Krump Dance - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumping

Krumping, also spelled Krumpin' (or referred to by those that undertake/view the dance style), is a street dance popularized in the United States that is characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement involving the arms, head, legs, chest, and feet. The youths who started krumping saw the dance as a way for them to escape gang life and "to release anger, aggression and frustration positively, in a non-violent way."

History:

Krump originated by 2 dancers being; Ceasare (pronounced CHEZ-a-ray) "Tight Eyez" Willis and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti in South Central, Los Angeles, California during the early 2000s in African American communities.  Clowning is the less aggressive predecessor to krumping and was created in 1992 by Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson in Compton, CA.  In the 1990s, Tommy and his dancers, the Hip Hop Clowns, would paint their faces and perform clowning for children at birthday parties or for the general public at other functions as a form of entertainment.  In contrast, krumping focuses on highly energetic battles and dramatic movements which Tommy describes as intense, fast-paced, and sharp.  "If movement were words, krumping would be a poetry slam."  Krumping was not directly created by Tommy the Clown; however, krumping did grow out of clowning.  The former leaders of the Krump Kings crew (now leaders of Street Kingdom), Ceasare (pronounced CHEZ-a-ray) "Tight Eyez" Willis and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti are credited with founding and developing krump.  They were both originally clown dancers for Tommy but they considered their dancing too "rugged" and "raw" for clowning so they eventually broke away and developed their own style.  This style is now known as krump. Tommy eventually opened a clown dancing academy and started the Battle Zone competition at the Great Western Forum where krump crews and clown.

It is often represented as K.R.U.M.P., which is a backronym for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise, presenting krumping as a faith-based artform. David LaChapelle's documentary Rize explores the clowning and krumping subculture in Los Angeles. He says of the movement: "What Nirvana was to rock-and-roll in the early '90s is what these kids are to hip-hop. It's the alternative to the bling-bling, tie-in-with-a-designer corporate hip-hop thing."

LaChapelle was first introduced to krump when he was directing Christina Aguilera's music video "Dirrty".  After deciding to make a documentary about the dance, he started by making a short film titled Krumped.  He screened this short at the 2004 Aspen Shortsfest and used the positive reaction from the film to gain more funding for a longer version.  This longer version became Rize which was screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and several other film festivals abroad.

Aside from Rize, krumping has appeared in several music videos including Madonna's "Hung Up", Missy Elliott's "I'm Really Hot", The Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama", and Chemical Brothers "Galvanize".  The dance has also appeared in the movie Bring It On: All or Nothing, the television series Community, and the reality dance competition series So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew. Russell Ferguson, the winner of the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance, is a krumper. The original web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers also featured krumping in season one during the fifth episode, "The Lettermakers".

Style:

There are four primary moves in krump: jabs, arm swings, chest pops, and stomps.  Krumping is rarely choreographed; it is almost entirely freestyle (improvisational) and is danced most frequently in battles or sessions rather than on a stage. Krumping is different stylistically from other hip-hop dance styles such as 

b-boying and turfing. Krumping is very aggressive and is danced upright to upbeat and fast-paced music, where as b-boying is more acrobatic and is danced on the floor to break beats. The Oakland dance style turfing is a fusion of popping and mimeing that incorporates storytelling and illusion. Krumping is less precise than these and more freestyle.  Thematically, all these dance styles share common ground including their street origins, their freestyle nature, and the use of battling. These commonalities bring them together under the umbrella of hip-hop dance.

Vocabulary:

• Battle: when competitors face-off in a direct dance competition where the use of arm swings and chest movements known as flares and bucks are extremely common.
• Biter: someone who attends sessions or watches battles only to feed on others' styles. i.e. plagiarism
• Session: when a group of krump dancers form a circle, or cipher in hip-hop context, and one-by-one go into the middle and freestyle.
• Buck: a level of intensity that a dancer reaches when krumping; this level of intensity is shown in the form of more expressive and creative moves.
• Labbin': when krump dancers get together to create new moves and/or adapt their style.
• Kill Off: when a krumper performs a move that excites the crowd to the point where the battle is over and the crowd surrounds said krumper; the opponent is "killed off."
• Arm Swing: the movement of your arms swinging in any direction.
• Stomp: the movement of stomping your foot.
• Jabs: Short, sharp stacato movements with the forearm or entire arm.
• Swag: The individual style, movement and character of a particular krump dancer.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.