Hip Hop Artists Teaching Hip Hop Classes
// February 1st, 2012 // No Comments » // Music
Hip Hop Artists, like Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin, Jr., educate hip hop lessons at Manhattan’s Steps on Broadway. But he takes note of when dance studios didn’t offer any hip hop by any means. Houston dancer Chris “Colcutz” Gamez and New York Culture Shock artistic director Ellie Burkey remember, too. Burkey used to freestyle with friends in the garage. Gamez got noticed performing at a street fair. Now Burkey instructs at Peridance and Gamez at his own studio in Houston, Urgeworks, which provides gangster rap almost exclusively. Over time, rap has moved inside, into the mainstream, and that transition has had a massive effect on studios, dancers, and the dance itself.
There are obvious benefits to the spotlight that music videos and movies have shone on rap: more educational resources, more versatile dancers, and more jobs. Studios that provide rap will probably bring in more students particularly more boys and more money. Learning weaving, popping, and locking are essential for working dancers. At auditions, they desire dancers who are diverse, and dancers are getting smart. They’re learning everything. They want a more urban line to their dancing. Adding hip hop is cross-training for dancers and revenue for studios. Studios that are smart are hearing who’s coming in.
Stretch started as a street dancer; he obtained a big break in 1986 at the now-defunct Union Square Club, where an improvised performance one night landed him six months of gigs opening for musical groups like Salt-N-Pepa, Eric B. and Rakim, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. He later toured with rap headliners Run-D.M.C. and did video work for Mariah Carey. In 1989 he started teaching at the original Broadway Dance Center. Fo the time being, hip hop had not really came into a formal setting. Hip hop, breaking, locking, popping, and b-boying they all started out as social dances. Being at a studio is not a social event.
Like Stretch, rap performer Gamez started grooving in clubs and garages, inspired by footage of New York’s Wrecking Shop that broadcast on Houston’s Channel 8 in the early ’90s. They began watching that, mimicking it, developing their own style. He liked the freedom of it, the liveliness. He grew up in a ghetto area, and here he was seeing individuals from the opposite side of the country that looked like they grew up in ghetto areas. The rap demonstrate he performs for Young Audiences illustrating math basics attracts students to his studio, the majority of whom are boys. His goal is to teach them the history and tradition of rap and the style.
The battle in moving from the street to the studio, says hip hop artists like Stretch, is maintaining hip hop’s taste and improvisational style. As a house dancer, Burkey agrees. “When you’re taking it into the studio, you have to be aware of how to break things down, and how to pull what’s original into class,” she says. Street Rap is a tough style to get. You have to learn how to groove and how to hit, and you have to understand where it comes from.




