In the midst of the South Bronx’s structural decline and disregard from neighboring boroughs and politicians, cultures, traditions, lifestyles and music from the South Bronx’s diverse population merge to birth new artists and art forms. In the episode Raise Your Words, Not Your Voice, Baz Luhrmann’s visual design not only demonstrates the coming of age of six young people of color, but also the transformation of hip-hop and the South Bronx. Ezekiel "Zeke" Figuero, Shaolin Fantastic, Ra-Ra Kipling, Marcus “Dizzee” Kipling, Boo-Boo Kipling, and Mylene Cruz navigate gangs, politicians, and
Through thick sideburns, levi brand jeans, red pumas, huckapoo shirts, and high-slit glittery dresses, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s wife, and
…show more content…
costume designer, Jeriana San Juan transport fans of The Get Down to the 70s. While the clothes and setting tells the story of the times, it also shows the influence of Asian cultures in the Hip-Hop community, sexuality, class and the complicated relationships between the South Bronx and it’s residence. Throughout the series, Shaolin Fantastic, played by Shameik Moore, seems to embody martial arts.
In an interview with Fashionista, Jeriana San Juan says, “In reference to athletic-wear and Asian martial arts, Shaolin sticks with a stark red, white and black color scheme — even down to his undies” ( Fawnia Soo Hoo, Fashionista). Everything from his name to his style, and the scoring when he runs and jumps, and makes music is reminiscent of old Kung Fu movies. During the DJ battle in the finale episode, when Shaolin Fantastic is about to put on the “Set Me Free” song, you hear what sounds like a Japanese temple bell. However, the relationship between hip-hop and Kung Fu movies is not a random one, it is deeply rooted in the lyrics of many hip-hop artists and bboys. According to E. Alex Jung’s analysis of The Get Down, “B-boying is the epitome of pop-cultural dance, because they took, unbeknownst and knowingly, stuff from the Nicholas Brothers, from Bruce Lee, from kung fu theater, [and] from '70s gang culture ...If it wasn't for Hong Kong cinema, hip-hop street-dancing culture would be a bit different” (E. Alex Jung, Vulture). Aspects of Asian culture also show up during the voguing scene in the episode. In one scene, you see a drag queen wearing a short Cheongsam dress and voguing on the …show more content…
stage. In the same scene, you see more outlandish and sparkly costumes, which are reminiscent of Luhrmann’s previous movies Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby. The bright and colorful dresses seem to symbolize a transformation in sexuality or sexual freedom in The Get Down. In the voguing scene, Dizzee asks Thor about the club and Thor responds, “this is where the free people are free.” In the next scene, Mylene’s song “Set Me Free” begins to play and Thor and Dizzee kiss. In this instance, Dizzee’s sexuality is “set free” and he can express himself truthfully. The viewer sees a similar instance in the pilot and the second episodes when Mylene is trying to free herself from her father’s religious grip and become an artist. In the second episode, Mylene defies her father at church when she busts out from the back of the choir wearing a sexy, sparkly, high-slit dress and catching the attention of music producer who helps her become famous. In the Raise Your Words, Not Your Voice episode, the costumes and set design also make a subtle commentary about class and the complicated relationships between the South Bronx and it’s residence. In the scene where Zeke, Papa Fuerte, and mayoral candidate Ed Koch are giving a speech, the viewer sees a stark difference between the people attending the speech and the community around them. The people are vibrant compared to their surroundings. In the scene, Ed Koch is towering over the people and talking about getting rid of hip-hop music and graffiti. The speech scene bounces back and forth from the impending dj battle where the surroundings and clothing are more colorful and vibrant. It’s as if mayoral candidate Ed Koch cannot see the value in the art coming out of the community. The viewer sees a similar scene earlier in the episode when Zeke has dinner with his boss from his new internship. When Zeke walks into his home, the viewer sees a somewhat bland foyer with expensive art hanging on the wall and meets the boss's daughter, Claudia, who speaks French. In the next scene, Claudia shows Zeke a room full of first edition books from Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Orwell, and Salinger. The scene seems to insinuates that certain art is seen as valuable to upper class people. Luhrmann sprinkles a little irony in the scene when Claudia asks if Zeke has heard of punk music and when he says no, Claudia’s mom asks, “You don’t know ‘I want to be sedated?’ Another way Luhrmann communicates the transformation of the South Bronx, hip-hop, and the six budding artist is through his editing techniques.
Throughout the entire season, Luhrmann uses a fast-cutting technique to piece together real footage from the 70s and flashbacks from the characters to tell progress the story, which is a common technique he uses in his other works. In an analysis of Romeo and Juliet from students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County found that, “ whenever the violence is about to happen or in the process of occurring, Luhrmann makes very quick cuts from image to image. This not only speeds up the action, but also creates a sense of chaos because the camera appears to be erratically following the action” (Luhrmann camera
techniques). Luhrmann’s cut technique is very apparent in the The Get Down; however, depending on what the flashbacks are referring to, the speed is different. When Shaolin and Boo find Napoleon, an enemy of the Get Down Brothers, sleeping near their hangout spot, Shaolin pressures Boo to smack Napoleon and just when he raises his hand, you see a series of slow motion clips chronicling Napoleon’s experience over the last few days. In the clips, you see Napoleon’s baby brother shot in the head and the man who did it. Through this technique, the viewer is able to connect with Napoleon, despite him being a nuisance in earlier episodes, and feel remorse for him. The viewer also sees the same technique when the future Zeke, played by Daveed Diggs, reviews what happened in the previous episode. In this instance, the footage plays at normal speed and the viewers are able to follow what has already happened. Interestingly enough, the footage of Daveed Diggs narrating from the future is reminiscent of Lin Manuel Miranda’s technique in his hip-hop musical Hamilton.
“Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.” This quote from George Norlin echoes the edification that cultural exposure can offer. How does African dance relate to do modern dance? The two are so heterogeneous in their make-up that one would not think of them as having similarities. The truth, however, is that all dance forms are linked in some way or another; they all strengthen and sharpen each other. Modern dance has its roots in African dance with the emphasis placed on the connection of weight and gravity. Brenda Dixon Gottschild names five aesthetics that are present in African dance. A particular piece that draws attention to the relation of the five aesthetics to modern dance is “Split Sides”, choreographed by Merce Cunningham.
Since the decade of 1920, America has been the setting for a progressive "Black Arts Movement." This African-American cultural movement has taken shape in various genres, gaining mass appeal, through multiple capitalistic markets. Even with the use of capitalism this cultural arts movement has stayed set upon its original purpose and direction, by aiding in cultural identity awareness. The knowledge of the duel-self through community awareness as it pertains to economic perceptions and other social boundaries or the metaphysical-self; what W.E.B. Du Bois coined as "twoness," or a division of one’s own identity as a African-American. (Reuben 2) A realization of the existence of two beings within one’s mental identity, where time alters attitude and identity through environmental influence of passing events. The discovery of the "New Negro" in the Harlem Renaissance marks the beginning of this essential philosophy contributing to the 1960’s Black Arts Movement and the Civil Rights Movement; continuing to be evident in current forms of black art, such as within the lyrics of hip-hop music. These revolutionary Ideals of reform have been voiced in the lyrics of many rappers of urban realism, like the New York M.C.’s Rakim, Run-D.M.C. and west coast rapper Tupac Shakur. Though this form of expression is opposed by most academic elitists and fundamental conservatives due to their vulgar expressions of sex and violence depicted within the genre of Hip-Hop; it in opposition actually presents an internal cultural conflict revealed through the redefinition of one’s own identity with poetic lyrical expressions of realism.
In conclusion, Lurhmann uses a lot of modern filming techniques to make Romeo and Juliet appeal to a contemporary audience. By relating certain aspects to situations in modern society, it makes the audience understand the ideas behind the original play and he simplifies the complicated old English of Shakespeare by adding exciting and dynamic visuals. Lurhmann tried to create a modern version of Romeo and Juliet and he was completely successful in his aims. Lurhmann defied all odds by making his film appeal to a modern audience and not only is this film very clever, it is a must see for any film lovers.
How the film techniques used by Baz Luhrman to influence the portrayal and development of characters in the film Strictly Ballroom?
Inside the album jacket, Serch sums up hip-hop in ‘89: “There was a time when nothing was more important than the New York Rap Scene.” It’s dilluted, but not divided.” To hip-hop afficionados, Serch’s quote sounds like the equivalent to a Vietnam soldier’s letter home. Obviously, the group saw the possibility of the hip-hop culture being tainted.
New Dance is described as a developing art form; this dance was articulated in the early 20th century. According to Chapter 8 in History of Dance book, “the new dance emerged as a response to the ballet that populated the variety shows and music halls, which had a rigid formula of steps and poses” (Kassing). The New Dance was a product of several strands that interlaced together dancers’ studies and backgrounds; these strands and others were woven together in a historical, political, and societal framework. For instance, one strand of New Dance consisted of the concepts, techniques, costumes, and stage settings from around the world. These strands influenced major dancers and choreographers, such as, Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn.
In the words of rapper Busta Rhymes, “hip-hop reflects the truth, and the problem is that hip-hop exposes a lot of the negative truth that society tries to conceal. It’s a platform where we could offer information, but it’s also an escape” Hip-hop is a culture that emerged from the Bronx, New York, during the early 1970s. Hip-Hop was a result of African American and Latino youth redirecting their hardships brought by marginalization from society to creativity in the forms of MCing, DJing, aerosol art, and breakdancing. Hip-hop serves as a vehicle for empowerment while transcending borders, skin color, and age. However, the paper will focus on hip-hop from the Chican@-Latin@ population in the United States. In the face of oppression, the Chican@-Latin@ population utilized hip hop music as a means to voice the community’s various issues, desires, and in the process empower its people.
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
Rap music became popularized in Atlanta and the rest of the South in the early to mid-1980s. The first rap to come out of the city of Atlanta was uptempo party music with heavy bass and very obvious Florida influence. Hits like “Whoomp! (There It Is)” by Tag Team, and “Jump” by Kriss Kross defined the pre-Outkast era of Atlanta hip-hop. While these songs were immensely popular (“Whoomp!” is ranked by Billboard as one of the greatest songs of all time (“Greatest of All Time”) while “Jump” was one of the top 3 selling songs of 1992 (“Week Ending May”), groups from the city, for the most part, were commonly seen as “novelty” and “kiddie crews” (“Kriss Kross: Da Bomb”). While the emergence of relatively simple but enjoyable music was going on in Atlanta, rap as a whole began to truly explode. The newest major music genre entered its golden era; “Ready to Die” by Biggie Smalls, “Illmatic” by Nas, and “Me Against The World” by 2Pac were all albums that were rated “five mics” by The Source (“5 Mics?”) The “five mic” rating from The Source indicated an exceptional and rare hip-hop album. In this time of growth in hip-hop culture Atlanta, and the South as a whole was in large part left out. People were enthralled by cross country feuds between rap superstars; but just when it seemed like there was no space at the time for rap from anywhere but New York or California, the duo of Andre “3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, better known as Outkast single-handedly redefined rap music. Andre 3000 played an instrumental role in defining not just rap, but music as a whole in the 1990s and 2000s. His presence transitioned Southern rap from being viewed as nothing more than exciting, throw away party music to music that could be timeless an...
Jeffries, M. P. (2011). Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-hop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Black culture in our society has come to the point where it is allied with pop culture. The most popular music genres, slang terms, to dance forms it all comes from black culture. Hip hop emerged from black culture, becoming the soul of it that is seen in the media. Hip hop helped the black community by creating new ways of expressing themselves, from breakdance, graffiti, rap and other music, to slang. This culture was rooted in their tradition and created from something new. Hip hop created a new form of music that required the use of turn tables, ‘cuts’, loops, rhythm, rhyme, stories, and deep-rooted emotions, but also incorporated black oral forms of storytelling using communal authors.
It is impossible to separate my voice from this topic, as I was born as an African
I am choosing to do my dance critique on the third dance, which is named “Ask and Tell”. This dance consisted of 2 male dancers along with two chairs as their props. They started dancing in the chair, using it as a platform to begin telling their story through dance. To begin, I can see that both the dancers displayed great posture, tall and erect when showing strength and hunched over when they are showing defeat. All the dance movements were in sync with one another; it was as if the two dancers were ultimately moving as one in harmony. A slow music complimented the dance to allow the audience to be fully focused on the dancing and the story behind it. At times in the dance, the music would pick up to accompany the change in the dancer’s
On the night of the DancePlus performance, I saw numerous little performances. There were six of them in total and the one I had most reactions and favors to is the last one of the first half, which is called Swampin. It was choreographed by John Evans with additional material by Oluwadamilare Ayoride, Jennifer Payan and surprisingly, the dancers. Usually what I would expect from a piece of dance performance is choreographers dominating the process of being creative on the grounds o f coming up dance moves. However, this time, it is nice to see how the dancer actually participating first hand in the creating process of the whole performance which would definitely benefit the quality of the dance, since the dancers would their own choreography
“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.”