I wanted to talk about twerking and how it exploded in popularity. I chose a video with Lexy Panterra because she’s one of the most well known twerkers nowadays. As she made a video that recieved 100k million views and has made appearances on several tv shows and twerking helped her boost her career. I linked two videos of bounce dancers/musician talking about bounce music and twerking, as twerking has been in hip hop culture and been down by black people for a while. But Lexy’s video shows clear commodification as at 1:23, she states “Normally when you see twerking it’s just a lot of but in your face, it’s just a bunch of jiggle, I created a way where it is just isolating your movements, where it’s going to be done on the exact beat at the exact time. It’s not your normal twerking, I’m changing the concept of it.” This is contrasted with the video of the man twerking to bounce music, where even though bounce music is very fast, he is able to hit all the beats and isolate his movements very well. Moreover, in the Big Freedia video, she talks about the relationship between dancing and bounce music and she explains it as a social aspect and brings the social dance aspect of the hip hop dance, of people just enjoying themselves and collectively coming up with new moves and concepts. I think Lexy forgets the social aspect of hip hop dance, as it is more of a business/product to her and something that is bought and sold. Furthermore, she tries to disassociate what she does from the history of twerking. By claiming that her twerking is ‘new’ and ‘improved’, which also in my opinion, implies that what black people were doing before was ratchet and ugly (as she says ORDINARY twerking is just butt shaking and jiggling and frames it in a negative aspect). Which also goes into much of the long and endless history of cultural appropriation of black culture, where something is bad and negative when black people are doing it but if there’s a white face attached, it’s then new, good and exciting.
ELEMENTS OF VOGUE "Dancer as Insurgent" de Benji Hart.
I was thinking of ways that can prevent a dance becoming commodified and I believe the Benji Hart video professor B shared with me is a very cool and great example of it. I also read his background and mission in teaching dance, in how he wants to keep the dance to belong to queer black and brown people as voguing has commodified with it appearing in music videos, shows etc. I like that Hart’s tutorial doesn’t hold your hand and go step by step, it instead tell you what to think about and what to be aware of when you are dancing. And I love the way he articulates each body part and movement, such as ‘cultivate the keen awareness of the joints, down to the knuckles of each finger. Be sure angles are present at every stage of motion’. I feel that the break down of movement in such a way can also be applied to any other style of dance such as hip hop. And I feel that it helps improvisation in a dance. As you can do any move you would like but just be aware of the tips he was giving such as being aware of the joints and telling a story with your body/hands and letting music instruct motion. Another thing I like about Benji Hart’s video is that he informs us about the history of voguing and its founders, plus also during parts of his instructions he gives us information about founders of vogue. So people attending the class can not only learn how to move but also gain knowledge in the history and be aware of struggles black and brown queer people face. Plus this can also help prevent whitewashing and appropriation which often happens when a dance is commodified. Unfortunately this is not the case in many hip hop dance classes, contrasted with Matt Stefanina’s tutorial of The Box. Anyone watching the video can learn the exact moves which doesn’t give any room for improv. Plus they are left with no knowledge about hip hop, where it comes from, who are the people behind etc. As I noticed he does what looks like Tutting moves, but without any information viewers won’t know that it was nor what tutting is. He also possibly does a crip walk at 5:02 but just calls it ‘footwork’. As this is a popular step I’ve seen before. Which erases the history and ignores the people who created it by when viewers aren’t aware of what the dance step is. Especially since he is a ‘professional’ choreographer and has made it big in Hollywood. So he is expected to know the history and terminology of hip hop.
“Whether the fresh energy and spunk of the street from of breaking will be lost when the breakers are taken off the streets to perform "legitimately" is a controversy in professional dance circles. "The minute there's a fad, the pros get ahold of it, adapt it, change, bend, twist and shape it to suit their own needs," says Smith of professional choreographers, although others say this depends on who is directing the dancing. The dance form is being shaped by the media, Sommer suggests, by emphasizing more of the acrobatic tricks and the electric boogie and less of the floor work and spins that the kids say is the heart of break dancing. "The media's going to chill the form," Sommer says. "It already has."
I know the four elements of Hip Hop in its history are, break-dancing, Djing, rapping and graffiti. And I found it interesting that even though nowadays breakdancing is acknowledged, it’s not necessarily what is represented as what is the popular thought of ‘hip hop dance’ in the US. I did a quick incognito youtube search on “Hip hop dance tutorial”
And surprise surprise...
Matt Stefanina and many similar Hollywood studios were the first to pop up, as their videos have millions of views, I had to scrolls ways down before I found a tutorial on breakdancing. This really increased my curiosity, as Matt Steffanina website states “[Matt] started dancing as a bboy at age 18. His interest quickly spread to hip hop and after winning a local talent competition, he was offered the head choreographer position for the University of Virginia hip hop dance crew”. As it is interesting that it considers breakdancing as something different from hip hop despite it being a foundation of hip hop.
Breakdancing was highly commodified and exploited in the 70s and 80s. With many business people latching on to it and producing many outlets to make money such as films like Wild Style or Flash dance which featured the style. Although these films did help spread hip hop around the world, it also led to . This unfortunately let breakdancing, which was one of the pillars of hip hop to become a fad. As I found a 1984 article from the New York Times, calling the dance a fad.
Going back to the quote from the NPR article, I think it is definitely something that we are seeing with how hip hop dance is commodified, as in class we talked about what it means to be a professional dancer and if people dancing on the street aren’t professional dancers and who or what determine that.
As the quote says “The minute there's a fad, the pros get ahold of it, adapt it, change, bend, twist and shape it to suit their own needs," Just as Stefanina has a large platform so he is able to shape and change what we see as hip hop, especially since the hip hop is geared towards are more commercial aspect. As the quote says “ emphasizing more of the acrobatic tricks and the electric boogie and less of the floor work and spins that the kids say is the heart of break dancing.” Just as many hollywood studios, and tv shows typically emphasize the camera work, editing and is geared more of fast flashy movements and tricks. “Whether the fresh energy and spunk of the street from of breaking will be lost when the breakers are taken off the streets to perform "legitimately".This also shows the loss of the social dance aspect of hip hop, as much of the hip hop taught in the studios and performed on tv is devoid of many of the social aspect. So I think the quote explains the change of how breakdance has been taken over by the new style of hip hop we see today. Today we have many hip hop dances that are also influenced by soical media such as the many dance challenges on instagram and tik tok. I think social media is going to expand on hip hop if people are allowed to use their own creativity and improv dances such as the #inmyfeelingschallenge. As many more people have a voice through the internet and on social media.
Emotions through Social Dance -Hip Hop Assignment 1
1. I chose the Turfing video because the dance moves were very raw and beautiful. I read that the brother of one of the dancer’s in the video was killed in a car accident on the same street. So the video and dance was a tribute to him. You can feel this emotion through their moves, and also in the beginning when one of the dancers get close to a car and you are afraid that he might get hit. I think that is very beautiful and moving. Plus, I also picked this video because I find the Turfing dance very cool and interesting and the moves and gliding are done effortlessly. According to Wikipedia “Turf dance also includes "story telling" which is a style based on pantomime "life stories" or "everyday activities"... Turf dance is an improvisational, free-flowing form of dance that is based on the idea of pure cause and effect but focuses on storytelling, the creation of optical illusions, and the display of distinctive personal style.” And I feel this video fits the definition of turfing perfectly and is turfing that is done exceptionally well. As the dancers are telling a life-story and paying tribute to his brother. Plus each dancer is improvising and all communicate and add to the story. Plus the viewer is also able to feel the passion and understand what the dancers are feeling.
2. I think this video fits the TED talk video perfectly, as it fits the idea of social dance, with the steps that are agreed on but it was also about the individual and their creative identity. As there are many steps that involve turfing that are agreed on, such as the gliding and the locking etc. But each dancer created their own piece and included their creativity behind each of their dance. Also the video states that it’s about community and connection. This relates to the Turfing video as the dancer is dancing and paying tribute with his friends, in his local community. She also describes dances such as the Charleston and Lindy Hop or Swing which were about improv and musicality is similar to the Turfing video, where most of the moves are improvised and follow the flow and rhythm of the music. The Turfing video expands on the TED talk video and answers the question on why we dance, as the dancers show why they were dancing without saying any words. They danced to heal, and let their emotions out and to feel a sense of community.
I realized that the person I originally wrote this guide for has requested that people do not reblog unless they’re replying with ways to get soft-ish lineart brushes. Here is a rebloggable copy of my (incomplete) guide to SAI settings and achieving “soft” lineart!
Original post here: http://daeranilen.tumblr.com/post/134607766415/redmiel-protectpapyrus-redmiel
So I prefer hard, smooth lines myself (cel-shader here), but I thought I could offer general setting tips and direct you to some resources. Sorry if any of this is obvious for you!
I begun this painting about a year ago but I recently modified it about a week ago. The bottom left was done with acrylic paint from a year ago. I painted over the acrylic with oil paint resulting in the top and bottom pictures. I my opinion, I think acrylic is a challenging medium. I don’t think I got better in a year, I just used a better medium. I am not don’t with the painting.
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