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The Jabbawockeez: Street Dance Maestros
Marti Bercaw, Socal.com writer |
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The Jabbawockeez received international attention as a world class dance crew when they won first place out of twelve competing crews on Randy Jackson's "America's Best Dance Crew," Season 1 in March, 2008.
In the year since Season 1 aired, two more seasons have come and gone on MTV and two more crews have won first place among thirty-one dance crews to compete, but the group that everyone remembers by name and signature style is the Jabbawockeez crew.
Today, the Jabbawockeez, a group of ten: eight perform on stage, open the show for the New Kids On The Block Reunion Tour that continues until April 18, 2009, when it concludes in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Palladium.
Jabbawockeez crew member Eddie Styles, speaking for the group, provided some background on how the west coast dancers, who come from San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, got together. The various dancers were all professionals connected to a wide dance network as members of other teams. Because the street dance world is tight, everyone knows everyone, or at least, knows what everyone else does and can do.
Gary "Gee" Kendall had an inspired idea to create a crew with the common goal to raise street dance to the level of art. Sadly, Gary Kendall died in 2007, but he was able to tap into an amazing talent pool and organize a team that had very special qualities and great chemistry: the Jabbawockeez.
Eddie Styles' own history as a dancer spans 16 years starting in 1993 when he began bboying. His back-story is similar to other members of the group, but their individual dance expertise ranges from bboying to locking, popping and contemporary hip hop combined with added training in other dance disciplines like ballet and jazz.
For the NKOTB Tour, the Jabbawockeez faced many creative and physical challenges but their experience as professionals and respect for their craft helped them overcome any obstacles. A typical dance gig for them might be 5 to 8 minutes, but the New Kids On The Block honored the Jabbawockeez with an unheard of thirty-minute time slot. The crew worked, as they always do, as a collective to develop their choreography. It took rigorous brainstorming and continued training to create their show and it paid off. The audience response has been fantastic.
The Jabbawockeez success can be attributed to any number of obvious reasons from the groups stellar dance skills, to lucky timing, to good marketing. But, the Jabbawockeez go steps farther to stand out against the growing blur of awesome dance groups being watched on popular media in recent years. From the start, the Jabbawockeez put a permanent stamp on the public mind by tapping into the realms of art and culture through the name they chose to their stage persona.
The name Jabbawockeez was inspired by a mythical, nonsensical beast called a Jabberwocky that Lewis Carroll created in a poem for Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.
The crew members wear identical, solid white, stony-faced masks and white gloves when performing. Their key goal is to focus attention on the group as a whole, not on color, race or individual dancers. The idea succeeds and the overall effect goes even farther to touch audiences on subliminal levels.
Throughout ancient and modern history the practice of wearing masks has been used as a device to transform ordinary individuals into other beings. When the Jabbawockeez perform, the masks, gloves and often staccato, synchronized moves become hypnotic, almost magical. The absence of the usual information an audience gets from reading faces lets the imagination roam free. What is witnessed takes on deeper meaning.
A career in dance of any type is difficult, to say the least. The oldest and most respected dance organizations in the world struggle endlessly to make financial ends meet. But the people who devote their lives to dance do so because they must. It's what their brains, bodies and temperament are made for. Ballet is no different from bboying when it comes to hard work, dedication and love for the form.
The Jabbawockeez are a success story of a 21st century kind. "America's Best Dance Crew," Step Up and Step Up 2: The Streets and many other television shows and films featuring dance are generating new opportunities for pop dance forms to be appreciated.
In the past, hip hop and street dance have not been seen as serious forms of artistic expression worthy of endowments and grant awards. An exception is Rennie Harris' Puremovement, one of the few organizations that explores hip hop culture through dance and receives recognition as an arts organization.
The Jabbawockeez are doing their part to move street dance to higher levels. There is every reason to believe they have already helped expand the boundaries of art.
As to the future? In the words of Eddie Styles, "Stay strong, anything can happen, have faith."
LINKS:
Jabbawockeez: http://jbwkz.com/
New Kids On The Block: http://www.nkotb.com/
Rennie Harris: http://www.rhpm.org/
NKOTB Reunion Tour Schedule:
3/28/09: Niagara Falls, NY - Seneca Niagara Casino
3/29/09: London, ON - John Labatt Centre
3/30/09: Ottawa, ON - Scotiabank Arena
3/31/09: Manchester, NH - Verizon Wireless Arena
4/02/09: Moline, IA - iWireless Center
4/03/09: Columbus, OH - Nationwide Center
4/04/09: Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena
4/05/09: Champaign, IL - Assembly Hall
4/06/09: Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena
4/07/09: Green Bay, WI - Resch Center
4/09/09: Winnipeg, MB - MTS Center
4/11/09: Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Centre
4/13/09: Kelowna, BC - Prospera Place
4/14/09: Victoria, BC - Save On Memorial Center
4/16/09: Fresno, CA - Save Mart Center
4/17/09: Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl
4/18/09: Los Angeles, CA - Palladium
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