Curtain up

Dance Magazine, July, 2004 by Wendy Perron

Hip Hop is everywhere. We're seeing it in music videos, in movies, and even on the concert stage. Dance studios are adding it to their offerings, and a recent DANCE MAGAZINE readers' survey shows that about a third of our readers either take or teach hip hop. Like tap, hip hop came from the inner cities and has spread throughout our country and beyond. Last fall, I was in Belarus in Eastern Europe at a choreography competition. After the banquet, the dancers let down their hair, and what did they do? Hip hop. Young performers from Oslo, Moscow, and Siberia were jamming to the beat--popping, locking, and spinning. I felt proud to be half way around the world, and see a dance form from my own country--I was the only American there--used as a universal language.

Our coverage this month includes a report on krumping, the fast and furious new form of hip hop out of Los Angeles. We also have an account on how hip hop traveled from the streets to the stage by scholar Sally Sommer, plus a few tips from the boyz who choreograph for Britney Spears' music videos, and a glossary to help you with the lingo.

At the other end of the dance spectrum is classical ballet, and this month we pay tribute to neo-classical choreographer Frederick Ashton, whose lyrical works have infused ballet with warmth and humor. His dances can make you swoon or giggle and want to know more. Ashton scholar David Vaughan guides us through the ballets, and four dancers appearing in the Lincoln Center Festival's Ashton celebration share their thoughts on the challenges of dancing Ashton. Clive Barnes, in his "Attitudes" column, further reveals the expanse of Ashton's oeuvre. At the moment, Ashton ballets are not quite as universal as hip hop, but they may be entering your neighborhood ballet company's repertoire sometime soon.

With this issue we inaugurate a new column called "On the Rise." We're on the lookout for young dancers, choreographers, and companies on the verge of breaking through. So many thousands of young dancers aspire to great heights, and so few actually reach those heights, that we sit up and take notice when we see that glow of promise. Our first "On the Rise" is about Fly, a group of twenty-somethings in Texas who tour with a repertoire based on hip hop.

Another new section is "Transitions"--not the title, but the content. Now we are including all kinds of transitions, not just that final, dreaded one. In this section you will also see notices of births, marriages, retirements, and career changes. Taking a page from hip hop DJs, we're sampling and remixing the elements.