The documentary “Rize” by David LaChapelle, focuses on the lives of Black Americans who live in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles they go through in their daily lives. Moreover the film also introduces two types of dancing groups that they have in the community. These dance groups are meant to keep the youths and children occupied and distracted from all the problems that have been going on in their community, such as the LA riot. The two styles of dancing are Clowning and Krumping. Clowning was created by Tommy the Clown in 1992. Tommy used to be a formal drug dealer, he went from having his life together to losing all his money and house. However, instead of doing nothing productive with his life, he decided to help his community by changing the lives of others through entertainment. In addition, not only did this dancing group help him get to a better place in life but also the group members are like his family. His main goal was to help put similes on people’s faces and help get some of these children and youths away from gangs. On the other hand, Krumping was also generated from Clowning, however Krumpers believe that their form of entertainment is different from clowning. Moreover, these dancing groups main focus is to distract the youths and children in the community by giving them the opportunity to do something they love, which is dancing. Furthermore, passion, spiritual connections and connection to the African culture are conveyed through the film by Clowning and Krumping. Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try... ... middle of paper ... ...ating with each other and these are the same values that are being passed on to this generation. The dancers in South-central Los Angeles, uses this form of art to express their feelings and it a form of communicating just like their ancestors did back in there days. At the same time, it allows them to have a much deeper connection with their roots. To conclude, one can say that dancing has been a true life saver for some of them because not only is it allowing them to express themselves but it also gives them another option than just being a gang member. Dancing also helps them express their passion for the art and it a form of spiritual connection, while connecting them to the African culture. They relieve all their stress and anger through dancing. Lastly, dancing give them a sense of pride and hope that life could get better with hard work and perseverance.
Currently in the United States of America, there is a wave a patriotism sweeping across this great land: a feeling of pride in being an American and in being able to call this nation home. The United States is the land of the free and the home of the brave; however, for the African-American citizens of the United States, from the inception of this country to midway through the twentieth century, there was no such thing as freedom, especially in the Deep South. Nowhere is that more evident than in Stories of Scottsboro, an account of the Scottsboro trials of 1931-1937, where nine African-American teenage boys were falsely accused of raping two white girls in Scottsboro, Alabama and no matter how much proof was brought forth proving there innocence, they were always guilty. This was a period of racism and bigotry in our country that is deeply and vividly portrayed though different points of view through author James E. Goodman.
This documentary not only talks about a significant period in African American and American history; it also gives us a mo...
This movie was very sad but depicted the many social problems of struggling black communities in the early 1990’s. We learned in Adler, Mueller, & Laufer how criminal behavior as a result of frustrations suffered by lower-class individuals deprived of legitimate means to reach their goals are
Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the blacks and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk, 1990). America loves appropriating black culture — even when black people themselves, at times, don’t receive much love from America.
Considering descendants’ effort to bring this culture back in society, this entire dancing performance, masks, and the idea of interacting with the outside world must not have been merely correlated to their religious and spiritual ritual. It might have been their identity; a symbolic of their society which their ancestors had built and passed down to them.
The possession of dance goes to emphasize the idea that gaining a sense of control through dance comes by being possessed by a deity or spirit that processed to speak or act using the possessed person’s body. Being possessed by a deity relates back to some cultures in foreign countries such as Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean, in which the people recognize a person’s poo...
In the video Disrupting the Miseducation of African American Youth, the speaker Kwame Shake Opare discuss how he used dance to open the eyes and show opportunities to young students in the Baltimore city school system. As a choreographer, performing artist, and dance instructor Opare has worked all over the world in areas of teaching and learning dance, but nothing had prepared him for the lack of guidance students were facing in the classroom. On the first day Opare observed the students in his classroom. The second day he gave class rules, which was shocking to the students. The students were accustom to teachers that did not care about the classrooms climate and culture. The students were allowed to speak language that was not appropriate
Originating from the streets of Harlem comes a song that, initially, did not gain much fan fair, but went viral on the internet after comedian, Filthy Frank, made a ridiculous dance video of it (Knopper, 2013). Thousands of copycats created different version in unexpected environments such as skydiving or underwater(Allencastre, 2013). The song is called Harlem Shake by DJ producer, Bauuer. These videos popularized a underground, electronic, dance music (EDM) genre known as “trap”. A genre that attempts to bridge popular EDM synths with southern hip hop influences. Baauer evolves this genres by bringing a much more electric element to the sound so hip hop may not be a genre that comes to mind when listening to the track. This short essay will attempt to analyze this piece of music from an instrumental point of view by naming the different instruments used, discussing pitch. The paper will also discuss duration, tempo, timbre, dynamics, texture and silences at different parts of the song. Through its structure and mood, I will attempt to create a story and give meaning to this music. Indeed, overall, this music is a story that represents the prolonging, desensitized, gang warfare that infested the Harlem district of New York during the 1920s.
Over a significant time frame, African Americans have been forced to endure numerous hardships – one of which being the negative stigmas that unfairly generalize their people, culture and way of life. These stereotypes of a whole nationality label Blacks as, “superstitious, lazy, ignorant, dirty, unreliable, (and even) criminal,” (“Stereotypes”). Such generalizations are products of the public’s perception, which has been diluted by rooted historic and current prejudice, as well as the media’s conveyance of a well-known African American cultural center: Harlem. Despite negative connotations associated with it, Harlem stands as a community that strives to flourish and maintain its strong cultural status. George Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, states, “People think kids are all violent, and they’re all out fighting and shooting.
The Folklorico group presentation I was honored to observed was the “Grupo Folklorico Juventud” from North Salinas High School. I decided to attend to this presentation because I use to be part of this Folklorico group. I also enjoy watching the dances for the reason that I believe they are beyond beautiful. It is amazing how a simple dance could transmit so much information while representing a region from Mexico. From my observation experienced, I noticed every region has different movements and customs for a reason. While observing the presentation I noticed most women used long skirts to create different shapes. They usually create the eight shape, half a circle or an entire circle which is created when the dancer does an entire spin while holding and moving their skirt. The skirt is also moved in different levels, such as high, medium, and low. The two levels that are used in most of the dances is the high and the medium level. While dancing the men and women usually do the same steps and movements. All the dances include “zapateados” which are known as foot dances or stomps. The “zapateados” are usually done with different parts of the feet such as the toe, heel and the sole of the feet. The dances include “zapateados” with different sections of the feet because every part creates a different sound. Most of the dances also include jumps and turns. It is extremely important for the
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...
During the period after the emancipation many African Americans are hoping for a better future with no one as their master but themselves, however, according to the documentary their dream is still crushed since even after liberation, as a result of the bad laws from the federal government their lives were filled with forced labor, torture and brutality, poverty and poor living conditions. All this is shown in film.
Dance is one of the many forms of art in which people express themselves. It is one of the oldest forms of expression. As a non-verbal form of art, dance involves itself not with reason to discourse but rather with feelings, attitudes, images, relationships, shapes, and other forms of emotions. Many generations, but specifically Generation Y, express themselves through dance. Dance can be anything from a wiggle in the finger toa twist of the hips. But this generation knows that there is more to dance than just technique and movement.
Have you ever thought about the history of dance, or how long human life has known it? Dance has been here longer than we actually think. We can take dance back all the way to 600 BC to Now. Dance has made very big changes overtime. It went from doing it in honor for only the dead or religious situations to now just doing it for fun. The way or different moves have also changed over this big course in time. It ways and moves have changed, and the outfits used to perform these different types of dances. There has been clean and dirty dancing all along, some of things in those dances have stayed, others haven’t. Dance has been a very great thing and will stay being a great thing during human life because it expresses a lot. It expresses itself, and a person can express their feelings, in the different kind of moves. It does take time to get to know the moves but you can get through.
“Dance, the art of precise, expressive, and graceful human movement, traditionally, but not necessarily, performed in accord with musical accompaniment. Dancing developed as a natural expression of united feeling and action.”