By far the most frequently posted clip is the Evolution of Dance routine by comedian Judson Laipply. As someone who spends way more time than is healthy watching dance on YouTube, I find that tremendously depressing. Really? There’s people that think that’s the best dancing on YouTube?
Yes, Evolution of Dance is an interesting routine, but, to be honest, you are out of your freaking mind if you even try to argue that it’s better dancing than Turk busting out some new jack swing in Scrubs. Ugh.
Every couple of years or so, a hip-hop dance video suddenly explodes out of the hip-hop community and into the general public’s conciousness, and people who normally have no interest in dance start forwarding me links to it.
An absolutely beautiful dance film by the animator that created the fantastic Google Doodle for Martha Graham’s 117th birthday. It’s a must-watch for anyone with any interest at all in dance or animation.
According to the D.C. Sports Bog, the John Wall Dance was played out well before the above video was made, way back in February.
I don’t think the craze made it over the pond, though, and somehow I never got around to checking it out the first time round, so the recent resurgence of the dance when Wall was the no. 1 pick in the NBA draft was a welcome reminder.
I’ll be sure to break this one out next time I hit the clubs.
REBLOG IF YOU RESPECT WHAT THESE CATS ARE DOING TO THE SCENE. legit.
I’m guessing most of you reading this have no idea what the scene even is, let alone knowing what these guys are doing to it. I’m reblogging it anyway though, because it’s a superb battle.
Ignore the terrible headline. This article, by Jeff Chang, is by far and away the best article about breaking I have ever read in a mainstream publication. On the whole, it gets it right, and describes the dance and surrounding culture well.
But still, the passages where Chang actually describes the dance are terrible. The prose is awkward*, and worse than this, his use of terminology is incorrect throughout. One particular example: “The Russian takes a wide berth, flings off his light blue shirt, does a six-step, then launches into a spectacular one-armed move known as an air chair.” This doesn’t even come close to describing what is performed**.
Considering Chang’s bona fides, this is bizarre and, as a b-boy, it’s infuriating to read, especially bearing in mind that—as I mentioned—this is the absolute pinnacle of the way our art-form is portrayed in the media.
* Although in his defense, I have never read any that isn’t. I’m not sure if it’s even possible to describe such intricate body movements elegantly.
** Six-step is footwork, one of the first things you’d learn in a beginners’ breaking class. An air chair is a freeze. What Flying Buddha actually does is some basic toprock, followed by a couple of power combos. I’m not just being overly picky here. Imagine if you were to read an article about football where every goal were described as a “tackle”, or an article about public transport which called buses “trains” throughout. Chang’s description of breaking is literally that bad.
