CLOWNINâ AROUND! đ¤Ą
HEY hey hEy! Wassup virtual classmates. We are so close to being done! Lets stop CLOWNING AROUND and finish this semester strong! Speaking of clowns... highly afraid but I def wouldnât be afraid of Tommy the Clown who got this whole thing started as a ghetto celebrity clown who performed at children's birthday parties and since has taken many youths under his wing to keep them out of gangs and drugs. The clown element expanded into harder, more aggressive and personalized style of dancing. This eventually trickled down to the creation of KRUMP.Â
FYI- my autocorrect keeps changing krump to trump. So if I ever say anything positive and it auto-corrected to trump... hope y'all would know me a little better than that haha!
So... the film Rize and the article we read about krumping closely correlated. I started by watching the film and then reading so I found that the reading was less appealing. I say this because reading about krump and seeing krump are two very different experiences. This film kept me intrigued from beginning to end. I felt my heart ache for some of these kids and I also felt so inspired to see how they take their situations and turn them around by finding this extremely creative and releasing dance. This is their therapy; truly inspiring.Â
The article and the film both highlighted the competitive realm and spiritual realm that krumping. Not only is krump a style in which physical combat, interaction, and competitive contexts lie but also with a personal catharsis for these dancers. This could also be considered a spiritual practice (holy dance, religious trances, or even being taken over by a spirit) This duality/ doubleness lives through the roots and baseline of what krump is.
Another duality/. doubleness within krump is the use of the masks and play. Now clowning started krump and clowns have painted faces. But the video also highlighted how face painting dated back to the African tribal roots as well. The play itself is really about doubleness. Play masks the seriousness and the sacredness behind playfulness. These masks also hid the personâs identity so one could step into this new world of being seen.Â
This Krump dancing resembles a physical release of pent up emotion and aggression. Krumping developed and flourished within this atmosphere of constraint, surveillance, and brutality. Additionally, when I watched the film first, I noticed how some of the soloists friends would kick, push, or even grab them and I admired how it really added to the energy level that was created. Then I read about it and it is used as a support and interaction system and can even be used to create this mood of submerging and awakening your aggression.Â
Next, we read about house dancing. This was created back in the 1970s-1990s in NYC and Chicago nightclubs. It all starts with the VIBE!! (thazzuh vibe) The vibe is the building block of the underground house scene and works as a communal force of feelings and liberation. I CANNOT imagine how in shape I would be if I went to one of these clubs every night. Non stop music drives non stop dancing. Another thing that I found interesting is that they said that this music was meant to be DANCED to and not listened to. I found this really interesting because when I listen to house music, I wanna dance but I never just wanna sit and listen to it lolzzz....
Anywho, another thing I liked from this article was how the word âhouseâ and âundergroundâ were basically interchangeable. House meaning at home and that the club is a family. (in da clur we all fam- if you get that reference u a g) Underground meaning âafter darkâ, marginalized, and even signifies a way of life.Â
Lastly, the 1997 crackdown on clubs combined with the War on Drugs criminalized clubs and the people that attended these clubs. So this forced these more authentic and hidden nightclubs to be the thing all the kewl kids were doing. The underground clubs were located in unattractive, nonresidential, light industry districts. This means no signs, addresses, and barely any advertisement. VERY DISCREET! The only thing that could help you identify is the thumping of that BASS. In these clubs the dancers would experiment with multiple states of mind and have shifting identities through total body and athletic endeavor. Remember; you could sweat but DONâT stink!!!! đ¤˘Â













