Shady Ladies

So yesterday (Sunday 21 Feb), I entered my first dance battle-based competition which was the 2v2 freestyle section at Code Red held at Dance Generation studios by my good friend Lenny the Dragonlord. I saw my fellow Shady Lady – El - outside the studio and asked if she would enter with me, since my other fellow Shady Lady offered but was only doing it as a favour to me and had 2 other showcases on the day (heart you Wendy!) El had just come from yoga and was wearing a dress, looking very much as Chux described, “Mother Earth” but she was down. We thought it would be fun despite the fact it was very last minute and we hadn’t danced in a couple of months, let alone trained for a battle. For both of us, it was the first time battling in a comp.

The nerves were kicking in as we got up for the preliminary round, with El hoping she didn’t have to battle her boyfriend Solo, a 6-foot-something half African/half Samoan (?) yet funnily enough that’s what happened, purely by accident. So she stepped out first to the tunes of a track i’m in love with currently (Boyz II Men – Can’t Let Her Go) while he smiled with that really gross look of love (puke) on his face the whole time. Then he came out, I stepped out and don’t remember anything that I did, up-rocked his partner Dany back during his set and that was that. It’s always fun to battle bboys, to see their intensity and attitude up close and personal, but this battle wasn’t like that at all, they were just smiling the whole time like “oh they are so small, that’s funny, their moves are so girly” type of stuff.

We both got through since the judges were just choosing the Top 8 crews, and what do you know, we get put up against the other Shady Lady crew of Jessica and Anna, in the last of the quarter final battles. I was on the side thrusting and what not as DJ Libre played Janet’s “All For You”, and stepped out doing… I can’t even remember, some waacking and other bs… El freaked the music pretty good and with two ties and one vote to our side by Chux, we were through to the semi’s.

Battling Kou and Eriko was intense, with 2 rounds each person, these guys (as the overall winners) were fierce! Libre dropped the sickest track (Bucketheads – The Bomb) which got me pumping and I launched into it straight away, tiring myself out with all the jumping around and House moves. I thought my legs were going to die and looking back, I don’t actually know why I didn’t bring out waacking halfway. I knew Kou would come out with House/Waacking and he smoked me!!! That dude’s got so much stamina and has so much battle tactics its crazy. El repped so well, it’s hard to tell what she’s doing when you’re watching from the back so I just kept screaming to hype her up. Eriko came out BAM in the face with some punking and just killed the music. The same track was on so I thought “yes now I can start waacking” then after about an 8 count its switched to “COME ON RIDE THE TRAIN (WOOT WOOT) AND RIDE IT!” so hey the music changes I’ll adapt and first thing that came into my mind was some Middle School. WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING I was already tired, dehydrated and my legs almost numb from all the damn jumping, so yeah I pretty much lost focus and just wanted TO DIE. Kou came out, waacking again I think, then El then Eriko with her tank Locking and a huge kick to the face sealed their deal.

They totally deserved to win, I’m just glad to get the battle experience and they were so gracious, I’m happy to get smoked by such amazing talent. The way I see it, both El and I gave our best, came out with the battle attitude, listened to and felt the music, and had a bunch of fun. I tried honestly to show versatility in styles, careful not to bring out too much waacking since that’s mostly what I’ve been doing since I came back from NY in Sept. But when I talked to others about advice on improving, I realised waacking really brought out my character the most, and having my hair out to play with was my thing, whereas I wore a hat on the day, which gave me a different mood like real tomboy-ish. Oh well now I know.

So people have asked me why I waited so long to battle, I guess there hasn’t been an event that I could or was interested in entering. I’m either organising and/or judging the event, or the organisers are wack, or the judges are a poor choice – why put yourself in a position to have your dance ability, performance, etc judged by someone you don’t respect to give you their opinion, let alone let them judge you?! So I’ve made a stance and this was the only event that fit all the criteria. Next one is 360, and hopefully I can get some decent training in.

I’ll add the videos from the event once peeps post them up on Youtube, so feel free to email me, PM me your advice on how I can improve, I’m always open to constructive criticism and feedback and suggestions on how to take my battling to the next level

Trina

Related posts:

1. Code Red, Sydney – Hip Hop Dance Competition

For many things, dancing, emceeing, general comedic material as well, I haven’t been very up to date.  Since not having a computer at home stunts the amount of time I spend watching other people do things, I’ve generally been out doing things instead.

Internet Dancers?

In fact, I don’t really watch many videos these days because I find that I take something away from it without thinking, and usually bring it up later as my own.  I used to catch myself doing this with punchlines, dance moves and jokes, but haven’t seen it happen very often since I stopped watching many other people.

The last time I discussed this, I remember hanging out with Jojo (Zealous) and Kat (Shady Ladies) and talking about how none of us watch very many videos these days, specifically because of those reasons.  Which brings me to my main subject of discussion:  Cryptomnesia.

“Cryptomnesia, or inadvertent plagiarism, is a memory bias whereby a person falsely recalls generating a thought, an idea, a song, or a joke, when the thought was actually generated by someone else.^[1] In these cases, the person is not deliberately engaging in plagiarism, but is rather experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration.
The second type of cryptomnesia results from an error of authorship whereby the ideas of others are remembered as one’s own. In this case, the plagiarizer correctly recognizes that the idea is from an earlier time, but falsely remembers having been the origin for the idea.”
- Wikipedia (I know, I’m the laziest researcher in the world.)

When I’d found a name for what it was, it was much easier to identify what was happening when I’d watch videos and catch myself dancing like people from recently viewed works of dance.  And you’ll notice it too, if you’ve got a keen eye for styles and knowing what dancers people are keeping their eyes on.

“Cryptomnesia is more likely to occur when the ability to properly monitor sources is impaired. For example, people are more likely to falsely claim ideas as their own when they were under high cognitive load at the time they first considered the idea.”
So if, hypothetically, you’ve been watching a bunch of dance videos, multiple at a time, you’re much more likely to end up bringing those same movements, feelings and styles again when you train or choreograph.

This happens particularly often in the choreographed hip hop environment, when people watch more famous dancers make a set to a song, and end up making their own set to the song.  If you watch closely, they often hit the same beats and accentuate the same parts of the music as the original “inspiration”, and do it without conscious knowledge of their actions.

But this isn’t limited to routine dancers.

I know a ridiculous amount of freestyle dancers who see sets by well-known freestylers, in shows or battles, and then practice to that song, also unwittingly using the same parts of the music and planning their efforts on certain parts of the music.  It’s a lot easier to dance to a song when somebody else has mapped it out for you, and you don’t have to analyse.  You just have to remember.

The problem with this twofold in creative art forms such as dance and music.
The first is creative integrity of the original artist.  If there is an influence on your style and on your own creativity, then the originator(s) deserve the respect for that, even if it is just acknowledgement of your sources of inspiration.
The second is creative integrity of the artist who draws inspiration.  The artists own interpretation is altered, changed or even hidden underneath the interpretation of the original artist.  Also, without the awareness of this, the artist doesn’t have the ability to alter the form of the original work to suit themselves rather than the original artist.

You might see this:
Which becomes this:
Which then becomes this:
Which somebody makes into this:
Look at those fucking biters. Just look at them.

But is this inspiration, or theft?  And by the action being unintentional, is it acceptable or not?
The most important question in my opinion is, now that you know it’s happening, what do you do about it?

I remember bringing this up with Rush (Fresh Sox) one time, and his response was,
“We just call that biting, bro.”.
And in all honesty, I agree.
Also, so does the United States Copyright Law.

“In a famous case, George Harrison was sued over royalties for his first solo song “My Sweet Lord“, a song that sounded too similar to the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine”. Harrison lost the case when a judge said he “subconsciously plagiarized”, and was ordered to pay $587,000 to Bright Tunes Music, who owned the copyright. Plagiarism of this sort is a kind of sleeper effect whereby old ideas come to feel new.”
- Wikipedia (again).

Pay attention to your choice of entertainment and your viewing material, lest your creations be revealed to not be your own.

Discussion in the comments welcomed.

No related posts.

This is me thinking... on the pier at Coney Island, NY

I have come to the point where I need to take a break from the dance scene – from attending jams and events, going to clubs (not that I really did anyway), and focusing on other things in my life. I know many people who organise Hip Hop and/or dance related events that regularly take breaks from the scene to refresh themselves and keep them sane.

For a long time I had thought that I should be at every event, be updated in everything that’s going on, etc, but now that I’m experiencing a shift in life, my attitude has changed because I’m just sick of the drama, politics, lack of respect, and all the negative things that come out of the scene, which dominates all the good stuff.

I understand why people have left the scene permanently and gone on to alternatives like other forms of dancing (salsa the most popular) or capoeira and other martial arts. There is so much ego, there are so many cliques, kids wanting to be popular, incestuous relations (dancers dating dancers that other dancers have dated before, lots of common liquids shared *shudder*) and heaps of BS.

So a break is needed, a time for thinking about what’s important and what motivates you, then set new goals and get back into it. Hopefully I can use this blog to continually share stories that inspire and motivate dancers and dancers-to-be (while taking the time to write some crap here and there and rant about some other BS too). Hey, it sets a good balance and gives a real insight into the workings of the scene.

No related posts.

A comment from Chux on my last post got me thinking about the situation in a way I hadn’t intended. I sat down to write my first little blog hoping that some of you would read it and think about it. I hadn’t expected that it would work in reverse and make me think about it myself. My thanks to Chux for his thoughtful comment, and for surprising me.

I agree with many points of your post Chux, and I’m quietly chiding myself for not examining the Teacher/Student relationship in the first place.

My intention in that piece wasn’t to highlight a problem with those teaching Hip Hop (or even those claiming Hip Hop but teaching Jazz). My intention was to highlight a problem with those who choose to live and die by a perceived Class system (not in and of itself a bad thing) to the point that they let no one into the system to fill the ranks.

I’ll tackle the issues one at a time.

Teachers are a complex and subjective issue to tackle. But in my experience teachers deviate from the path above slightly.

They believe in the culture, they believe in the foundation (if you haven’t already read Chux’s article by now, Do It, it has ninjas), and they do so with varying degrees of openness and accessibility to their students. The best teachers believe that they aren’t there to teach routine after routine, but to teach a style, a skill, a way of moving.

As Chux says in his comment – he tries to coax people onto the dance side, he focuses on people improving. He isn’t about getting people to learn a routine – so much so that his class is freeform and in direct opposite to most others you will see.

I spoke to Nacho once years ago about how he teaches his classes and how he looks at his students. He told me the routines where a means to an end – they slowly worked people into the society and culture to the point they would either run for themselves or fade away again.

The culture got people to the school/teacher, the teacher gets people to the knowledge, and the knowledge either gets the people back to the culture as teachers of others OR they walk away.

So the teacher is a vital part of scene (in a dance perspective).

What I was trying to express in the original article was to wonder why some people find the knowledge, and then choose NOT to teach with it. Why some people become so engrossed in the culture or in the hierarchy once they have moved up in status that they choose to, willingly or un-willingly, shun those below them.

Perhaps they are intimidated by these newcomers, challengers to their hard fought position in this society they have found.

Perhaps they experienced the same thing and dish it out through a miss-placed sense of duty to the cause.

Perhaps they are just f*ckwits.

The problems is that a Chain of Command (however informal, and unexpressed it may be) exists within almost all societies. Your fewest numbers at the top leading the way and your most at the bottom working away.

Keeping it to a purely dance topic for now lately there has been an influx of people into the culture at the bottom level yet the numbers at the top level have dwindled. As Chux rightly pointed out, teachers are responsible for guiding and defining the path these young one take.

However with too few teachers (in this case dance, but also just O.G’s in general in a wider sense) and too many newcomers – it’s up to the middle rank to take up the slack. THIS is what has been lacking of late. Middle ranks with a confused sense of self entitlement, a small taste of acclaim, and a flat brim cap have decided that they aren’t willing to share their knowledge with the newcomers.

The newcomers see this as a lack of direction from the top and leave, the teachers see the newcomers constantly leaving and so turn there attention to the middle ranks.

That’s a very Dance-centric response to Chux’s comment, and I’ve written WAY more than I’d meant to, so I’ll leave it there.

Thanks again to Chux for a dope reply and I hope you don’t mind me putting my attempted reply and justification in such an open forum, just thought a good question deserved a good reply from me.

Hopko

And here's a Ninja because i think Chux started a trend

No related posts.

Chux here, a word or two about me and my relationship with D2MG before the actual article.

I’ve been dancing with D2MG since 2006, the year that I began uni. I got invited to a jam at UNSW by BJ, one of the other 2 guys in my crew at the time, Sneaker Pimps. Ran into Katrina there, spent more time at UNSW than I did at my own uni that year and have been present with it from those days through to the city-based studio that we are now.

Normally a regular blogger, I’ve had somewhat of a retirement lately. The last year has been long periods of silence punctuated by brief periods of high-spirited discussion and argumentative conversation as my blogs switched from regular posts that were spontaneously written, to more well thought out posts with definite messages to be conveyed, almost always with controversy following the posts. Lately I’ve been getting my message across a lot more personally, talking with people 1 on 1 and discussing ideas with some of the older heads in the scene.

For the past week I’ve been promising Trina that I’d post another such artice on her blog, seeing as how one of my first extensive posts happened on the first generation d2mg site, put up by Katrina herself. So in keeping with that history, I’m putting a little something together on the following topic.

Foundation

(not this kind…)

Something that’s been concerning me lately, for a number of reasons, is a willful ignorance of the foundations of hip hop dance, in various styles. On top of this, there’s ignorance of dancers who have helped create and sustain older hip hop dance styles, and often dismissal of their dancing abilities on top of this. To put it simply, paying dues and staying respectful.

This is specifically about the dancers who want to know what they’re talking about, who want to learn. There’s far too many dancers who don’t want to learn, have no intention of doing anything other than performing and looking good. This isn’t for them, as I treat them as lost causes anyway, and the amount of information I’ve offered about the importance of knowing the basics before trying to get complex is astounding, as anyone who’s danced with me will know. At the end of it, only the people who really want to know the history and information, those who really want to understand the dance and the culture will pay attention, and the rest will hang along for the ride, hopefully jumping off sooner rather than later, before any damage gets done (no such luck). I know enough people who are sustaining the foundation and teaching the steps which will build solid dancers, but a lot of dancers (both old and new) seem to concern themselves more with performance and routine rather than on foundation and freestyle. They build their routines, their training and dancing in general around styles but not foundation.

Building something upon a shaky ground, which only leads to poorer outcomes in the future? I’m pretty sure there’s a phrase for that somewhere…

That’s the one.

In addition to a disregard for the basics of a dance, I’ve seen ignorance of the respected advice of the more experienced heads in Sydney. Dancers are being presented with the information to improve themselves, albeit some dancers are more capable of imparting this information (heads up to hopko’s previous article), but the information is not being taken aboard. This deprives the dancers in question of advice that will save them the difficulty of having to find answers that are readily available from experienced heads in the scene. A separation occurs,which is something the scene wants to avoid, but in case of disrespect is perfectly fine ignoring intentionally ignorant individuals.

As Isaac Newton famously said,
“If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Isaac Newton – O.G.

It’s natural to want to move on to new things, things that excite us in new ways and things that we may have not seen before. However, in the pursuit of the new it is important not to forget the contributions of those who came before us, as easy as it is to do that sometimes. The reason that new things are capable of being reached, new concepts seen and new styles observed is because those who put in the effort building and sustaining a scene allowed the platform for dancers to learn from.

I remember putting all my efforts towards building a name for Krump dance in Sydney, with only a handful of us doing the dance it fell upon less than 10 dancers in the scene to properly represent krump dance. To give krump an image of a respectable dance, one with foundations, styles, complex movements and not just wilding out in the way that others thought it was. But on the side, I was still doing the other dance styles and making sure that I paid the proper respects to the other hip hop styles, because how do you intend to gain respect as a hip hop style, without giving respect to hip hop stylers? The same concept applies for dancers.

Now, since that’s been achieved, all I want to do is build freestyle dancers out of sydneysiders and make them more capable of contributing to the scene. I’m proud of a handful of dancers who’ve jammed and freestyled in my class and have taken that knowledge to improve themselves as freestylers, choreographers or dancers in general. One chick in particular from a few years ago didn’t consider dancing her passion until after she’d taken a class. Since then she’s gone on to build things for herself and become her own dancer, taking the advice of many dancers on. She ninja’d her way to the top.

I’ll be honest, I just said the word ninja so I could sneak this photo in.

The past must be sustained in order to build upon the future. The past can’t grow without the new generation, and the new generation wouldn’t be halfway to where they are without the contribution of the older generation. Respect comes with experience, and the experienced know where to give respect.

You stand on the shoulders of giants, so respect your foundation.
Chux.
Truth, Respect, Integrity.

Related posts:

1. “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”

So I have a friend, a shocking and unbelievable statement to some of you, but I assure you that I really do.

For the purpose of this blog let’s call her Kelly.  Now my friend Kelly loves dancing, she did jazz and tap for 5 or 6 years in her younger days, but has never done any form of Hip Hop, with the possible exception of dancing to Akon or T-Pain in the car, but we won’t hold that against her.

Now Kelly has decided that she’d like to get back into dancing, but wants to give Hip Hop a shot. She looks up some schools and heads to some classes around the place.

This is where our story hits an iceberg. I saw her a few weeks later and asked how it was all going. She told me she was enjoying class and picking up the routines well enough and having fun.

“What about the people?” I asked

“Well all the normal people are nice, but the Dancers are pretty rude, they aren’t mean but they don’t really talk to us”

If that doesn’t worry you as someone reading a Hip Hop / Dance blog then start having a think to yourself about why.

Firstly after just 2 weeks of classes she has already developed and US and THEM attitude. “Normal” People and “Dancers”. Why?

Secondly if everyone is doing the same routine and same class – then why aren’t they all “dancers”? Why is there a defined split in the people in the class?

The third thing, and the one that bothered me the most, is why wasn’t I surprised? Surely I should have been shocked and appalled at this revelation.

 I should have been able to dismiss it as a one off, unlucky incident.

But I knew she was right.

Is this how we want our community to be seen? Segmented and Inaccessible?

We as a community seem to be constantly battling in prose and voice about the problems with Hip Hop / Dance.

About how the new generation is too commercial, doesn’t understand your particular style, or doesn’t “get” hip hop itself.

About how they don’t respect their elders.

About how the Hip Hop community doesn’t get respected in and of itself.

And yet we act like a bunch of High School kids in a little clique, and alienate newcomers. How can we ever demand respect from anyone until we show respect for them? How many talented, driven, and passionate people have turned their backs on hip hop dance because of this?

Is this elitism pure and simple? Is it just the way things go? Or is there something more?

Truth be told, I think there’s a core element who like it this way. Maybe they like to keep it inaccessible to the mainstream. Or maybe they like to be in the upper echelons of this little society we have decided to live in. By creating this little class system they have created a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts, they get to talk about newcomers being disrespectful, and getting no respect – whilst creating the exact situation which breeds such animosity.

On the other side there are people who do the exact opposite – they encourage the commercial side, and attract a certain crowd (especially youth). The result?  The hardcore heads discount them as commercial or not real hip hop. They learn to keep to themselves and never the two worlds combine. And once again we have our segmented little microcosm.

How do we combat this? Or do we accept this as the dramatic circle of life and ignore it?

Well, the truth is, people are combating it right now. Some of the respected voices in the dance (and wider hip hop community) are finding new ways to encourage young minds to take part, compete, contribute, take ownership; of the direction we are headed. There are events designed specifically for first timers to enter, and more importantly be encouraged about their performance. I’d love to see these progress further with some more even match making to avoid the inevitable “rookie getting destroyed by the Pro” battle but the point is the foundation is there.

Will there always be an element of us and them? Yes. Absolutely. It’s human nature.

There will always be battlers that look down on spectators and jammers.

There will always be funk stylists that look down on new schoolers.

But there is a distinct difference between competition and competitors and straight out haters.

But it’s up to you as an open minded, passionate, and dedicated member of the community to see the difference, and push it in the direction you see fit.

It’s up to you to encourage those who need it, help those who deserve it, and counsel those who do wrong.

Have a think about the community you want to take part in 2years, and then think about how you can get it to that point.

For the record, Kelly never returned to class, she went back to tap, and, last I heard, was loving it.

This little blog has asked lots of questions, and answered very few. I’m not going to tell you how to think. The important thing is you did think about the questions. And your answers to them.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Hopko

Related posts:

1. Reflection on D2MG so far from 2006

Recently it’s been troubling me that I don’t dance as much as I used to, nor do I really feel like dancing at all. Right now, I think it relates to the fact that I work full-time as an online project manager, then go home and work on my small business – D2MG. In running my own business I am the sole general manager, operations manager, financial officer, event manager, business development manager, sales and marketing manager and website manager. Phew. So after 10-15 hours of working each day, mostly including weekends, there’s little left for me to do but sleep. Oh and the clubs here really suck so that’s a dead-end.

So I get how many dancers before me have stopped completely and focused on other things as they matured and took on more responsibilities. I just refuse to ever let myself get to the point where I stop dancing; even if it’s just me in my room for 10 minutes.

My longing for New York doesn’t help my situation. The culture is just so much more vibrant there, the passion is more evident and shared, the talent is world-class and opportunities to learn are endless. So being halfway across the world, we’ll have to rely on local sources, online sources and once in a while get a glimpse of international level dancers… I hope to contribute to the improvement of all these sources in some way, shape and form. I think we need to jam more too.

Trina

Related posts:

1. Taking a break from the dance scene is good for you
2. About

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
— Anais Nin

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
— Unknown

Although there’s not a lot of content on the site as I am writing this post, I would still like to take this time to thank those who really inspired and motivated me to revive this blog and turn it into a much bigger site than I’d ever imagined in the next year. When I wrote my blogs back in 2006, I was highly self-motivated; now I need an even bigger boost since I juggle full time work as a project manager with running a dance studio and its associated events, workshops and whatever ad hoc things we can think of, as well as training with my dance crew Shady Ladies and then trying to keep up a social life. And at one point I was studying part-time while doing all the above.

I realise now that blogging is so therapeutic, and I did it more for myself and didn’t think I’d have an audience, which is why I’d write lots of posts on random topics with lots of swearing and hating – this I shall continue to do.

So my thanks goes out to:

• Jerome V. from Critical Hype - you are the first person on my list because it was only last night that you told me about how you really enjoyed reading my stuff, and would go through my archives on my blog. Your passion and effort dedicated to the Australian street dance scene really inspires me.
• Lenny - We don’t talk much these days but I will never forget or take for granted all the friendship, love and support you gave to me all these years. I hope we can reconnect like before, someday.
• Darrio - you talk way more than I do, but that makes me feel comfortable with talking as much shit as I do because at least I know that somewhere out there in the streets of Sydney, is a person far more outspoken than me. You are also my mentor and part-time life coach it seems! Even though you overtook my event and yelled and cussed at people for a good 15 minutes and told people that it was my idea, then walked out before the battles started which you were supposed to judge, you are still my friend and I still respect you hahaha.
• Chux - I love how you talk even more shit than me but less than Darrio, and are willing to step up to anyone who calls you out because of what you say or do. Your belief in me as a dancer and in general helps give me confidence and reassurance in what I do and what I can become.
• Link - It’s crazy how long we’ve been friends and while most people consider you royalty in the Hip Hop dance scene, to me you are just a really cool guy who supports my rants and shit talking and blows my mind with the immense amount of knowledge and wisdom you have.
• Anna Kim – The only person whose full name I write since there’s so many Anna’s out there… you know me the best out of all my friends and don’t judge me so quickly. Thank you for your hospitality in the city where we left our hearts and thank you for being such a great sister.
• My family – who have given me incredible support when I need it, they probably won’t ever read this but I am doing this all for them!
• Luke - my bestfriend, my other half, you are my rock when its awkward and when I’m in a hard place, you have had the most profound influence on my life and on me as a person in every aspect.

Ok it’s getting a bit too sentimental and I don’t usually show this soft side of me so let’s get back to the Hippin’ and the Hoppin’! There are many more people to thank which will come eventually, but these people are the ones I can think of right now and have been there for me for longer than everyone else…

And so I leave you with my favourite quote of all time… one that I can look at everyday thanks to Lenny’s thoughtful gift:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

— Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Related posts:

1. “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”

Hi there.

I’m Hopko.

We might have met.

Or i may have seen you around. But didnt say “Hi” cause im bad at that stuff.

Either way there’s some things you need to know about me. Because i have been given an opportunity to be heard on here, to make points, to speak a little louder than most.

But, i think it’s best if you know me better before listen to me. I think it’s important you know i used to live a double life. At polar extremes.

During the day i was standing in line, wearing my uniform, and driving tanks in the army. On the weekends i was going to competitons, watching circles, and learning to dance.

At work i had one pair of plain tennis shoes and a wardrobe of Polo shirts. At home i had a hidden collection of sneakers in a rainbow of colors and baggy hoodies.

I made up excuses to not go to the pub with the boys on the weekend, so i could go hang out in an empty carpark with a boombox and some talented friends.

I laughed and joked when someone at work thought they saw me “pop” momentarily, or when someone caught a glance of a pair of high tops in my bag.

Despite all of that (or perhaps because of it) that time in my life will still go down in my history as my formative years.

It was during this time that i grew an identity, a persona, a personality.

It was the foundation for the person i am now. My heart in one world and my mind flitting between two.

It’s this foundation that i hope gives me the qualification to write here – and more importantly, to be read by you.

It’s this foundation that has always allowed me to step back, and analyse a scene, a song, a person from not only another perspective but also a completely conflicting one.

And it’s this foundation that i hope will give me the ability to write something that someone actually reads.

So there you have it. Now you know more about me than you probably did. Or probably wanted to.

Does it make me more or less qualified to be able to post on here? That, my friends, is up to you.

Have a similar story? Let me know.

And next time you see me, say “Hi”

Peace,

Hopko.

Related posts:

1. A thank you to those who inspired the revival of this blog

As the first post on the revamped blog which is a combination of my old D2MG blog, my hiphop.org.au which turned into hiphopn.com, and dancing.net.au, I thought it fitting to write about how far we’ve come as D2MG since I took over in 2006.

Over the years it’s been a struggle, many sacrifices but also many joys that came with running D2MG as a dance academy in Sydney City, and there’s so much more to come for us in 2010. Lots of drama, lots of politics and rivalry were balanced with the good times we had, and the growing support that we receive from the dance community and beyond.

D2MG has grown its presence in the Sydney dance community and Hip Hop community, giving talented dancers the opportunity to spread their passion, and giving those new to the scene a chance to be part of our community. Our events have created opportunities for up and coming dancers to experience dance on another level, with the aim to motivate them to continue training and dancing.

D2MG is all about taking things to the next level. The way we do things is constantly being assessed and re-assessed; feedback from everyone is welcome and considered seriously and mostly incorporated into what we do – because we believe in having our supporters and members guide us in everything we do. So far, our innovations include:

• Next Generation Jams – an event for the next generation of dancers (since we don’t wanna call them newbies or amateurs) to showcase their skills in battle, while giving them the experience and motivation to aim higher each time they enter the event. They are given the opportunity to dance alongside the more established dancers and meeting all kinds of people in the Hip Hop scene in sydney.
• Breaking BY REQUEST classes – every Tuesday from 6pm to 7pm, the Breaking class is open to everyone of all dance experience levels, taught by a different teacher every fortnight, based on who the students want to learn from. Requests for teachers are made by emailing D2MG, and we organise those teachers to come in for a 2-week period, so that students can gain a variety of lessons from active bboys and bgirls within the community.
• Hip Hop Intermediate BY REQUEST classes – These classes follow the same structure for the Breaking BY REQUEST class, and a new teacher is invited to teach every 2 weeks.
• Street Dancer Alpha Jams – These jams are just for dancers of all styles, ages and levels to come to the D2MG studio once in a while and just dance, make friends with other dancers and learn some new moves.

It’s tough work, but I love it and refuse to give up! I thank all my biggest fans and supporters, most notably Luke, my family, Seymour, Froggy and the D2MG staff for sticking with me through the tough times and encouraging me to keep at it!

Trina

Related posts:

1. Bboy Blond (Extreme Crew, Korea) Workshop @ D2MG
2. “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”
3. D2MG Next Gen Jam VI at Platform 3 Hip Hop Festival, Sat 20 March 2010