Wednesday, July 8, 2009

This post has been in the works for a minute...



I've written about "gettin lite" before. The last time I did, it was the form of an extended post on my former blog from my sophomore year, Ethos. I discussed the NYC dance movement as one that was,

"this incredibly fluid amalgam of musical influences that span the last century of African-American dance culture combined with hip-hop swagger and an undeniable NYC flavor that eludes any sort of label that my limited vocabulary could place on it. It’s breaking, tap, vogue, ballet, miming, pop-locking and probably many other dance forms that I’ve never even seen before all compacted into one ever-evolving, indescribable package that has literally taken parties by storm in the New York City area for the past couple of years..."

Further, I wrote:

"Gettin’ lite serves not only as a means of cathartic release for youth that are far too often told to sit down and be still within the confines of decrepit NYC school systems, but also as a medium through which the stringent borders of hetero-normative behavior and race can be pushed. Within this incredibly complex culture, you have dance crews composed of members of various genders and ethnic backgrounds who battle fiercely for bragging rights and YouTube hits; crews ranging in name from The Brotherhood to the Fast Food Club all dancing their hearts out anywhere they are allowed to circle up and get the party started the way they see fit. These young men and women are warriors fighting through the difficulty of their everyday realities using their craft as a means of both enjoyment and expression in a city that that took art class out of their curriculum and left them nothing to replace it with"

This past week, during a conversations with my 6'4 lighthouse of a best friend (shout out to Gryffindor House), I came across one of the illest dancers I have seen in a while, Kid Tokyo. It's just...something about his approach to the form that strikes me as rather remarkable. I would go far as to say (in a world where so few things are) that is style is truly singular, undeniably unique.Keep doing ya thing, Kid. You're clearly building a name for yourself.

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