On June 3rd, I will be teaching a family friendly dance class with choreography that will be “Hip Hop/ Jazz Funk” in style.

I chose this date to teach the class weeks ago, and earlier this week I was feeling sick to my stomach that this class is falling amidst such mass exposure of the violence and racism against Black lives. 

I thought about it more, and now I couldn’t be more excited that the random date I chose is falling amidst this massive movement for Black lives.

Black lives matter.

To me that is the only thing that matters right now. I am angry. I am heartbroken. I am spending my time taking action and educating myself. I thought about canceling my class, but instead I want to use this opportunity to talk about the origin of these dance styles. I want to share why I believe we can, and should, still dance and have an upbeat, positive experience on Wednesday. 

I have studied and trained for nearly 20 years in many dance styles, but most consistently in Jazz and Musical Theater Jazz. I was conditioned to be a kick-line, skirt-shaking showgirl, emulating Chita Rivera with my jazz hands and Fosse poses and character heels. I have also studied Hip Hop most of my life. Musical Theatre is often a reflection of the world and a melting pot of style and culture. From opera to rap, musical theater has adopted and meshed styles and genres, challenging performers and audiences alike to engage with unfamiliar culture. Theater and art, including theater dance, tell a story. Stories cannot be told without lived experiences to reflect on stage.

Jazz dance was created by Black lives. Jazz dance was brought over to America by African slaves. Unlike ballet, Jazz dance involves the dancer’s hips and rib cage, dancing with full expression. What both Jazz and Hip Hop have in common is the level of abandon and freedom in the movement and full use of the body.

Hip Hop Dance has shown up more and more in theater recently (Hamilton, In The Heights, etc), immersing predominantly white theater-goers into the styles and culture of Hip Hop.

However, we would be remiss to not acknowledge where Hip Hop was born, and who created it in the first place.

Hip Hop is the culture created by Black lives in the early 70s, beginning with “father of hip hop,” Jamaican DJ Kool Herc, playing music at a Bronx back-to-school party he was throwing for his sister.

Kool Herc combined breaking, emcee-ing, graffiti art, and DJing, which was the birth of Hip Hop as a culture. It then went to b-boys and b-girls dancing in response to the DJs music.

As said in this Steezy article:

“The early b-boys and b-girls came from all kinds of backgrounds of movement. They brought salsa, Cuban mambo and rumba, Brazilian samba, Jazz dance, as well as martial arts like Kung-Fu and Capoeira to influence Breaking. So imagine this scene – a DJ playing breakbeats, dancers (young and angsty) looking to release emotion or assert their dominance or just be somebody.”

Hip Hop has had many iterations and sub-genres, and I personally was first introduced to West Coast Funk as a native Angeleno in the late 90s/early 2000s. 

Over the years I have noticed that even with all my “classical” Jazz training, a Hip Hop influence bleeds through my Jazz choreography and a Jazz influence bleeds through my Hip Hop choreography. When I scheduled this dance class for Forefront, I decided to acknowledge and embrace the fact that my natural fusion choreography instinctively draws from both of these incredible styles. I do not, however, want to dilute their unique and pure origins.

I could write a thesis-length blog post on these topics, but I instead will focus now on the history of Hip Hop in particular. I watched an incredible speech called “40 years of Hip Hop” given by KRS-One in 2013 at Hip Hop Appreciation Week in Amsterdam. I highly recommend it, if you’ve got an hour and 40 minutes to kill (come on, it's quarantine… you know you’ve already watched everything on Netflix). In this snippet taken from the full speech, KRS-One defines Hip Hop as,

“‘Hip’ means ‘to know’. ‘Hop’ means movement. Awareness and movement. Consciousness and movement. Action. Intelligence and action. Activity. So ‘hip’ and ‘hop’ or ‘Hip Hop’ means conscious movement.” 

Conscious movement. 

He goes on to define the first 40 years of Hip Hop (1973-2013), and breaks it into three categories. “Hiphop” is collective consciousness, the spirit with which we cannot see in the material world. “Hip Hop” is the culture including breaking, emceeing, graffiti art, DJing, and more. He defines the third category as “hip-hop”, which encompasses the products we consume (CDs, T-shirts, merchandise, celebrity). To successfully and honorably participate in the culture (to participate in dance), KRS-One says “first think about what everyone’s thinking about. How can I link with the collective consciousness of this thing called Hiphop?”

This hit me hard. I have noticed a serious shift in consciousness with this most recent wave of #BlackLivesMatter. It is far too late, but I am glad it is happening. I hope we hold onto this shift in consciousness once the hashtag is no longer trending. 

I have always said, “when words fail, dance.” Dance in and of itself is a language that we all have access to speaking. It does not require training. It only requires a body moved by emotion. I believe now is the perfect time to dance through the dialects of Jazz and Hip Hop. The collective consciousness right now, what we (hopefully) are all thinking about, is that Black Lives Matter. We need to take conscious, intelligent action. 

Dancing and exercise is a great way to channel and release some of the tension and energies held in our bodies right now. I often use dance as a release; an opportunity to clear my head, move my body, and make sense of my emotions. What better way to clear our heads and honor Black lives simultaneously, than to dance for an hour with specific influence and knowledge of this culture? What better way than to introduce the kids in our lives to this kind of movement? Parents reading, I hope you share this with your kids (or at least your takeaways) before coming to class. I hope you find ways to talk to your children now about how to be anti-racist and how to honor our Black siblings. That sounds pretty dope to me. That sounds pretty Hip Hop to me. 

I am no Hip Hop expert, but I am honored to have been influenced by Black lives from my very first introduction to dance as a child. I vow to continue to learn and educate myself on these topics. I always invite accountability. 

So yes, I am scheduled to teach a “family friendly dance class” on Wednesday. I hope it will be an upbeat, positive experience for all ages and all levels, kids and adults alike. My choreography will be “Hip Hop/ Jazz Funk in style”, and I acknowledge that it will be a fusion inspired by Black lives. But it is not a Hip Hop class. This fusion is not intended to dilute the origins of either dance form. 

I hope you join me in making conscious movement during class on Wednesday, June 3rd, at 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT on Zoom. I hope you bring your friends, kids, and roommates. I hope you are having important conversations, and most importantly, I hope you take action to support and honor Black lives.

Makenzie Gomez, Community Director