason the term new style came about was because of a documentary in 1992 called record shop that heavily influenced dancers in Japan and in France and amazingly enough these two groups of dancers from two different countries began to shorten this term and say we want to dance like the New York dancers by saying we're going to do the new style meaning New York style dancing like the kids dance in New York and that's where that came from how it began to be so popular amongst the dancing community as a whole as meaning choreography I'm not sure but I've talked to dancers around the world and they all pretty much say the same thing lost choreography and again choreography is not a style of dance [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and most people are learning choreography and not power to dance which is why you will hear many times that people say well I can't go into a circle I don't know how to do that going into the circle affirms that you are learning this language of movement right that you can speak and share this with others it's no different than learning a language so if I'm learning Spanish and I can now hold a conversation with some people that shows that I'm understanding the grammatical structure or the syntax or what-have-you the dance is the same way in that sense as you learn to dance and you learn how to let go of what's inside of you and bring that forth then you begin to improv you can enter a circle like last week I had to tell a duel like yo look we take this series I said it's not a game when you come from a group of dancers right you know at me I said you doubted me most of these cats they willing to play around with you I said I'm talking to you like like like a regular person like a human being look step off to the side you know I mean do what you got to do but let's see this all this dance for we right here it's apparent we here we rockin here you go all over there all if you want to get you grind on you ain't just coming into club we rock it got a cypher and you're just going coming here plate number one a circle is you know just hands it down from traditional culture the circle is protection you know from that circle you can see your enemies coming in any side from that circle that circle also gives a spirit of love and and and support which means that you're all facing each other you all you have to look each other dead in the eye there's a dis there's a lot to say when you look a man a woman in the eye directly in their eye you didn't mean you see the souls of people in that way when a person is in this witness in the center they're supported by everybody's love everybody that moment you are doesn't focus up a whole deal it's all about you and you're being supported everybody from your back to whatever everyone's watching you when you get back into the circle you're part of the group the collective and you're still wanna being supported it support it there's never not a part where you're not being supportive there's no hierarchy in a circle you can't tell where the beginning starts or the ending ends but when I came to New York and I saw the circles that's when I knew really like yo everybody in there had their own individual style and everybody was really representing who they were as a person like sometimes when I was in the other other little Caesar have a way you see people just mimicking what they know not really finding their who they are so that's what really inspired me to say yo I want to I want to create my own stuff I want people to know Bobby not just the kid from Boston so the circles everything because that's where you really can let loose and be like yo look what I got what happens is they try to get down the wrong way and then instead of big cool and trying to sit back and learn like we all in a circle he has got the circle like this started going this it's like I said dude I just snatched him up like oh man what are you doing oh you bet everybody's energy you know to me they wanna take they don't know they don't understand that they don't understand like how we commune they don't talk they don't know about the vibe and communicate dances communicate always remember that we danced we can communicate with each other if I don't have understand my first experience with the circle was just watching when I came to New York I would just watch I wasn't ready to go in being a dancer in another city already I could dance there and do the circles I knew my place I knew what I could do but once I came to New York for me I was just you know I want to see what's going on I'm not ready to jump in there and even at that time I didn't come to New York clubs until around 88 89 and I wasn't really known like I said I was just watch I'd be on the perimeter and seeing all this incredible stuff going down and I would watch and I would go over in the corner and I would practice and that's how I did every week and it took me a while before I built up the confidence to actually step inside but if these guys didn't know you and the girls they didn't know you that represented in those circles they would sit you down or the line would form to get you like okay who is this person coming in our circle and I would just watch them line up and get anybody and it was kind of almost like your your graduation into manhood you know because you had to jump into the circle at some point you had to get in there and do your thing and for me that took a while but just watching a lot of things is going on you know circles can be very spiritual in a sense and then sometimes they can just be open to anybody you know there's the music is playing or circley going but it's a really light atmosphere so anybody can get down they don't really mind as much but then there's some times when the music changes and every clicks for all the dancers and you just own this hot and that circle just changed into a spiritual or sacred ground so now it's serious you know where we're seeing something we're communicating with one another and this is not a game this is not to be played with you go in there and you you just you're speaking from your soul but when that change happens you have to really be aware of what's going on I've seen people walk in circles and get kicked you know because they're not looking or because they don't belong there at that time and you know they always have this question a lot they so angry they're not angry they're sharing they're having a conversation that is understood but between everybody in the circle and like I said it's sacred ground and if you come in there without understanding what's going on you know you just disrupted that whole energy that's going on so that the the energy is up here and everybody's fueled up and fired up and they're doing their thing in there it's kind of this one upmanship where this person goes in and you know you get inspired by what they're doing and you want to take it to the next level and the next person will just take it to the next level so you get this energy desk and a fever pitch and when someone comes in and just walks in there you just tore that energy down you just tore that that high if you will down and you don't understand how important that is to those dancers you know they just people want to outside just look at it I was like oh okay I want to jump and I want to do that no but there's a dialogue happening here if you don't understand this language you really can't communicate with anybody so you're perceived at this outsider you know and then also just for the dancers in there it's when you get to show improve it's when you get to say yeah I've been doing this I've got mine on this or you know it's that test of manhood if you will you know where the young cat who has been practicing on the side can finally come in and earn his props and and get the respect of his peers that he now belongs to this try very few people like the Madonna's to print who get it and they a rare thing in within the culture like they may have been born in the wrong culture and they really are those people you know me and they really are hip-hop they really are coming from the punk rock they really are these people even though they're not from them that culture we're born in it their spirit is it very few people were that way you know this corporation is defining what hip-hop is for them and what it's all about money and that's really what it is and I think so I think there's a big faction who understand that and we that faction are you know fighting a battle a war if he's you know if you will [Music] Joe how to open open-ended question if up can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people such a general question now you're talking about the culture and its entirety you know I think you talked about what DJ and our music might mean to somebody or graph or CNN or what have you my focus is a little bit more on if not dancing and for me I think there are two concepts of that there's b1 which is considered hip hop's first dance and then there's actually the party dances so for me the smart acts of what is hip hop dance it is the party dances that are done - not just particular to hip hop records but just the party that is to come from from the 80s - now whether it's it's the [ __ ] order running man or Jerry Lewis of Smurfs or is more current dancing like the spongebob or the stanky leg or the dozen that's what hip-hop dances [Music]