A journey of miseducation.
I have been finding a lot of inspiration for pre-ballet, contemporary and tap classes lately. I've been finding so many cool nuggets in poetry, pop culture, and every day life. Ask any dance teacher, and they will tell you, on average, we spend two hours of prep for every one hour we teach. Our playlist is the spine of class. It allows us to flow the structure of class, adapt to the need's of the students and keep a real time checklist of specifics we want to get to class to class per monthly curriculum.
Hip hop classes, though - I've been blocked. I admit for a few months I have had a hard time connecting to my playlist. Until this morning.
Music helps tell the story in a hip hop class. I have to have a certain song that reaches me some sort of way for our groove warm-up. It has to speak to me on a cellular level. The energy of this class is focused if the first song sets us up. The effort and enthusiasm I put out is reciprocated from the bodies around me. If I'm not giving them 100% I can't expect the same. I can't expect them to be present.
This morning, as I'm wearing my six month old in a carrier, and handing my three year old his morning popcorn (is that a thing?!) Lauryn Hill's Lost One from the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came up on my playlist.
I know you don't want to hear my opinionBut there come many paths and you must choose oneAnd if you don't change then the rain soon comeSee you might win some, but you just lost one
Hip hop's story is not mine. It is the story of men and women of the 1970s that were on the streets, experimenting with new sounds, tempos and beats that American up until that time, had never seen before. It is the story in which, no matter how much I love and strive to educate others on, will never be something I am able to 100% identify with. It is the story of the creation of an art, that has been continuously stolen from a group I am a part of. I make sure to do my part ensuring every student of mine understands how lucky we are to be learning the steps of the legends that came before. The boogaloos, the popping, the running mans.
So, I gave my teens the opportunity to do some extra work. (Yes outside of dance class, I asked them. Can you believe it!?) These moves your learning from Fortnight? Those aren't viral dance moves- that's hip hop. Research one of those, and next week, tell me where it came from. Grab something from our little "boutique" on me. Because you made the effort to understand your passion more. To find out the history of how much of every day life hip hop really is. That's our responsibility. It is part of the restitution to celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments and contributions by Americans of color. Every time I teach a hip hop class, I need to pay my dues. I need to do my research and keep up on the history for my students. And for myself.
Hip hop is not having a kid shake their booty at the audience. It is my job to educate what hip hop is, was and will be. It is my job to let kids be kids. I can teach you to isolate your hips, but I'm not going to have you move it some type of way that leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I can provide you the skills to breakdance on that floor, but I won't be showing you to drop it like it's hot. *No judging anyone that does. Just not my thing.
Hip hop is not always aggressive. I have a lot of adults that have a formed opinion about this style of dance when they learn their child is interested. That it is scary. Fierce. Loud. It. Is. So. Much. More. It can be feminine. It can be funny. It can pull at your heart strings. It can tell a story. It can be a movement.
It can be A Movement.
Thank you, Miss Lauryn. For waking me up a little more. For letting me hear a song I thought I knew from back to front. It sounds new today.
This month I'll be using this album a lot in hip hop classes. It spoke to me in a different way, as a teenager. As an adult, it's speaking to me another. But they need to know it.
