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Krumping

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Krumping is an urban street dance-form that began in South Central Los Angeles. It is characterized by free, expressive, and highly energetic moves involving the arms and chest, and has become a major part of hip hop dance culture alongside other forms, such as breaking, popping, locking, and freestyling. Krump is a relatively new dance-form. Like other styles of dance, Krump is seen by many as a faith-based art-form. Accordingly, many of its pioneers spell Krump as an acronym (K.R.U.M.P.), which stands for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise.

History

Krump's origination as a unique dance-form is widely attributed to dancers known as Tight Eyez, Big Mijo, and J-Smoove of Tha J-Squad in South Central Los Angeles.

Krump is an emotional and aggressive dance. It is similar in form and practice to traditional weapon dances, and for this reason is considered by many African-American krumpers to be symbolic or referential to their tribal roots. As such, dance "battling," a form of dance where competitors face-off in a direct and aggressive competition, is an integral component of krump. "Dissing" (mocking), and heightened moments of frantic, aggressive arm and chest movements (known as "buck" moves) are standard.

Tight Eyez, who teaches Krump and has now produced instructional videos on the subject, regularly speaks of Christian healing and gives praise to Jesus. He distinguishes krump from clowning and "stripper dance"--two stylistically similar forms--by its seriousness of purpose. Among the "don'ts" of Krump, as he explains, are the exaggerated bent-knee wobble-walks of clowning and the buttocks-bouncing ("clapping") of stripper dance. He also distinguishes Krump from popping, locking, and "hyphy" (or "turf") dance styles because it is less precise and more improvised. In one instructional video, Tight Eyez speaks of the three levels of Krump, those being "bucking" (making aggressive-looking movements), "amping" (becoming genuinely filled with the emotions one is portraying through choreography), and "spirit" dancing (in which the dancer moves beyond choreography and is lifted into a religious dance "in the spirit").

Face paint

Face-painting is common in clowning, but less so in modern krumping. The belief that krump dancers regularly engage in face-painting is a misconception based on the introduction of krumping to the public through popular culture, for example, in music videos by the artist Missy Elliott, and the feature film Rize. When krumpers do use face paint, it is usually in direct reference or homage to African war dancers, and not a literal depiction of clowns, as is the case in clowning. Tommy the Clown's Battlezone dances that feature "krumpers versus clowns" provide a structured way to express this dichotomy.

Music

Like all forms of street dance, hip hop music is the predominant type used for krump. The style of Hip Hop is an essential factor in krump dancing—music sets the tone, tempo and mood of the dance "battle." The music is usually upbeat and aggressively lyricized, although music is often modified to remove lyrics creating "instrumentals."

Fams

The dancers form groups known as "families" or "fams," reminiscent of B-boy crews. Each of the families is organized around a krump dancer known as koolaidman, who serves as both a dance instructor and a spiritual mentor of sorts. The internal structure of a family is hierarchical, with rank based on the expertise or respect of each dancer.

The families also function in mentor/apprentice arrangements. the beast fam takes", younger, less experienced kids that love

Global success

A competition structure has developed as dancers vie for status and respect. Contests within the world of krumping are called "battles".

Dancers in Europe form groups called "Kommunity Krump." The "Monster of Krump" series has provided a forum in Europe for competitions between these groups.

A nationwide krump dance tournament was conducted in Japan. The prize was a battle against Lil' C and Miss Prissy. The event was hosted by Masaki Sumitani, better known as Razor Ramon Hard Gay.

Lil' C is featured in the David Michalek Exhibit Slow dancing, which was exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, California, and London. It has been profiled by Apple, and radio station KCRW.

  • David LaChapelle's documentary Rize, an intimate portrayal of the clown dancing subculture, was featured at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. He says of the movement: "What Nirvana was to rock-and-roll in early '90s is what these kids are to hip hop. It's the alternative to the bling-bling, tie-in-with-a-designer corporate hip-hop thing. Krumping has also risen in popularity in places such as Brazil, Detroit,Houston and Boston. 'Krumpers' such as Soulja Royal, J dash Royal,Royal,Loyal,Phanatik and knockout kid have propelled krumping into the dancing mainstream."[1] This has given Krump plenty of exposure and since then it has risen in popularity in the hip hop dance community.
  • Clowning was featured in the second episode of the eleventh season of MADtv. Also, Alyson Hannigan guest-starred on an episode of MADtv where she took clowning lessons from the same two clowns and they now appear in many episodes of the show.
  • Clowning was featured on episode 7 of America's Next Top Model, Cycle 6.
  • There is a small segment on krumping in the movie Bring It On: All or Nothing. Britney (Hayden Panettiere) wants to add the style to a dance routine for the squad to give them more diversity in their performance.
  • Krumping was a featured style of dance on the Fox reality show So You Think You Can Dance in episode #311 (originally aired June 27, 2007). Dancers Sara and Jesus performed a krumping routine choreographed by Lil' C.[2] Additionally, on an episode that originally aired August 1, 2007, Dominic Sandoval and Lauren Gottlieb also performed a krumping routine choreographed by Lil' C who was a choreographer for Bring It On: All or Nothing.[citation needed]
  • The Simpsons featured Krumping in Little Orphan Millie: Bart attempted dance moves to win back his classmates' love. When that failed to work, Marge joined in with him.
  • The movie Stomp the Yard features Krumping in the beginning of the film.

See also

References

  1. ^ Swart, Sharon (2004-01-13). "David LaChapelle: Sundance short take". Variety. Retrieved 2007-10-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "So You Think You Can Dance: Show 311/312". Fox Broadcasting Company. 2007-06-27. Retrieved 2007-10-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

Fahey, R. (2007) Out of obscurity, African Dance; New generation learns the art of dance. Boston Globe, Boston. P.3.

Wisner, H. (2007) Crash course: Hip Hop. Dance Magazine. 10, 82-85, 3.

http://www.dancetutors.co.uk/Krumping.html

http://www.krumpkings.com/forum/

http://www.bebo.com/krump-industries

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