Krumpers of south central L.A
Trebay, Guy.“The Clowning, Rump-Shaking, Wilding-Out Battle Dancers of South Central L.A. How a dance called krumping took over an inner city neighborhood” The New York Times Magazine, 19June05, pp. 28-33.
OVERVIEW
This fine article begins with a description of that dancing that helps outsiders understand.
Slabs of bass beat split the air, seeming to warp the walls as the Rice Track Family started dancing at the Silverado Park Teen Center one Sunday in May (2005). Outside, duks was falling on a mellow evening in Long Beach, California, the sort of night when fluke winds swirl in from the desert and ruffle the fronds of the royal palms, rousing the rats from the crowns.
The tune on the boom box was “Piggy Bank,” by 50 Cent. As Rod Soriano, whose dance name is Hot Rod, cranked up the volume, the other boys at the rec center started to pop their chests and sway. Abruptly, each in turn, they began to whip their arms around, hunching their shoulders, bending their bodies toward the sound and violent lyrics, trancelike, as if some sort of battle was about to begin.
They shut their eyes then and let their heads nod. As the beats filled the room, the dancers started quivering and then caroming, at first delicately, then spasmodically, then picking up the velocity in an alarming but strangely graceful way. They looked like rubber bands do when the tautened elastic is sprung. So submerged were the dancers in the dance that it was not clear how they managed to avoid crashing into the cinder block walls or into the sharp-cornered foosball table or, for that matter, me.
The dancers took turns showing off their moves…. The dance they were demonstrating is called krumping, equal parts break dance, pantomimed battle and demonic possession. As break dancing did 25 years ago in the South Bronx, krumping arose spontaneously some time in the last decade in neighborhoods in Long Beach and South Central Los Angeles.
Soriano and his crew are Filipino. They see krumping as an outlet and expression of inner emotions and as an alternative to street violence.
The article goes on to mention Dragon, Tight Eyez, Miss Prissy and Lil C. They are among the krumping stars featured in David LaChapelle’s feature-length documentary, “Rize.”
To a large extent, “Rize” does what… independent filmmaker Charlie Ahern did when he documented the birth of hip-hop culture in the semifictional 1982 movie, “Wild Style.” It trains the lens on an exceptional group of self-taught artists and lets their art speak for them.
The arcs of (Ahearn’s) earlier movies reached their apogees at the tournaments of some sort; in LaChapelle’s film, that climax comes at an annual krump dance showdown known as Battle Zone. Battle Zone has formalized what had been a wholly ad hc movement, and it is at Battle Zone V, held in November, 2003, that Tommy the Clown, or Thomas Johnson, the man credited with inventing the dance from which krumping evolved, can be seen in “Rize” going into ferocious dance combat alongside his crew.
A krump session always involves one of these showdowns, in which two dancers meet inside a circle and take wild posturing runs at each other, mock attacks tghat are both martial and balletic. The music is loud, sampled from hip-hop and rap and mash tapes; the audience is made up of whoever in the neighborhood happens to have gotten the word; the winners are signaled by ovations and screams.
This entire article should be read to feel the full force of krumping. Its pictures show krumping in action. Solow Gogit, dancer with the Rice Track Family distinguishes: “Clowning is more an entertainment. Krump is real emotion. It’s like fight night.” The article also explains the religious conversions and faith that paralleled the move of many gang members from gang banging to dancing. It makes clear that what started spontaneously among a few has spread through neighborhoods and ethnicities, into music videos and films—and indeed, we might add, around the world.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
1. How much did you know about clowning and krumping before reading this article? Do you sense it is faithful to this new dance and art form?
2. Take some time to reflect or discuss what you consider the be the meaning and implications of krumping.
3. What do you see as the positive aspects of krumping? Do you see any negatives or dangers in it?
4. How far, and for how long, do you expect krumping to spread?
IMPLICATIONS
1. Krumping has already moved from local art to pop art in music videos and films. It is something to be taken seriously.
2. Clowning and krumping must be hailed as a positive alternative to gang violence. It shows the resilience of the human spirit in difficult situations, the creativity of youth, and the need for personal and communal celebration.
Dean Borgman c. CYS
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Krumpin rule to the hip hop i
Krumpin rule to the hip hop i know of the best show ever to see. I witness krumpin as an emotional feel to movement shown with experiences within the individual person lifestyle. I self taught krumpin as an expression to indicate the experience i went through and brought a dvd called rize and copied some moves of the best krumpers in the world as practice mode.
I carried alot of anger emotions, within fact i wanted to meet professional krumpers with ambitions to teach and educate me what it also means. I was lucky, very lucky to meet the australian champ krumpers who given me the priviledge to mix and hang with them for all means of love.
I love hip hop in all areas, i grew up with it and stuck to it all my life. In the country i was born hip hop was always in especially old skool breaking and new skool hit the streets in todays generation. I love now who i am and what i experienced. Go the krumpin styles and i miss it very much.
personal suggestion- love a dancer,never trust anyone outside of the dance seen as they can get very envious and jealous of the person in the industry. I have experienced it and it was the worse mistake of all.Both sex.
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