The Contemporary Lives of Krump (A Review of Anima Darkroom - performed by 7Starr at ThÊatre Lachapelle Sep/ Oct 2019 (choreography Lucy May)
âPopping Movement with elements of mime, made by flexing the muscles and joints to the beat of the music.âŚRobot Precise, isolated movements and turns that lock into place before the next movement beginsâŚRolls or Waves Undulating a part of the body, like an arm or a torso, from one end to the otherâŚSpins Turns down on an isolated body part--head, knees, shoulders--often inverted and initiated by the hands, feet, or torque of the torsoâŚ.Top Rock An upright form of dancing. Influences include Brooklyn uprocking, tap dance, salsa, lindy hop, Afro-American, Afro-Cuban, and Native American dancesâŚ.Uprock A "dancing fight" performed with quick, continuous movementâŚâÂ
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Getting+krumped%3A+the+changing+race+of+hip+hop.-a0118675205
âKrump: the part of the story line where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, materials while in a standing stance position while arms and feet are moving in front of the upper extremities of the body.â
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumping
âThe urban is not a certain population, a geographic size, or a collection of buildings. Nor is it a node, a transhipment point or a centre of production. It is all of these together, and thus any definition must search for the essential quality of all of these aspects. Henri Lefebvre understands the urban from the phenomenological basis as a Hegelian form. The urban is social centrality, where the many elements and aspects of capitalism intersect in space desire often merely being part of the place for a short time, as is the case with goods or people in transit.â
http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f/1%20Final%20Project%20Materials/lefebvreintro.html#targetText=Lefebvre%20understands%20the%20urban%20from,goods%20or%20people%20in%20transit.
Among an outcrop of microphones (in the dark urban metal vegetal) as though in a post apocalyptic field without the denizen, alone and at the ready to begin a series of tasks, exercises, ritualistic adjustments, and justifications*of body, face, and mind we find 7Starr. At times gliding right into a movement, and at other times gliding right out of the movement, and then at complete other times making and getting into sudden juts and shifts - caught in a rigid stiff crank- all that seems to mimic the urban flow of life. And what precisely is this urban that this so called street dance is working within. The term âurbanâ and much of its contemporary declinations have come to refer to something ethnic or rather let us say it - âurbanâ in everyday popular culture parlance  has come to delineate black culture and a google search of urban culture renders the social imaginary of contemporary grafitti. But to be true, are we not all urban and is not everything and all culture that finds itself with the delimitation of the urban grid not also to be considered urban culture? These questionable conflations of race and ethnicity with âthe urbanâ certainly can be understood as byproducts of the social analysis of past intimations of white flight and suburbia and certainly also resultant from the accompanying vision of the stereotypical imaging of black people in the inner cities as sort of barbarian at the gates at the limits of the city and the country.
But alas, any intelligent survey of popular culture would actually reveal the reality of the urban for example in Steve McQueenâs harrowing film Shame starring Michael Fasbender in its ultimate vision of all of many of our contemporary urban lives - all of us (all races) living in such psychical darkrooms of the city constantly moving in and from overstimulation to the nothing, and then back to overstimulation to the point of catalytic overkill. Being urban is not about being black and white but really more about those who have chosen to truly live within the dark room cauldron of urban life - those denizen who truly dive into the life of a city - feeling the good, the bad, and the most contemporary of geographical spaces- the city. But alas, we cannot simply relegate urban experience as some universal experience - for the divide certainly allows and enforces certain segments of the population to create cultures of resistance which krump certainly is an example of. (And of course one must look at the eary intimations of krump in âclowningâ as supreme example of an original allegorical urban body practice).
And hence, in this same notion we also have to think that not only is there no race that means urban more than another, but also that all that live within the most contemporary of human spheres (the city) would naturally also all be contemporary citizens. And I will thus say it once and also another time below- these so called street dances such as krumping, breakdance, ticking, blocking etc- these all must must must be considered under the rubric of contemporary dance- and thus thank god for this collaboration between former Marie Chouinard major dancer and choreographic contributor Lucy May and 7 Starr. We must stop referring to these dances as âurban danceâ as though their worth, organization, and complexity were something on a lower brow level. Movement is movement! Contemporary dance is all present forms of contemporary dance!
If the urban as Henri Lefebvre would have us believe can be a space a phenomenological space of exploration - that the urban itself can be used to escape the very alienation we naturally ( and not just a place we fall into, but that we can resist from and in) all often fall into, then this 7Starrâs exemplary performance and its more general practice of krumping could be considered a kind of panorama of all the good, the bad, and the ugly that our bodies subdues (certain kind of bodies- often racialized) and  might fall privy to in the neoliberal urban era. That is that in an era of neoliberal austerity, 7Starr shows us what the body subdues and how it seeks to come out of it, ride with it, implode it (see the terms at the end of this essay to see the vocabulary krumpers use to explain various kinds of implosion of the urban imaginary).
Often relegated to the label of âurbanâ, such dances âlike krumpâ might at times remain mere curiosities for âwhiteâ kids that decide to cross the line and get down with this boogie, and can of course moreover krump are ritual intra urban battles. What is curious and marvellous here is the involvement and complete consolidation into this craft of former Marie Chouinard dancer and choreographic collaborator Lucy May. Lucy is the kind of dancerâs dancers (easily one of the best dancers of her generation) with the open heart sensibility and very careful awareness of how to enter into Other worlds and how to step into her own world, and moreover Lucy May is the rare type of Western soul who knows how to bridge any divide that has been erected. For, let us say right now especially after watching certain jaw dropping moments of 7Starrâs performance - that this dance and other âurbanâ dances must no longer be referred to as urban as something distinct from contemporary dance, and that might be the one of the points - that is to show us loud and clear that krup shows us aspects of our contemporaneity, nothing less. That his and other such dancers have been involved i part of contemporary dance and the language must be changed to understand that this dance is a dance that we all have a stake in as beings living in the emotional geographies of the urban environment. The call and response of the crowd at Lachapelle was finally what we all want to do when we feel the pure affect of such an solidified performance.Â
Looking deep into the shift of the manneristic and formalistic ( we first saw an opening shifting of 7 Starrâs eyes that land into a deep reserve of dristi (see yoga) that will follow us in and out throughout the entire performance- searing/ wedding us to what contemporary art really can mean- that is to say - a rupture with with and then we see him walking right into it. That is that krump qualifies as âcontemporaryâ, not because it is part of our contemporary time but because as Alain Badiou has spoken of rupture in another context- that which is a contemporary is that which is a rupture with and in what is accepted as the norm of our times. Krump is obviously a rupture and 7 Starr showed that. As Alain Badiou has said: contemporary means ânew rules, new geometry, new algorithms, new rhythms, new materialsâ to be used âin the service of new manners of contemplation.â Thankyou 7 Starr for bringiing it!
And in this notion of the walking right into it (bringing it and rupture), we might have many of the complex signifying tropes that line the silver satin (bags) of African American culture. Here we can identify Afro American derived signifying processes like "calls, cries, hollers, riffs, licks, overlapping antiphony" âŚâdemonstrating respect for, goading, or poking fun at a musical style, process, or practice through parody, pastische, implication, indirection, humor, tone- or word-play, the illusions of speech, or narrationâ (1) , reverence, irreverence. For right into in the urban signifies dropping all equivocation/ hesitation and instead implores us to decisively face the hell wrath dark urban night and the diurnal reliefs with all oneâs force and then learning to do it with a smile, a punch, a slide, an invented gesture -and inventing  a whole arsenal to do the such. 7Starrâs krumping virtusostic performance at Lachappelle marvelled as we got an inner view into the very workings of a world that we might not be that far from and that with which we share trying to find allegorical ways to deal with this constant changing weather. (2)
One wonders how often my fellow anthropological geographers (who honour the performative and its subversive possibilities) have considered the tried and true statement that dances like krumping share with phiosopher Henri Lefebvreâs various manifestoes of how to save and how to make the revolution in the urban sphere. If we are to retain something as a way of knowings (knowledge) from 7Starrâs performance, one might look to a few lessons that can be culled from what this reviewer saw: Be visceral, be fierce. Jump into it, intuit it  (oneâ relationship with our everyday relationships to people in the city, the streets and the cityâs morphology. Retreat when necessary. Slide but if necessary jerk into the slide. Always have an endless arsenal of faces. Always have an endless arsenal of gestures (gestes infernales). Early strides - know the language. Know the passages (just like other urban body practitioners like those who do parkour). In 7Starrâs visceral twitching, we could see the navigating of the passage through scenes of urban night - the hermetic, mystical, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the mystical.
Lucy Mayâs choreographic acumen did not so much elevate a dance which needs no elevation but rather her choreographic skills added the layer of exposure (the anima of the darkroom) so we could see, breathe in the theatre , and also experience as though we might be witness to a real battle.
And after considering it all, what might stand out Is that if our present era of social media, âlikesâ, âghostingsâ, and the surveillance that comes with the lot have become part of what Debord referred to as the spectacle, we may well have now entered into an era whose âeconomy of signsâ and hopefully always counter-signs of proliferating affect being thrown at us at each and very turn. And if we then accept this, would there not be a need for urban practices that also âdeal in affectâ. Dance, more than any other kind of urban body practices might be one option to answer this call, and although practices like parkour or other forms of street dance might also pull heavily on making our affect explicit, is it not possible that with a practice like krumping, we are dealing with a urban body practice that seems close to being a world of pure affect, This is what is certainly sowed- an intense practice whose exhaustion and endurance might be physical giving, but whose backdrop are lightning bolts of pure affect that come popping out and inside of anyone who dares to take the challenge of krump. What we have is essentially pure affect in the contemporary life of krump!
Battle: when krumpers face off in a direct dance competition where the use of Concepts, Materials, combos, and Get off takes in place
Biter: someone who attends sessions or watches battles in order to feed on others' styles and originality so that they can mimic those moves later at another battle and use them off as coming from their own inventiveness i.e. plagiarism.
Session: when a group of Krumpers form a semi-circle, or cypher in hip-hop context, and one-by-one go into the middle and freestyle.
Buck: an adjective used to describe someone who excels in Krump. it is also used to describe one's movement to be different or out of the Foundations making it worthy for the eyes.
Live: an adjective used to describe someone raising the energy in the session or battle.
Call-Out: when a Krumper initiates/requests a battle with another Krumper by calling them out.
Lab: when Krumpers get together or by themselves create new concepts and/or advancing their style.
Get-Off: when a Krumper performs a set of movements that determines that a Krumper's round is over, Usually is determined by seeing the krumper doing nothing but foundations, bang outs, or arm-swings.
Kill-Off: when a Krumper performs a set of movements that excites the crowd to the point where the battle is over and the crowd surrounds the Krumper; the opponent is "killed off."[15]
Krumper: A dancer who specializes in the Art of Krump.
Krumpography: Krump used as a choreography.
Concepts: An abstract movement that helps Krumpers tell a story.
Material: A material movement Krumpers use to show a random item to further story telling. (i.e. pouring water on the ground and slipping.)
Jabs: short, sharp, staccato movements when the arms extend from the chest outwards and with the same energy pulling it back.
Stomps: Stomping the foot to the ground in a way that the Krumpers are getting their energy from the ground itself.
Chest pop: Making an upward motion with the chest the same manner as breathing into the lungs; Krumpers usually do Chest pops for breathing in air while in a session or in a round.
Arm Swing: Moving an arm in a swinging motion. There are two types of arm swing, Small arm swing and Big arm Swing; Small arm swings are like throwing a baseball kind of motion while Big arm swings are like using the whole arm as the bat.
Praise Krump: The art of Krump to religious songs; way of praising for krumpers through Krump.[16]
Story Line: a set of Combos performed by Krumpers to build up the Hype and the Spazz Meter to get to a moment to get off or kill off their opponent.
Hype: The intense feeling of being swept away; usually if a Krumper does something buck or different or kills the music, the crowd is hyped up thus leading to a kill-off. Common Krump audience would think that the Hype comes from the Krumper doing his rounds but Krumpers also get their Hype and boost their Spazz Meter from the crowd.
Spazz Meter: a term used to determine the level or extent of the Hype.
Buck Talk: The act of trash talking while in a Krump Battle.
Atmosphere: feeling the vibe of the environment and having the environment feel you presence.
Intro: starting one's rounds; usually with small movements, sometimes used to introduce a Krumper's character or concept.
Rounds: The round of a Krumper where he/she uses a combination of Combo's, Materials, Concepts, Foundations.
Buckness: the part of the story line where the krumper is already Hyped up with his rounds, showing a series of Heavy or fast, or heavy and fast movements; usually done with a stance with 2 knees slightly bent while arms and feet are moving in front of the lower extremities of the body.
Krump: the part of the story line where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, materials while in a standing stance position while arms and feet are moving in front of the upper extremities of the body.
Liveness: the part of the story line where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, materials while body is in a bent up position while arms and feet are moving outside of the body, may it be upwards or side-wards.
Get-off: The part of the story line where the Krumper is getting off with the feelings contained, letting out by showing repetitive movements like bang outs, jabs, redundancy, and alike.
Kill-Off: when a Krumper performs a set of movements that excites the crowd to the point where the battle is over and the crowd surrounds the Krumper; the opponent is "killed off."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumping
(1) Gena Dagel Caponi, Signifyin(G), Sanctifyin', & Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture. University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, p. 141.
(2)Â In Christina Sharpeâs book, âIn the Wakeâ, the weather refers to the afterlives of slavery and certainly in krumping having been created by the descendants of African American slaves, we have a form of practice to âwork withâ first particular legacies, but also in a larger sense to address the larger issue of colonisation of todayâs everyday life that a philosopher like Habermas has spoken of. Christina Sharpeâs work is one of the guiding contemporary forces of contemporary African American thinking.
















