History of street dance.

Even through the beginning of the 21st century, street dancing's (what is popularly known as break dancing) history, technique and styles were seldom chronicled. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that the style is either passed down informally or simply from dancer to dancer within groups (crews). However, by 2010, a move toward recording street dance history and recognizing it as a very important dance style (as well as cultural movement) has burgeoned.

The hip-hop dance styles b-boying, popping, and locking are some of the most popular street dance styles in Western and African American culture. Thus, those forms of hip-hop dance are the most prominently practiced street dances. These street dance styles are so common that commercialized versions have been professionally developed and choreographed for dance routines in pop, hip-hop, electronic, and R&B music videos. Breakdancing helped bring about street dance crew culture (an aspect of hip hop and electro dance), whereby the dancers would learn various street dance styles for impression and competition. These street crews usually perform in outdoor jams, leading to further styles of hip hop dance.

Another example of a street dance is house dance. House dance, which is prominently danced to house, disco, or techno music, evolved out of Chicago clubs but grew and developed in the clubs of New York. Due to the modern mainstream popularity of clubs, street and fad dances tend to evolve more often in nightclubs rather than outdoor spaces. However, they may be practiced in outdoor spaces. Many club and rave dances are also street dances. The majority of rave dances, like club dances, are street dance styles since rave culture is prominently an underground movement. Rave culture, like hip-hop culture, is vastly diverse and there are many different music genres each of which have individually prominent vernacular dance styles. Amongst the electronic dance community, street dances in the form of club and rave dances are mainly revolved around a consistent rhythm and flow. Hip-hop dance styles like popping, tutting, roboting and liquiding, due to their futuristic-psychedelic theme and/or movements, have been widely adopted amongst the electronic dance community. From out of the electronic dance community, street dances like Tecktonik (an example of a house dance) and Jumpstyle (an example of a rave dance) have emerged. Unlike many hip-hop dances, house and rave dances are usually heralded more 'fun' than 'competitive', although most street dances start like so before being adopted for competition or any other purpose since nobody legally owns them. Generally dances like the Shuffle are not applied as a dance for battling, rather for dancing in the crowd at a rave party. This distinguishes rave dance from partner and competitive street dance forms. However, many people do perform rave dances as expressively competitive dance.

Punk dance (also known as the thrash dance, or simply thrashing) is a form of street dance that is performed impromptu in large crowds. While the punk dance is considered a fad dance, its origins also make it a street dance. The dance originated amongst the punk rock community and was made popular by the band, Sex Pistols. The dance styles are most popular amongst hardcore styled music concerts or raves, as well as busy nightclubs. The most modern form of punk dance is hardcore dancing.

Adaptions to these street dances are today practiced at both dance studios and other spaces, i.e. studio hip-hop dance is the commercial version of hip-hop dance. Dance studios often dub the commercial adaptions as street dance, regardless to the fact they aren't 'absolutely' by true definition. Some schools use street dance as a form of physical education. Another example is the Cha Cha Slide, Electric Slide and Cupid Shuffle, which are street dance influenced line dances. While line dances may be considered street, vernacular, or folk dances, they usually require professional instruction (for choreography) and integrate moves derived from studio dance styles. Copyright issues have also appeared in the past, whereby a professional choreographer had tried to declare that they invented a street dance when they hadn't (such dance styles evolve between several people socially within a group; a group that listens to same music or shares the same traditions, for example). One notable case of false copyright claims was when Ric Silver claimed that breakdancing and roboting were of their own invention. Theoretically, breakdancing was influenced by the interest of James Brown's music by Afro-Americans and Puerto Ricans in the Bronx during the early-to-mid 70s.

Evolution.

Street dances are dances that evolve between people in a social environment, although it cannot be always determined as to how they actually do evolve between people. In theory, as one person comes up with a move that apparently looks good to another person, that other person tries to copy that move. Similar to chinese whispers, the effect is that the other person cannot absolutely perform that move the same way as the other person, thus leading to the dancer to create their own style or entirely new moves based off it. There is a small difference between entirely freestyle (improvisational) dance and an absolute street dance. While freestyle dance is random and a personal dance invented by a single person (even if it's based off someone else's dance style), a full street dance is a collection of the various similar dance moves and styles collected into one practice and regarded as the same dance. For example, when breakdancing evolved out of early hip-hop culture, people came up with their own moves, and other people improved them. Street dances constantly evolve for as long as they are intermittently practiced and regarded as the same dance. All the moves danced to breaks in hip-hop culture was regarded as breakdancing.

Sometimes it is possible to trace back street dance styles that were mostly pioneered by specific persons. One example is locking, which is often regarded as being started by Don Campbell, who was a 1970s pioneer of American street dance. Most of the time it is impossible to credit specific people for street dances, since the dances evolve outside of professional dance environments, whereby there is no social and/or legal record. Street/vernacular dance pioneers also rarely have professional degrees in dance, thus distinguishing street dance from other modern dance forms.

Today there are many international street dance competitions taking place around the world:

-Battle of the Year

-Juste Debout

-House Dance International

-The Lords Of The Rings (A Turf Dancing event based in Oakland, California)

-Street Dance Life

JabbaWockeeZ is winner of competition “America’s Best Dance Crew” and one of the most popular dance crew in the world.

JabbaWockeeZ is an all-male modern street dance crew from San Diego who won the first season of the reality dance competition America's Best Dance Crew. Since winning, the group has gained greater exposure by appearing in various music videos and commercials, touring internationally, and performing with Shaquille O' Neal at the 2009 NBA All-Star Game. They are known for wearing plain white masks and gloves in order to encourage audiences to focus on their movements as a group instead of on individual dancers. Their name is derived from the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky" about the eponymous mythical dragon.

The earliest origins of the group began in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990s, where founding members Gary "Gee One" Kendall and Randy "DJ Wish One" Bernal were both members of the MindTricks dance crew. Sacramento natives Phil "Swaggerboy" Tayag, Kevin "KB" Brewer, and Joe "Emajoenation" Larot also joined the MindTricks crew together. Tayag, Brewer, and Larot all later moved to the San Diego area, but thanks to Gary Kendall's travelling schedule as a performer and dance instructor, the three maintained their connections to the MindTricks group. Phil, Kevin, and Joe began performing while wearing white masks and gloves as a trio called "Three Musky." The mask and glove motif was adopted as a tribute to the 1970s San Francisco strutting crew Medea Sirkas.

What began as an effort to start a Southern California chapter of the MindTricks crew later evolved into JabbaWockeeZ. The name "JabbaWockeeZ", coined by Joe Larot, was inspired by the fantastical monster from the Lewis Carroll nonsense poem. The white masks and gloves from Phil, Kevin, and Joe's performances as Three Musky were adopted as the visual signature of the group. In San Diego, through Gary's connections, the JabbaWockeeZ added b-boys Rynan "Kid Rainen" Paguio and Chris "Cristyle" Gatdula to the group. The original seven-member iteration of JabbaWockeeZ began performing as a group in 2003. This lineup consisted of Gary, Randy, Phil, Kevin, Joe, Rainen, and Chris.

JabbaWockeeZ rounded out their numbers with additional members, bringing their total to eleven. Phoenix native Jeff "Phi" Nguyen had met Rynan Paguio at various Los Angeles area auditions and performances, and earned a spot in the JabbaWockeeZ by battling Kevin Brewer. The JabbaWockeeZ also brought Kaba Modern alumnus Ben "B-Tek" Chung and b-boys Eddie "Eddiestyles" Gutierrez and Saso "Saso Fresh" Jimenez into the fold.

Members of the JabbaWockeeZ also formed their own hip-hop dance groups in the California area. Phil Tayag founded Boogie Monstarz in 2003, Kevin Brewer founded SuperGalacticBeatManipulators in 2005, and Joe Larot founded Press P.L.A.Y. in 2006. These three groups became part of a larger dance collective with JabbaWockeeZ called Family Royale.

In 2007, the JabbaWockeeZ appeared on the second season of America's Got Talent. Performing with nine members, the group was eliminated in the Las Vegas callbacks episode.

Gary Kendall died from complications from pneumonia and meningitis on December 14, 2007, shortly before the group was to begin auditions for the first season of America's Best Dance Crew. As the mentor figure of the group, Kendall had advocated for the JabbaWockeeZ to seek national exposure by auditioning for reality dance competition shows like America's Got Talent and America's Best Dance Crew.

The JabbaWockeeZ received an incredible amount of exposure and success from winning the first season of America's Best Dance Crew in 2008. Their win earned the crew $100,000 (USD) JabbaWockeeZ' final performance on the show was to Kanye West's "Stronger", which marked their first public unmasked performance.

Since ABDC they appeared in a Pepsi and Gatorade commercial, performed on Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and on Live with Regis and Kelly, made a cameo in Step Up 2 The Streets, toured with New Kids on the Block, and launched their own clothing line. Along with the ABDC season 2 winner, Super Cr3w, JabbaWockeeZ were the opening act for the Battle of the VMAs ABDC special. The group also made an appearance on Cycle 13 of America's Next Top Model during the episode "Dance With Me" to help the girls learn how to convey emotions with their bodies.

At a performance at St. Peter's College in New Jersey, on July 12, 2008, Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval of Quest Crew and So You Think You Can Dance fame performed with JabbaWockeeZ as a substitute for an injured Kid Rainen. D-Trix had worked previously with JabbaWockeeZ member and fellow Sacramento native Joe Larot. D-Trix performed air flares during the "Get Buck in Here" segment of the performance, in place of Rainen's usual headspin.

In February 15, 2009, they accompanied and danced with NBA all star Shaq in his NBA All-Star Game player introduction. On October 16, 2009, they performed in front of a crowd of 35,000 at the University of Florida's Gator Growl.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1023