Palladium Mambo Legends Dancing!

Everyone should take a look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMeFLXoJvLA . I did a little research on the Palladium dancer's that Professor Hutchinson discusses in this week's reading, Mambo on 2. Palladium mambo dance was the first generation of mambo dance that started in NYC! Look at these Palladium legends reuniting and dancing the mambo.

What I took from the reading was that, during a very segregated time of the 50s and 60s, Palladium was the grounds for a lot of interracial socializing. The mambo dance brought together Puerto Ricans, Blacks and Jews to dance under one roof. People were allowed to interchange their ideas and work and dance together. How awesome!

See you in class!

Salsa and Pachanga

After doing the reading for this week, I looked up some Salsa dances and came across this video. It's interesting because if you watch the male's legs, they look they are the personality of the dance. Usually people are enthralled with the movement in the feet, but in this case, his whole body takes the character and personality of the style. Also, it's interesting how the focus is on the male, when the female normally is the focus of ballroom structured dances. What does this say about gender roles in this performance of Salsa and Pachanga and about the gender constructs in this dance as a whole? All in all, a good performance and definitely worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmOYzNxIU6g

Youtube Dance Lessons

Quite often in class, we all mention how easy it is to look up dance routines on Youtube and learn steps, moves and routines from there. Essentially, I've come to think of it as Youtube dance lessons. It's free, it's easy and you don't get laughed or yelled at for messing up a move. It's perfect. It makes me wonder why people are still adamant about not dancing.
Anyways, the popularity of Youtube and learning choreographies from there got me wondering what dance routines have become the most popular for people to learn. I found a website that lists what they claim to be the "Top Five Most Iconic Music Video Dance Routines." While it's not official or anything, looking at the majority of the list made me laugh because I am guilty of either participating in some of these routines, or at least trying to learn them. Here's the link:

http://musicouch.com/musicouching/top-five-most-iconic-music-video-dance-routines/

I think most of us have danced to the YMCA and the Macarena at some point or another. Also, a friend of mine and I tried to learn the routine that is #1 on this list, but we gave up after about 10 minutes. Here's a good video of people who had plenty of time to get the routine down though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mv9Hv9MeXQ
Enjoy!

Dancing for a cause

Some universities use dance for a good cause and Penn State is one of the most well-known and successful every year. Penn State's Thon has become the thing to look forward to every year. It is a 48 hour dance marathon to raise money for kids with cancer One of my best friends is a senior a PSU and this is all she talks about as she is SO involved. This year her and a friend were raising money to be put in a raffle to be chosen to dance for 48 hours straight. There are SO many people that want to dance to that they have to raise at least $2,600 to be entered in the raffle and each $500 after that they get an extra ticket. My friend raised over $15,000 and still doesn't know if she will actually get to dance during the event. Program's like this that involve dance really show how much dance is integrated into our culture. To learn more about Thon here is a link http://www.thon.org/

Jerkin'

After watching Rize and learning about Krumping, I was reminded of a dance movement in LA that I heard about this summer called Jerkin'. I don't know if anyone else has heard about it or if we are going to talk about it in class sometime, but I thought I would pass along a really interesting article and documentary from LA Weekly. When reading about Jerkin' I drew a lot of parallels to other dances we've learned about. Specifically, like the b boy article, Jerkin' is just as much about looking sharp as it is about dancing well. Jerkin' dancers have a specific dress, from the skinny jeans and sneaks to the crisp neon t-shirts. Also, the Jerkin' movement has grown out of LA high schools, predominantly kids under 18. This just shows another example of how dance creates structure for kids living in hostile environments. Check out the article and video and maybe we can talk about it in class one day!

Article: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-08-06/music/we-8217-re-jerkin-8217/
Video: http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2009/08/jerkin_video_new_boys_intervie.php

Links

It seems as if everyone was interested in seeing more clips of stepping and strolling so I included them here :

-Strolling is usually used to show that your organization is present at parties/gatherings ect, here it's shown on stage at a step show

-Enjoy!

Phi Beta Sigma syracuse chapter at a step show in Oswego:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boNaiMZzO5U&feature=related

Kappa Alpha Psi Strolling, first thought that came to mind was the "stripper dance" in RIZE, possibly where they got it from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G-brWeMmqs

Delta Sigma Theta Strolling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWprpnSBeeI



Also, I appreciate how each one of these African American dance traditions link with one another throughout our readings. I do believe however that you can, in fact, trace the roots of these dances to Africa and not necessarily to America. The African experience in America is unique in that they are one of the few cultures brought to this country against their will. As a way to keep African traditions within the new African American community, as well as keep the community together in times or turmoil (slavery ect..) African traditions were passed down through word of mouth and demonstration. So, while these dances do focus on the African American experience they also have strong correlations to African dances, purposely.

Revelations... Finding Connections to other forms of African American Dance

After reading Alvin Ailey's Revelations article and scouring the Internet for videos of its dance, I've come up with a conclusion. Alvin Ailey's modern dance is similar to Krumping. Call me crazy, but both dances have a very spiritual and religious purpose. While the movements look completely different, their purpose is the same. To invoke some sort of spirits with the dance.

Revelations does however provide audiences and dancers with a historical interpretation of events in African Americans past. Revelations attempts to tell the story of African Americans movement toward freedom during the time of slavery. It calls out to eliminate the current racist style of dance and make way for a brighter more unified future.

Krumping on the other hand calls to the gods to fix their current situation. Krumping seems to be the present day religious dance comparable to Alvin Ailey's. Both dances are spiritual in nature and very interesting.

I really enjoyed reading about Alvin Ailey's article and look forward to discussing it in class today!!