Embrace Your Inner Monkey
http://beepbeepitsme.blogspot.com/2006/08/embrace-your-inner-monkey.html

I Luuuvvvv this show. The raw, unbridled talent of the dancers is energezing and infectious and I’m happy that a show is giving a platform to an underappreciated art form - dance! Martha and Travis did a respectable krumping routine. I was particularly impressed with Travis who is a contemporary dancer but managed to exhibit the “soul” of tha dance and had the choreography down. The music should have been a lot faster tempo for an authentic “krump” style dance but this wasn’t their fault.

Nygel Lythgoe’s comment about his “inner monkey” could be taken a couple of different ways. I don’t think he meant it as an intentionally racist comment, but then again he is a stiff, upper-lipped, white British mano is trying to sort of fit in and look hip in this Gen Y culture and he often comes off looking like a corny dude with a stick up his arse…but he’s trying to appreicate an art form of which he has no knowledge or skill to perform himself.

On Rize…

I loved this movie!!! I loved this movie for the dance — it’s a fast-paced, athletic, rythmic dance of expression. I had not scene krumping depicted on film before LaChapelle came out with his movie. No one in mainstream media was talking about it or showcasing it. So I give him credit for shedding light on a modern dance/ art form that was underappreciated. The dancing in the film alone was phenomenal and was enough to hold my attention but I also appreciated the subplots of the movie — the stories behind the Story. For me understanding what these kids face on a daily basis in their lives, their obstacles and challenges, their environment, their neighborhood violence — helps to contextualize and frame the story. If it were a film about surburban white kids “krumping” it would have been a totally different movie for me. So I thank him for that. In many ways, the fact that the kids in the film have an art form that is so unique that they can hold onto, master and feel good about in spite the many challenges they face living in underserved communities says something powerful. In the interviews they had during film festivals and premieres etc., they felt a sense of achievement, personal pride and power as a result of accomplished landing themselves in a movie on the “big screen.” That is priceless!!

LaChapelle also doesn’t forget to put the token white boy in the end. He appears once in a while after that, projecting his camaraderie among the black dancers, and although his presence may have been to symbolize krumping’s power to over come racial boundaries, its absurd. If any of you saw the additional footages of the DVD under “extra dance scenes” this white male appears again but he just seems very.. attached on… and I’m saying this by observing the body language of the dancers. Yes, I think its great if krumping can become more about the skill regardless of race but I just didnt understand these scenes that seemed more like an afterthought.

Anyway, Rize is a good movie, but its narrative and perspective resorts to the played out, look at the poor black kids but hey they provide great entertainment! I now just look at specific dance scenes and skip the narrative.. without a doubt though, the cast is a very talented group of people.

As happy as I am to see the creative elements in our culture, I am concerned as to what happens next. Sure they run the press circuit, do a few videos, make guest appearances, but then what??????????????