krump funk in my trunk that’s what’s up

Rize.
AMAZING. inspired me to stop sending money to Rob Brezny’s astrology fund and go legit curandera dance instructor, complete with herbal briefcase and kneepads.
here’s what i wrote peter about it, reality tk:
M & i just returned from a free outdoor screening of RIZE in
rockefeller center, intro’d by david la chapelle
himself. he was straight donning the trucker = whatevs, rodin of
cinematography. footage was terrific, technicolor, all
abs on me, kinda gatorade commercial but candy on the
eyes. bet. the loose and unelaborated-upon stabs at
connecting krumping to traditional african
dancing? not so much. (1) you know i came home and krumped
the krap outta my living room. at any rate, free RIZE
screening in rockefeller center to about 3-500 people =
i give it til dec. before krumping bleeds into the increasingly inaccessable (2)
b-boying (AKA gymnastics) on the east side. (if it hasn’t already.)
(actually b-boys can get kinda
uppity about krumpy styles–it’s too “video”. (3)) anyway, we’re
paying LA back for pretending we invented the
boogaloo all these yrs (4). tell me what you know about it. *
did i actually write “we” in reference to NYC? interesting.
as an aside, peter is really amazingly funny and sharp and you should go read the only interesting summer festival preview ever written (read it all but scroll down to “T in the Park” and “Fuji Rock” for the funniest entries), and then hire him to write for your magazine. i did (“hiring” being a loose term.)
*ADDENDUM/KEY:
1. the african dance sequences spliced w/krumping were visually stunning, and i caught what he was implying, obviously, but without evidence–footage of the kids talking about how it’s an aspect of their dance, for instance, as they do in Laura’s article in the Voice (which redeems the choice, actually)–it comes off a bit like La Chappelle dug for footage and created this kind of problematic, romanticized idea of krumping as a part of the innate rhythm begat of africa. this, coupled with the stumbling sentimental R&B song-sequence after a particularly wrenching part in the movie, shows that la chappelle’s intentions were good, but his forte is definitely the footage, the style.
2. I love b-boying as much as anything, but I’ve got it in my mind that, as it evolves and becomes ever more complicated/organized/worldwide and marketable, not to mention AERIAL and increasingly difficult for people to DO unless they devote their entire lives to it (as opposed to the impressive but modest-compared-to-now street form where it began), I got it in my mind that b-boying as it is presented seems inaccessible–if one is introduced to its current incarnation via the market of competitions, battle videos, or the television. granted, i learned breakdancing in 1984 from a 14-year-old boy named Mike at the Cheyenne, Wyoming YMCA, and only otherwise see street b-boys in the Times Square subway station, so I could be wrong. (joe schloss, i am ringing! help)
3. from my casual observer’s eye, krumping looks like a combo of what they term in the film as “the stripper dance,” contemporary MTV video choreography (not that the latter two are so different), aggressive fight-mimicking (and as la chappelle points out, dance-interpretation of police brutality). many of the b-boys i’ve known and talked to are open to commercialization of b-boying (esp if it translates to opportunity and a living wage for them, too), but are adamant about delineating between the art of b-boying and hmm the frisson of “video” dancing.
4. b-boying is credited generally to NYC but wouldn’t be the same w/out California’s boogaloo/popping. let’s not hog all the credit ok.