Sullivan links to this “experiment,” which appears to be a fusion of “hip hop” and ballet:
It may be that I am simply uncomfortably caucasian and, despite having a great deal of old school rap and funk and jazz, simply do not understand nor fully appreciate the “hip hop” genre. It might also be that I am undeniably unsophisticated and unrefined, and, as such, can not fully appreciate the beauty that is ballet. Both of those points are things to take into consideration when I state that watching that video was three of the worst minutes of my life.
As such, I felt the need to share it with you.
Dennis - SGMM
Thank you. You may not have been paying attention back then but some of the attempts of various dance companies to get with rock and psychedelia back in the Fifties and Sixties were equally execrable. I blame the choreographers.
cleek
i got through about 45 seconds. dance music and group dancing: two things i realllly don’t like. blech.
this is better
Matthew Dessem
To which I would add this, from The Onion:
Dancer Risks Everything.
Brian Smith
The Onion covered this very topic last week :)
CHICAGO—Although she stood to lose her friends, her family, and everything she had worked for her entire life, classically trained dancer Cassie Lisbon, 18, put it all on the line Saturday night when she performed a highly controversial ballet/hip-hop-fusion routine at the Chicago Academy for the Arts’ annual spring recital.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/dancer_risks_everything
Brian Smith
D’oh! Damn you, Dessem!! :)
Zuzu
I dunno, Alvin Ailey folks have been doing this kind of stuff for years:
Love Stories
I guess it’s just not trying as hard to look like “ballet.”
sidereal
I see your ballet hip hop and raise you Hayden Panettiere crumping.
Svensker
Well, yeah, Alvin Ailey. And for ‘modern’ how about Jennifer Beals in Flashdance? Been there, done that. The dancing was fine in this clip, but the music really sucked.
ThymeZone
This has to be bad news for Democrats.
eric
this kind of fusion dance usually fails for one simple reason: ballet dancers can’t do hip hop, and vice (visa?) versa. this almost always includes the choreographers themselves. when the performers do one straight style and then another which is not their forte, it inevitably looks forced and pretty goddamn shitty too, and this isn’t even including all the choreography where they actually try to mix elements together (pump your fists + point turn = hella lame). this is also a particular problem for ballet, because the dance lies in the technique more than the creativity of “new” moves, where hip-hop places much more emphasis on originality.
the best i’ve seen in fusion so far is a group called “Loose Change” in SF, which combines modern dance and hip hop elements, which are much closer in emphasis than ballet/hip-hop. in this case, it looks like epic fail that even big boi can’t save. also, people stopped dancing with chairs in like ’00. except in spears’ videos.
Zuzu
And The Onion’s still milking it for laughs.
sabatia
Geez, I thought it was a pretty enjoyable little video. Not my music and, while I like dance ocassionally, ballet is certainly not my preference. Some nice moves, an attractive ballerina or two and one quite sexy, a few interesting faces.
As a lurker(and laugher) here, I must say that John Cole’s failure on this matter puts his opinion on all topics in doubt.
mere mortal
How about the previous (first?) mix of hip hop and ballet?
http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0206275/
Julia Stiles FTW!
Nikki
What part of any of that was even close to hip hop? Even the music sucked. You white people.
Zifnab
I see your ballet and raise you paintball in a tank.
Shinobi
Obviously none of you have sat through Center stage. Though I guess there was no hip hop in that, it was still longer than 3 minutes. And… yeah.
BH Buck
Apologies… OT:
John, tried to send email but keep getting ‘550’ error.
Anyways:
Absolut vodka pulls ad showing California in Mexico
ed
I will be the first concede that in art, differences of opinion (and expression) are what makes horseraces. This little filly, however, died in the paddock area before the race.
The Pale Scot
Uhh… that’s Hip Hop???
More like a jazzy theme song for one of the Mary Tyler Moore spin offs, or the B side of Felix Unger’s “happy, peppy and bursting with cheer!” which I believe was covered by Ren and Stimpy.
Andrew
I raise you all a kick in the junk.
Rick Taylor
I’m not generally a fan of hip hop, but I enjoyed this: hip hop violin.
David
This is bad news for all humanity, so I think that counts.
Ninerdave
Hip hop is now in decline.
dougie smooth
That is decidedly not hip-hop. That is bad pop R&B. This is hip-hop.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
This…was awesome beyond words. Big Boi rocks, Ballet can be lovely to watch, and even sublime when it’s done “right” (a whole, long topic).
But, then, I’m a black male bellydancer*, so I’m certain my vote doesn’t count in this caucus.
Note to Pale Scot: Hip Hop is about much more than the Gangsta Rap crap we hear too much about, man. To match up with what Rick Taylor sez, the Obama/Oprah bit in SC had a young man playing kick-ass violin over a bunch of Hip-Hop tunes, as well.
* No, really. Check the dance blog.
Pb
From this, I infer that you haven’t seen this video yet?
Incertus
I liked it myself, but I wondered why there weren’t more African-American dancers. You’d think that might be a priority for a show like this one.
Mark Gisleson
Whadda punk. Cole these are high school kids! Good lord there have been hip hop – modern dance fusion projects on stage since the ’90s, if not earlier. And not aerobic jazzercise passing as dance, but genuine modern dance combined with hip hop or elements of hip hop.
Music snobbery gets so tiresome, especially as it’s usually just a cover for racists wanting to trash talk black culture. In this case the last hip hop influenced modern dance show in my neck of the woods was staged at Northrup Auditorium at the University of Minnesota, and featured music by an award-winning jazz composer and an off-Broadway choreographer. Some kind of national tour, as I recall.
Like you John, I’m a former Republican. But whenever Democrats aggravate me to the point of thinking about going back, I just remember what a cultural wasteland the Republican party was/is. John, hanging out with Democrats is about more than just the politics. There’s a lifestyle going on over here too, you know. Besides, you probably don’t even dislike hip hop — I’m betting you’ve just never heard any good hip hop.
Email me a list of some of your favorite music, and I’ll Pando you back some hip hop that will blow you away.
And I promise it won’t sound anything like that juvenile crap in your video.
dougie smooth
on occasion, yes, but this was bad R&B.
Ninerdave
That ain’t hip hop either. Real hip hop lives here.
Incertus
If someone doesn’t do a response to that video to Milli Vanilli’s “Blame it on the Rain,” I’ll be quite disappointed. The lyrics write themselves.
Zifnab
What? You mean black ballet artists aren’t racing to swan dive into a bad cliche? And black hip hop artists have just enough dignity to stay the fuck back from this trainwreck?
I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you.
Ninerdave
So now if you don’t like something, you’re a snob AND a racist. Good to know.
Mark Gisleson
No one link can take you to hip hop anymore than it could take you to rock or jazz. And like rock and jazz, hip hop is out of the bag now, and you’re as likely to find the hottest hip hop in the Balkans as in Brooklyn. Don’t be surprised if the next 3-4 big movements in popular music come out of the European studios where the Africans and Middle Easterners go to record. Saian Super Crew or X Plastaz or Sweetmartabak are worth checking out.
In fact, the best tutorial on hip hop is African (altho this History of Lebanese Hip Hop isn’t bad).
myiq2xu
Jeebus John, I wasn’t serious about the “Dick-less” thing!
These guys look up to you, dude. Sack up!
Hip-hop ballet?
Enlightened Layperson
Both of those points are things to take into consideration when I state that watching that video was three of the worst minutes of my life.
And considering what you’ve told us about your earache, that’s quite a statement!
ThymeZone
I don’t generally watch these videos, but isn’t this a scene from The Wire?
Phoebe
I love hip hop, I like ballet, and that is why I could not sit through this after about five seconds. This is crappy modern dance with a couple of ballet moves thrown in, done to crappy r&b, as somebody else pointed out.
I’m not remotely a dance purist, but ballet does not lend itself to hip hop, choreographywise. Not that that’s what this is.
DustPuppyOI
You could always watch Soulja Boy dance, MIT style
protected static
How about hip-hop and breakdancing meets… well… you have to see it to believe it.
(via Patrick Nielsen Hayden @ Making Light, 20 Jan 2008)
protected static
Hm. Auto-preview was being weird with my first link. ‘See’ should link to this.
The Other Steve
I HATE INTEL!
I’m trying to download a bios update, and it’s coming down at like 4KB/sec! I’ve got Comcast damnit! I’m supposed to be getting 6 Meg bytes per millisecond!
Not this 56k modem shit.
Ninerdave
static, you can only have one link per post.
Dennis - SGMM
Next up, the racial overtones of the songs “That Old Black Magic,” and “Paint it Black.”
protected static
9r – that would do it… Moderation I expected – disappearing links, not so much.
Pb
So shouldn’t you be hating on Comcast, or is Intel’s website the problem…
skippy
then you need to watch baby got back by gilbert & sullivan
Just Some Fuckhead
Don’t judge him harshly. He’s just not as cool as us young hipsters.
Mary
Come on, I’m sure someone can do something with Costello’s Blame it on Cain. (Lyrics here.)
PeterJ
That’s all wrong. They forgot the jazz and instead of ballet it should have been basketball…
Porco Rosso
Sweet Jesus, you know when you haven’t accidentally clicked on James Wolcott when…
The Other Steve
Everything else is fast… It’s solely Intel’s download site.
Even balloon-juice is working! That’s how bad intel is, that they are sucking when I’m not getting WordPress errors at bj!
Anyway, abandoned DP965LT board that I can’t get recovery bios to work on. Stupid thing died on me last year when trying to upgrade bios. I just now came home with a DP35DP board I bought at Microcenter. This is going to work with my Q6600 and 8 Gigs of 667 Mhz RAM.
Although, my main initial goal for this machine is to setup a test platform for something I’m doing at work. Why? Because the incompetent buffoons can’t setup a development server correctly.
Chuck Butcher
Hahahahahaha
Predictable
Desert Rat
John,
I want the three minutes of my life back I just spent watching that.
DougJ
How can you compare ballet to hip hop? One involves people standing on one foot while wearing tights, the other produced timeless nuggets of wisdom like “life ain’t nothing but bitches and money.”
DougJ
We don’t need to be told the lyrics to Elvis Costello songs here, Mary.
Once upon a time I had a little money, a couple of burglars took it before I could mail to you, still you are the only one, and I can’t let it slip, so if the man with the (slurred word) tries to take it, this is what I’m gonna say, blame it on cain, don’t blame it on me, oh oh it’s nobody’s fault, but we need somebody to burn
if i was saint with a silver cup and the money got low we could always heat it up and bring it in and the radio to heaven would be wired to your purse…
Yes, I’ve been drinking.
DougJ
Now everybody’s breaking up somebody else’s home, before somebody else starts breaking their own, I get you in my dreams….
Damn, where is Mac Buckets. This would be fun with him around.
DougJ
I skipped Alison intentionally. You’ve all heard it before.
Malixe
Clearly I’m not the first to say it, but if that’s Hip-hop, it’s really *bad* hip-hop, and if that’s ballet, it’s god-awful bad ballet.
Put the worst of both worlds together and it doesn’t get better via combination.
Pixie
Well I had the volume turned down, but as a dancer, I can definitely appreciate what they are trying to do. We’ve mixed hip hop with our Irish dance and it actually turned out pretty awesome and the crowds really love it. :) You have to keep experiementing like this if you want to keep the artform fresh and progressive.
jake
Where the fuck’s my t-shirt then?
For the record, I don’t need to watch the video to know it cannot be the ultimate suck. The housemate has forced me to watch clips of this shit on TalkSoup.
And don’t get me started on RiverDance.
Cain
All these posts and links and not one of you tried to rickroll BJ. :-)
cain
TenguPhule
If McCain tries to dance along, it will be.
Fulcanelli
That ballet dance crew can’t hold a candle to this dude. And a caucasian to boot.
I am so jealous… Pump up the volume!
Laertes
I dunno. What I took away from it is that modern dance is kinda neat, and dancers are unspeakably beautiful. Holy shit. I think I know what heaven looks like, and it’s populated by slender little twenty-something dancer types.
DBrown
This is more ‘modern’ dance with something playing; however, why in the fuck isn’t there a single black?! Well, off the point: In any case, if that is Hip-Hop music than I am a repubician.
Dumbo
Worst one minute of my life. I pity you your three.
jenniebee
Classical ballet bores me (look, a beautiful pose! and another beautiful pose! and Giselle as a story, zomg wtf?) but modern ballet from the first time I saw it has taken my breath away. I watched this with the sound off, so maybe the music is godawful, but I liked the dancing.
And Center Stage is dancefan pr0n. You’re supposed to fast forward through the talking bits and just watch the action, duh.
Dayv
Dear John:
Good hip-hop
Good modern dance. Wait, I can’t find any…
Dayv
A little more challenging listening: more good hip-hop.
Of course, taste is subjective.
Bob In Pacifica
I never gave a shit about ballet and have been conspicuously absent from the dance floor during my entire life, from the twist on. The closest I come to dancing now are the demonstrative but spastic movements that I do behind the wheel when “Highway To Hell” comes on the car radio. Oh, then there are those interpretative moves I bust when I’ve had a few drinks and have taken off my pants to climb into bed and my girlfriend is trying to go to sleep. Downright scary.
There’s some hip-hop dance competition show on the tube which the youngster in the household puts on, and I was actually engaged in watching it. I was impressed that the one group with roller skates actually managed to stay upright. Maybe a ballet hip hop show is in the works. On roller skates.
Any and all art is a constant mixing of different elements. Ripping off different cultures, embracing different cultures, etc. Eventually something that is deemed tasteful comes along, but there is much that is awkward and pathetic along the way.
Original Lee
Like jenniebee, I watched this with the sound off, which probably was a significant improvement. There were a few clips where I would have liked to see the whole number. I thought mostly that the editing was awful. I suspect that the ballet as a whole is not very good, because there aren’t too many American choreographers any more who can put together a whole ballet where everything works. I think this is a fairly typical new work, although I was also looking at the whiteness of the troupe in wonder.
Mike D.
Well hell, I’ll toss in my oar then. Can we lose the black tights? Sixty hawt Irish chicks dancing out Morse code at 60wpm, and what, they’re modest, they gotta wear something that flatters their chunky thighs, what’s their excuse? Having the legs and not showing off the legs = classic fail. I’d rather start a land war in Asia with an amphibious assault.
This isn’t any better or worse than a thousand other youth group dance routines, and I know. At least they obviously chose their own music. Usually the first three notes allow you to peg the dance instructor’s graduating college class within four years, give or take. Imagine if there were no gay DJs and a redneck mafia controlled American dance music. God.
Long story short, RiverDance would be a hair’s width from redemption if they did an entire performance to the works of Dread Zepplin. If they opened the show by having a couple of Russians beat Mr. RiverDance with socks full of quarters until he crawled off stage pissing blood… nope, the black tights are still a deal-breaker.
Bill H
The dancing might have been quite good, but the choppy video technique makes it impossible to know. Today’s videographer thinks that the camera is the art. Constant cuts from distant to closeup and between differing views make it impossible to know what the hell one is looking at. I have come to the point that I never watch artistic performances on film or television, because the videographer tries to steal the show and succeeds merely in generating garbage.
Birdzilla
RAGG MOPP RAG MOP