One of my goals while studying at USC is to focus on street dance. I have been a hip-hop dancer for about 15 years and a hip-hop journalist for almost as many. My love of hip-hop music has been unwavering but not until this year did I realize I could shift my critical focus from covering the music to chronicling aspects of the dance. Which brings me to this YouTube clip. For me, krumping or buck dancing has always been associated with adults. Rarely, if ever, have I seen youngsters move with such passion and precision. Since I dance myself and have recently taken a krumping class, I can personally attest to the difficulty of this style.
Building on my visceral love of street dance, I am also attending a seminar called “Black Popular Culture,” which will provide me with an academic lens to view the culture of street dance. After only two week’s worth of readings from this course, I am faced with questions, such as: Are these types of popular culture dances reinforcing positive/negative stereotypes of blacks? What societal factors influence these dances, and how do these dances reflect the larger society?
Jessica Koslow 