Even in the rain we shine...

Hip-Hop...its our chosen way to express ourselves. You don't buy clothes and become Hip-Hop. You don't buy rap music and all of sudden you're miraculously transformed into Hip-Hop. We do what we do because we have no choice. Its like breathing air. Its a part of our vibe...a part of our being...to simply be, regardless of what other characteristics people try to impose upon us.

Its to being different when everyone tries to be the same. Its being proud of conquering whatever obstacles made us who we are today, not unlike failing many times at perfecting a dope freeze and yet getting up every single time we fall until we succeed at mastering it.

Its cherishing the fact that we are individuals with our own minds instead of just going along with the crowd.

Its shouting, "It may not look like a dance to you...but its my dance."

Its knowing that Hip-Hop is Peace, Love, and Understanding...and not the ignorance that's being spread by the radio, tv, and media.

Its to being accepting of all walks of life and cultures because we understand what its like to be misunderstood and stereotyped.

Everytime we dance...everytime we perform...we do it not just for the applause...but we do it because of all of the things above. On a stage, on the corner, in school, in a studio, at work, in a supermarket...anywhere....if we find it hard to fight the urge to dance in those places...then every chance we get to dance should be cherished.

Even in the rain we shine...

Culture = Identity? by Eric

I went to a recital of a studio that my friend Red teaches at. Was pretty dope. Its kinda interesting watching the difference between certain studios as far as what styles they want to instill in their students. One of the parents said,

"Are you one of Red's friends? I'm so glad Red makes his own music because I really don't want my children to dance to any of that "black crap" whether its new or old."

Wow. Hello Ignorance, its nice to see you're alive and well. But I digress...Its interesting how certain places are more open minded than others as far as what qualifies as a true art form. Lots of studios still don't consider hip hop as a valid dance form. They still think its a fad style and will pass eventually. That's funny because its gained nothing but momentum since its inception. Its also one of the few styles that persist throughout many genres of media (although usually portrayed incorrectly).

Hip Hop retains its long life because Hip hop is a culture. Its a way of life. It was originally the way of life of a people that were considered "less fortunate" than the well to do people of society. Culture = beliefs and interpretation of life....which is something that today's American culture severely lacks. That's why the government can brainwash the majority of the country so easily. When popular culture is based on media the government can easily manipulate it.

I love the Hip Hop culture, but not that garbage you see on tv or the crap rap you hear on the radio. That garbage people see and hear is actually the rape of a culture in front of their eyes. But they don't notice it, nor realize what's happening is wrong. This happens throughout history to many cultures.... While the American Indians (and other like raped cultures) were treated entirely more severe with the killing of tribes and taking of land, in this day and age that simply cannot be repeated. Today, in this psuedo-political correct world, you can't just send an army through the ghetto to cull the "different people." Hip Hop's rape is more subtle and its damaging in a different way.

Hip hop was originally the artforms of an oppressed urban people that was searching for something positive in an environment of poverty and racism. Hip hop was their escape and self expression through verbal poetry, dance, art, and music. Opposed to getting into trouble with the law or fall victim to the pitfalls of the ghetto, they would turn to Hip Hop and its artforms for a more positive form of recreation. Government saw it as a way to control these seemingly "wild" people and integrated it into popular media. They were successful.

The media formed a tempting way for these Hip Hop cats to make money and rise above the poverty they were so used to by forming recording companies. Through these companies they were much easier to control. The media guided them to rapping about negative and violent content which of course pigeonholes them as gangsters, drug dealers, players, and undesirables...when the original hip hop wasn't about those things at all. When the people of the ghetto would see one of their own rise above the poverty, they saw a way out of the confines of the ghetto...and if rapping about gangsters, drug dealers, players and other undesirables was a possible way out of poverty then its easy to see how easily this happened.

Its ironic how the media put a spin on what Hip Hop is now...drug dealers, gangsters, pimps, and killers...when Hip Hop was what kids turned to originally to stay away from those things. Now the constant messages of hate through a lot of music boomerangs back into the ghetto making their plight even more anti-progressive. Hip Hop used to be very political and a way to unify a people...but now we have "Shake it like a salt shaker!" as lyrics.

The media has made it so people who don't understand the plight of Hip Hop usually stay ignorant of the situation because they don't want to be associated with, don't care to try to understand, or easy buy into the stereotypes. Also the ghetto gets angrier and more violent due to the negative messages that were once positive in the music.

So congrats, Mrs. "I hate black crap new or old" you're another link in the ignorance fence that keeps your children from being more open minded. Oh and nice boomerang effect Mr. Media/Government. Assimilation of yet another culture: Check.

Eric

Hip-hop culture vs. Urban Ghetto (by Assad Conley)

Rising Above the Mentality: Hip-hop culture vs. Urban Ghetto Culture

A fresh, clean pair of Air Jordans. Your favorite Sean John jeans. A white tee shirt covered by a throwback jersey. All topped of with a fitted hat and a silver chain.

The same person wearing these clothes, is suddenly heard yelling:
"Ay dawg! Whaz duh science on hittin' up da club tonight? Ya know I be lookin' fo' a lil-sum-sum so a ni**a kin be gettin' whud he be needin'!!"

Just a regular guy, on a regular day, in a regular hood. This everyday image has been mis-interpreted as the stereotype of what hip-hop is. And what is even sadder than this guy's poor speech, is the fact that his way of dressing, his way of talking, walking, his mannerisms, are being packaged and sold to today's youth as being "hip-hop."

I write on these topics not because I think I am a know it all, but because I have seen these things first hand, and I want to share what I have seen.

What a lot of people don't realize (especially young people today), is that there is something called an Urban Ghetto Culture. The word culture can be explained as a collection of habits shared (practiced) by a group of people. Hip-hop, in its own right, is a culture. What happens in the "'hoods" and in the projects, is in its own right, a culture. But becuase hip-hop comes from the projects and the 'hoods, the two cultures are often confused and intertwined (generally under the name of hip-hop).

First, you have to take a look at what goes on in the projects. Sex at a young age, selling drugs on the corners, waiting on welfare checks on the 1st and 15th of the month, all someone needs to know can be learned right there on the street, speaking with proper grammar is not needed, babies are aborted and abandoned, the only clothes someone needs are the over-sized and over-priced threads you can find in any Chinatown sweatshop. The only thing that matters is your personal survival. Forget everyone else. Watch your own back, take care of yourself. If you get a girl pregnant by fooling around, it's her fault and her baby. Drinking 40's, smoking blunts, partying with ho's, pimps and pimping (I HAVE met REAL pimps might I mind you... and their prostitutes).

That's truly a short list of what goes on in the 'hood. You just need to witness it to learn everything that is going on.

Those things that go on in the 'hood, THOSE are the things hip-hop is trying to get rid of! Hip-hop is meant to educate on these negative aspects of ghetto life. Hip-hop is trying to RISE ABOVE it all!! I don't know how else to put it, it is so simple (therefore I must go back to urban ghetto culture).

"But hip-hop has evolved, it's different now, this is what it is now..." People do tend to write about what they know about (especially when it comes to poets). Rappers are really nothing much more than street poets. So they write about the streets. But there are two paths that can be taken. The first and the easiest, is to write in a way that GLORIFIES what they see everyday in the streets. The second and much harder path is the one that speaks of getting an education to raise your status (socially and economically) and denounces the ways of the ghetto.

At this point I really don't know how to put it. Maybe during my trip to New York this summer, I can sum it up better. But to be to the point on this subject:
What you see in mainstream "hip-hop" music, the clothing, the attitudes, the lifestyles, the speech, is part of the urban ghetto culture. It is what the hip-hop culture (conscious hip-hop) speaks against. It truly is ignorance being sold to today's youth.

Only a fool follows a fool.
Assad "Invent" Conley
FMC
GPC

The Truth (by Assad Conley)

This is something I wrote for a friend struggling to answer questions some young people had for him... mainly on what is the hip-hop culture about.

I can tell you this. To live the culture of hip-hop, you don't need to spend a single penny on it.


South Bronx, New York City, 1973. The civil rights era had just passed not but several years earlier. It was a time when race relations were still tense, and those of color were STILL trying to be heard.

A Jamaican born kid was continuing the popular Jamaican style of DJing in his bronx home. He was becoming a skilled DJ at a young age. So his sister asked him to DJ her birthday party. It was at a community center on Sedgewick Ave...

While Djing, this kid, known as Kool Herc, notcied something in particular while spinning records... people particularly responded when the "break" section of a song would come on. The break was a "breakdown" in funk tracks (like those of James Brown), where there was a heavy, but fast percussion solo.

Kool Herc decided he would mix together two of the same record, and keep it so the "break" kept playing over and over...

This was the birth of the hip-hop culture.


In a time riddled by gang violence, tense race and class relations, depressions of war, a change was needed. The youth of the ghettos of New York City not only wanted a voice, but they felt they NEEDED a voice. This voice was hip-hop.

The different elements of hip-hop (dancing, music, MCing, graffiti, fashion, etc...) did not come together as a culture called hip-hop until the late 70's and early 80's. Those that did graffiti were bombing (creating works) on the outsides of trains because they knew, those trains traveled all throughout the city... from the best to the worst neighborhoods. They wanted their canvas' to travel around the city so that people could view their works.

The bboys, we getting down... creating for themselves and themselves only... to be the best out there. They couldn't afford dance classes... but they could make their own dance... that anyone could be a part of as long as they were original and came hard with it... they were trying to kill their opponent with their dance. No smiles... no hugs... everyone was out to get everyone. Expressing the mood of the music through their footwork and freezes.

The DJs, spinning tracks at local parks for parties... creating the grooves that all of the south bronx would move too. They were creating with what they had. Two decks... a mixer, and some funk tracks. The breaks was their music, and the tables were their instruments.

The MCs... not a part of the picture until around 1976. When Herc wanted to keep ahead of the DJing game by introducing his friend, Coke La Roc as an MC... spitting simple rhymes to keep the crowd hyped. "Y'all came to see the show, I'll spice up your life with these flows, what you listenin' to is hip-hop, keep rockin' and ya don't stop!"

Fastforward to the mid-1980's. Hip-hop is hitting its "peak" in the public eye... the "breakdancing" (as it was mislabeled by the media) "craze" was dying down. Popping and locking included. MCing was taking the forefront. People like KRS-one, LL Cool J, Run DMC were taking the place of the original MCs. The party rhymes changed to being more socially aware as the dancing and graffiti was before it. Conditions were changing in the bronx but they were not improving.

The point of MCing, or rapping... has always been to put out one's point of view. Let the world know how things are where you live. Since hip-hop was becoming something that was spreading throught out the country (and especially into the suburban neighborhoods), the time was right.

I'm not going to lie. Rap talked about killing, drugs, unprotected promiscuis sex (this is in the time when the AIDS epidemic first began). But it was to let the world know HOW THINGS WERE in the South Bronx. The S.B. was at that time, THE MOST dangerous place in America. There was a lot going on there... but the people wanted a change. The people who discussed these things in rap, NEVER EVER had the intention of glamorizing it. They were talking about the bad and the ugly... They were trying to educate the world on THEIR reality.

Fastforward once again to today. The recording industry and big businesses have got a hold of hip-hop. It's being passed of as something you can eat, drink, smoke, snort. You can be a participant in it by wearing certain clothing, listening to certain music, acting a certain way. NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. I am going to break this down as simply as I know how.

To the recording industry... hip-hop means money. (this came true after they saw how Tupac sold... and trust me... Tupac was REAL). The more you can maket as being hip-hop, the more money you can make. McDonald's uses "hip-hop like beats" to promote the big mac. Sprite uses basketball players and slang. Tommy Hilfiger is a known racist. The Timerland Boot company is owned by members of the KKK. Record execs don't listen to what they sell, just as a drug dealer never gets his high off his own stash.

Usher, R. Kelly, Micheal Jackson, Brittney Spears, Christina Aguilara, Ciara... they ARE NOT HIP-HOP. Some of them are R&B at best. Most are pop icons. None of them do real hip-hop dancing, unless they are ONLY purely POPPING, BBOYING or LOCKING. The breaks made by Herc and others are the MUSIC of hip-hop. There ain't no "hip-hop singing." The only vocal thing to hip-hop is MCing and spoken word. MC's are socially conscious. 50 Cent, Chingy, Lil Flip, T.I. ARE NOT.

Do you want proof of all this?? Listen to old school hip-hop. Talk to some of the OGs... the ORIGINATORs of this culture... I know I have. They can tell you what it was, is and always will be about.
Hip-hop never went "underground". And it's not now. There IS NO underground movement. It's been there since day one as this culture, and it will always be like that.

What you see on MTV and BET and hear on the radio... AIN'T hip-hop. If you don't get or believe this next statement, I suggest you stand up after it, go to the local store, and spend all your money on CDs and clothes you think are hip-hop... because you're never going to do anything productive with your life...

Hip-hop can not be bought or sold. Hip-hop is something that latches onto your soul and becomes an everyday part of what you think, feel, how you express yourself, how you view the world. You will LIVE the hip-hop culture EVERY waking and sleeping moment of your life. And you don't need to spend a SINGLE penny to do it. Most MCs will spit their dopest track for you right there on the street corner, no music... just their SOUL to guide them.

If you can live hip-hop without spending a single dime on it in the next year... stand up, express yourself, and boycott the fakeness that is in the public eye.

Assad "Invent" Conley
Funkacidal Maniacs Crew
Generations Popping Crew

*Our souls have been sufficated by a mass destructive force called the media* by dyEn2tryaBrEaK

Dance, Music, and the Visual Arts... all forms of human expression. Before words were uttered and the text invented, people were dancing, painting and drumming to the rhythms of their hearts. There world was simplistic and basic.

Today we are burdened with ridiculous trends that captivate our youth with "sparkles and glitter". Celebrities and money rule our world. If Ashanti says Pepsi is cool, then the food store's shelves are cleared of it the next day. If Paris Hilton sports a Gucci handbag to the VMA's, then every little girl needs to own one (where do they get the money!?) If a commercial says hip hop is the 'in thing', everyone rushes to sign up for a class. See, there's nothing wrong with trying new things. But don't do it because your all your friends or that hot celeb does it. Where's the individuality in this?

We allow ourselves to be dominated by the commercial
industry because we are AFRAID to be different. I can't exhibit an abstract artwork because people always ask "what is it?" instead of "what is it about?". However, I don't let it stop me, but it does make me feel a little self-conscience.
The same goes for dancing. How many times have you heard "freestyle? I cant dance without steps!" Hey guys, It's in the music! Just how emotions dictate what will go on my canvas, my body acts out how Im feeling according to the music. If your not FEELING, you're not dancing!

Just because you can hit a triple turn doesn't mean your an amazing dancer. Everyone has the ability to dance, it's the ones who feel it in their hearts that are truely free. So get up, turn up the volume, and break out... Now you're a real artist :)

One Love,
dyEn2tryaBrEaK

Hip Hop and the Trends in the Dance Industry - By Eric

This is an article that's been posted on a couple of Hip Hop website.

---------------------------------------------

The hip hop and pop/fusion/commercial dance industries. If you don't give a shit about either then move on to the next article. This article is for the people that actually care about the ignorance that brought about this phenomenon. This is about hip hop. Let me draw some parallels before I bring up my point to further elucidate. Its ignorance that makes a person call any person of Asian decent they see, Chinese, or any person of Latin background, Spanish. Its the same way with the hip hop. I wasn't born into hip hop but rather grew into it. Its the ability to relate to certain aspects of a culture or lifestyle that draws people to them. Your own personal ignorance is diminished once you start to identify cultures instead of group them all together, but ignorance still persists until you learn as much as you possibly can about each separate culture. Knowing where you came from allows you to know where you want to go. Knowing where others came from allows you to understand them better. Ignorance is minimized. With that said let's look at the industry.

Having been a hip hop dancer/choreographer in the industry for awhile now I have taught in a number of dance studios in NJ and NYC and no matter where you go you'll almost always find some joker that names their class hip hop when they don't teach hip hop. Most of these styles are fusion or street funk however in NYC, where history and origin are the city's heart, you need to show respect. If your style is fusion, then call it fusion. If your class teaches street funk, call it street funk. If your class does in fact teach hip hop, then call it hip hop. Try to understand where I'm coming from. Hip hop is a lifestyle and a culture. A hip hop class would teach about the culture while concentrating more on the dance aspect of hip hop. Hip hop heads don't hate any other styles of dance, they are respected and loved by any spectrum of dance however hip hop is different just as any other style is different. The point is to recognize the origin and history of where the style you teach came from. Its the only way to pass it on.

There's an underground house/hiphop convention that is held in nyc once every month. At this convention/club all the old school heads, who attributed to the birth of the hip hop dance forms (popping, locking, bboying, uprocking, whacking, boogaloo, etc.) attend to work out just like they used to, to show the new school where they came from. Here you'll find Boogaloo Sam, Poppin Pete, Stretch, Rockafella, Quikstep, Brian "Footwork" Green, and occasionally the members of Rocksteady. This convention is held in the environment of how the originators of hip hop learned in the past. They didn't learn in a classroom. They learned on the streets and the underground. The purpose is to educate the new school heads at these conventions. They teach the origins of dance styles, the names of moves, the originators of steps, and the variations based on borough and geography. The emphasis on these conventions is EDUCATION.

This new fusion style that has been created out of the new popstar sensation has been at the height of commercial dance for almost a decade now and it is finally starting to see a small decline in the demand. The fusion style is looked at like a fad or trend style. The reason is that it is not one of the "core" styles of dance. Styles such as hip hop, jazz, ballet, tap, etc are considered "core" styles due to the fact that every step has a name and origin. A fad style does not therefore not allowing it to be passed down or taught effectively to the next generation.

Its not difficult when looking at history. Hip hop, ballet, jazz, and tap attendance never fluctuated to a severe degree, however the fad/fusion styles fluctuate depending on the trends in music and the industry. You can see it by thinking about a certain piece of choreography...let's say hip hop and more specifically locking. If you were to expose the public to a locking combination 20 years ago it would have been generally recieved as hot. If you were to expose the same combination currently it would still be considered hot. If you were to expose the same combination 20 years from now it will still be considered hot. We can see this in some of videos like Mya's "Free" where they are locking and even in Janet's "Miss You Much" where a current audience would snicker at the fad moves of the time in the choreography however, at the same time see her doing some old school locking later on in the video and watch it with respect.

Now take a fusion style combination which is based on the trends of the music business. The New Kids on The Block could be looked at like N'Sync or Brittney of our past. 10 years ago NKOTB was considered hot to millions of fans, mainly girls. Take that same dance combination out of any of their concerts/videos and introduce them now and they are whack. Take the Back Street Boys/N’Sync/Brittney combinations or any of the boy/girl bands combinations and place them 20 years ago, currrently, and 20 years in the future. Would they still be "hot"?

Some of the fusion choreographers have done the smart thing businesswise and began to learn hip hop. This is smart because it lays down a foundation where hip hop is the core and then you can add your own style to it as you want. When the current fad goes away an the core dance styles persist before the next fad, these choreographers will survive. But the fact remains that you must always give props to where it is due. Currently many of the stars and choreographers that “made it” never bother to credit those that taught them. Some Rocksteady taught Michael Jackson, but you’ll never hear him give credit. Do you really think that Michael invented the moonwalk? He claims to.

Without the "core" a dance style will not survive unless its able to be passed down thru history and origins. Just learn why we are able to dance the dances we do today and be able to pass it down. We must realize the most powerful and unavoidable truth before its too late: We are one of the last, if not the last generation of dancers that are able to still learn from the creators of hip hop. That in itself is amazing. After the great ones pass, the future generations have no where to learn the history and origins of hip hop but the generation that it was passed down to...us. We are needed to keep hip hop alive. Recognize.

Eric

Wacking, Brian Green, and the House Dance Conference

Basically, wacking is a funk-style dance that emerged in mostly Gay Bars/Dance Clubs in California.

It looks "kinda" like Locking, but, more feminine... for example: instead of the arm movements being strong and really quick and well-defined, they are more flowy. Instead of a real strong boogie-bounce step, you have more of a sashaying movement with your hips.

Wacking is related to "punking" and "vogue-ing."


As per Brian Green and he says that it evolved from locking on the gay club scene. Yes, Wacking incorporates much more jazzy, feminine type movement than locking does. When you do it, and if you know locking, then you can see its roots. Ana "Lollipop" Sanchez just recently gave a wacking and punking workshop through Brian and the video of the workshop will be available in January. Apparently the styles are related if not intertwined.

Voguing developed uptown in New York within the gay club scene as a battle dance in the same way that B-boy is a battle dance - one-up-man (gay or straight)-ship. One takes a series of standing and ground poses similar to poses we might see models making in the fashion media. Transitions have to be smooth, should be elegant (but are not always) and are informed and fueled by personal and communal fantasy. You can see good examples of Voguing and its evolution in the documentary "Paris is Burning", which gives quite a heart wrenching look into the psychological aspects of the movement. Madonna does a well executed rendition of voguing in her performance of her song "Vogue", albeit perhaps jazzed up, streamlined and commercialized - not as raw as by original pracitioners but certainly a beautiful, respectable and accessible homage to the form.

At around three in the morning last May at a monthly party called the House Dance Conference at Demerara's in New York City, there was a locking moment. Remember What's Happening's Fred Berry, big-striped cotton tights, peddle-pushers, big floppy hats, and long-tail tuxedo jackets? Well, there was a big circle of folks on the main floor of Demerara's one early Friday morning in May watching 21st century lockers throw down thousand of miles away on the other side of the country from where Fred Berry and his crew first recorded their locking routines in front of cameras on the set of What's Happening. Folks got down minus the old-school gear—except for one guy staying true to the form. Clad in black and white striped stockings, a black vest, black peddle pushers, and a white top hat, the dancer, in the course of his dance routine, surveyed the floor in front of him, got down on his knees, and, like a coach explaining a play strategy, mapped out his dance move plan by touching points on the floor with his hands.

The locking moment at the Conference was a reminder that what you don't see on TV anymore may still be alive and well somewhere in America's cultural underground; that there is an underside of American cultural life that lives outside the window of the mainstream media; and that African American folklore is not a thing of the past, but is still living and being remade.


Brian "Footwork" Green, the conference's creator, host, and emcee—who's been called one of the best house (club) dancers in New York City—takes his turn in the circle, changing the groove up a little bit with a style of dancing called "wacking." He describes it as "a dance inspired by locking that was created by the gay community of California back in the seventies." Things have apparently moved on in gay Black American dance since Madonna's "Vogue" video, but you may never know by just how much if your only source of information about American music and dance culture are mainstream ports like MTV and BET.

The House Dance Conference is one of those spaces in America where you can plug into a cultural reality that's almost invisible in the mainstream documents of contemporary American culture. Here, poppers, lockers, b-boys and girls, house dancers, perhaps a voguer or two, and even some tappers from the old school may be found throwing down, representing a dance culture that has its roots in pre-colonial West Africa.

Green explains that the conference, which made its debut at Demerara's in August of 1999, is an attempt to recreate the parties that took place at spaces like The Tunnel, The World, Encore, Roseland's, Studio 54, L'Amour East, and Paled's, where he and other dancers used to jam and hone their skills in the early days of New York City's house scene. The purpose was "to bring the scene that we had been through and still apart of forth into the public," Green says, "so the kids can actually see whatever we've seen and gain all the skills that we had."

Green's been seriously involved in house dance in New York since the mid-eighties, he explains. He recalls the early days of the city's developing house scene when, on trains, people "used to call us a lot of different names….cuz we used to dress funny and all that to them." House music and the cultures it spawned were all lumped together by many as products of a gay culture; as a result, this style of dancing—purportedly named after the Warehouse club in Chicago, which was one of the early venues of house music—was stigmatized and conceptually reduced to the dancing that gay folks do. Furthermore, early on, house dancing was not accepted as a dance form worthy of the same respect that b-boyin'/girlin', popping, and locking were getting at the time. Green remembers hearing comments like, "'Why you running around with those faggots—vogueing and all that?'" and being called "grasshoppers" and "homos," especially by poppers, lockers, and b-boys. "There was a big war in New York between b-boys and house dancers for years," Green explains. But by about '97 or '98, he says, the status of house dancing in the city changed. "They found out what we did…" and "…were like, 'Okay, you ain't vogueing. You ain't doing that. You dancing. You getting down.'"

Even at the House Dance Conference, the various styles that represent there don't mix too much. You might find in one moment at the conference a locking cipher, a poppin' one, one of b-boys and b-girls, and another of house happening at the same time—but clearly distinct and separate. The monthly event draws these dancers together into the same space—a laudable accomplishment, no doubt—but what happens naturally is a segregation of the styles. This may not necessarily be a reflection of any kind of tension that exists between the different contingents of dance styles present, but simply an effort to preserve the stylistic integrity of each circle. However, the absence of vogueing, wacking, and punking [a style of dance that Green explained preceded wacking and from which wacking developed] almost entirely from some of the most recent conferences is striking and may, on the other hand, suggest such a tension between dance forms identified with Black gay culture and the homophobia and sexism within segments of the hip hop dance community.

There was, however, one lone voguer in a wife beater t-shirt showing off cut muscles and doing fall outs on the main dance floor at one March conference; and, of course, there's Green, who busted out with some wacking moves of his own in the middle of that locking cipher at the conference last May. He says that he's always told people that "dance and sex are different, and should be looked at as so." When he saw vogueing for the first time years ago, he remembers saying to friends, "'I'm [going to] learn that too. I ain't following you to no bedroom or nothing, but I'm learning it."

Green now teaches a wacking class at Fazil's in Manhattan on Wednesday nights and has been gathering information about the history of African American gay dance forms from old school voguers. Vogueing "is probably the most beautiful dance in the world," he says, and by some accounts, has been around at least since the early 1960s—perhaps as early as the 1940s. In either case, that would make vogueing older than poppin', locking, house, and hip hop dance. Like poppin', locking, and b-boyin/girlin', vogueing is from the street, he explains, and "the funny thing is, voguers was always into poppin' and waving and all that. They love it." It's unfortunate, then, Green says, that the focus by the media and by many in the hip hop dance community is primarily on the gay sexuality that has shaped the dance, rather than its technical characteristics and its relationship to other Black dance forms.

At the House Dance Conference, however, legendary voguer Willi Ninja and other celebrities of African American social dance, such as Don "Campbellock" Campbell, Sam "Boogaloo Sam" Solomon, Greg "Campbellock Jr." Campbell, Jazzy J (popper), Archie Burnett (lofter, voguer, and wacker), Bravo (footwork freestylist), and Steve Glavin (popper and locker), have graced its stage with performances during the regular midnight showcases; and perhaps, as a result, have made explicit to many the connections that exist between the variety of dance styles one may find Black folks doing in clubs and streets across America.
Green recalls that one of the first House Dance Conferences "had every style from the street" performing during the showcase. "Voguers and poppers and lockers and wackers and punkers….and bboys on one stage—sharing the stage." This is what set off "the conference's phenomenon, " he explains.

The House Dance Conference is a fifty to sixty thousand dollar investment. The costs involve rental of the Demerara's nightclub once a month, fliers, and paid help. His partners with the event are Spex Abbiw, a house dancer who does the graphics for the fliers, and Ulli Maier, a student of Green's from Germany who works the door and contributes financially towards the cost of the event.

Initially, he started out organizing the event with a group of dancers he had been running around in the scene with since the early eighties. The collaboration soured and ended about a year ago as a result of a financial dispute that had Green seeking refuge in Los Angeles to deal with an anger he was afraid might lead him to violence if he stuck around in New York any longer. In L.A. he checked out the club scene, hooked up with Millenium Dance Complex, did drugs to deal with the anger, and at the end of it all says he got closer to God. "God could have killed me…..because I went a little crazy. Drugs and everything like that," he explains. "[God] could have just let me go, but He didn't….[W]hile I was going crazy, a lot of people were going….A lot of people were on drugs, were catching AIDS and dying in front of my face with gun shot wounds and all that in L.A. And I was right there at the spot doing the same drugs…" His belief in God was strengthened as a result of that experience, and so now, at the end of emails, of posts on website message boards like bboy.com, of phone conversations, and mic addresses to crowds at the House Dance Conference, you'll usually hear him end with a "God Bless You," or some variation of it.

Green is a rare breed in a business where many would pimp their culture in a minute to make money. Not happy with plans to incorporate West African dance history lessons in dance performances as a marketing ploy, he turned down an opportunity to work with a major hip hop dance company that's enjoyed a great deal of national and international fame in recent years. And while others may look for any opportunity to brag about their one or two thirty-second appearances in someone's video, Green never mentioned in the course of an hour and a half interview the choreography he did for R & B singer Mya's "Free" video, which earned him an American Choreography Award in 2001 for "Outstanding Achievement in a Music Video—Hip Hop"; the numerous videos and concerts of well-known singers and rappers within which he has performed; or that his name has shared space with such legends as Boogaloo Sam and Mr. Wiggles on a top ten list of the best boogalooers today. Although Green, who's only thirty-two, admits that a lot of younger dancers consider him an "O.G."—or master—house dancer, he's uncomfortable with the title. "I don't consider myself an O.G. at all….It's just strange….When I call myself an O.G. is when I feel like I'm completed in a lot of different things. I don't think I am….I have a way to go—a long way to go."

Green was doing some of that "traveling" in a 1987 white Chrysler Le Baron with no shocks and a broken radio that he got from his grandmother. The night of the interview for this article he was driving it all the way to Boston—three hours away—to visit a sick friend. To keep him awake on the long drive, he had a walkman with only one ear of the headphone working. He's taking a newspaper article about herbal treatments for HIV to the friend in Boston; and in the back seat are a bag of shoes he plans to drop off at the Salvation Army. In the car that night, instead of talking a lot about dance, he talks about folks with ulterior motives who tried to get in his pants but who he has said he'd rather smoke a crack pipe than do, the alcohol problem he had, emotional issues connected with his abuse as a child that he's grappled with for years, and the illness his mother's been diagnosed with but that he says he doesn't buy into.

It's family, he explains, that keeps him from traveling as much as he would like. He lives with his mom in Queens and looks after her. She's his "biggest influence ever," he declares. As a child, he studied African dance with her. Knowledgeable not only about dances from a number of different tribes of Africa, she also "knew hustle back and forth," and used to hit the clubs with his aunt all the way up into Green's teen years, he recalls. ("No alcohol and no drugs. Make sure that's known," he adds.) His cousin Tracy inspired him to tap at five years old; and in later years, he studied with such tapping legends as Charles "Honi" Coles, James "Buster" Brown, Phil Black, and for a short time, Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers. His brother Oscar was a popper and "burnt the shit out of" him during a junior high school dance contest once when he was eight or nine years old. Green performed a ballet routine and Oscar freestyled. "I'm out there doing tombé, glissade…. and six pirouettes….and he's taking the music and freestyling off of one song—a fifteen minute solo just off the head….I'm sitting there, like—I'm having a problem doing four counts of eight, and this boy is doing the whole song….[H]e was amazing. And he didn't practice that much, which was annoying."

To Brian, talent is something spiritual. At a workshop in Vienna several months ago, he watched a South African man who looked like he might have been in his fifties or sixties do a dance that, roughly translated into English, is called the "bird dance." "[I]t was amazing," he says. "He walked past me, and I was just like, 'Okay, probably [the] closest facsimile of God just walked past me." He believes talent is God working through someone. "God gives everyone a talent," he explains, "And that's what I fall in love with is people's talents…. I always look for God in them through their talent." Last May, Demerara's was full of folks sweating and getting down to funk, house, and hip hop beats, as Brian Green, dressed all in white, and a lot of others, were stepping into cipher circles, making God known.