Urban/Cypher

Urban/Cypher

What is Urban?

Urban is a form of Hip-Hop dance. This style of dance includes a wide range of styles such as breaking, locking and popping.

What is a cypher?

A cypher is part of the Hip-Hop culture, it is a social event which takes place on a certain day in which hip-hop dancers and B-Boys will join together to showcase their skills and talents. This all happens in a huge circle of people, all of the people in the circle are participants of the cypher. A cypher can also be competitive, the contestants will come together in the cypher and try to out d each other with skill.

History

Hip-Hop is an umbrella term that that houses many different styles. Breaking was created in The Bronx, New York, incorporating dances that were popular in the 1960s and early 1970s in African-American and Latino communities. However at this point in time breaking was not floor orientated like we see it today, it began as a top rock which is performed standing up. Top rock was influenced by up rock, both of these techniques are very similar however up rock is performed much more aggressively. Up rock is also performed in partners but top rock is performed one at a time.  In 1973, DJ Kool Herc invented the break beat. A break beat is a rhythmic, musical break of a song that has been looped over and over again to extend that instrumental solo. Herc did this so the dancers who attended his parties could showcase their skills. Breaking is also influenced by martial arts and gymnastics. At the same time breaking was developing in New York, other styles were being created in California. The funk styles refers to several street dance styles created in California in the 1970s these include roboting, bopping, hitting, locking, bustin', popping, electric boogaloo, strutting, sac-ing, and dime-stopping. Out of all of these dances,  is one of the oldest. The most popular and widely practiced of the funk styles are locking and popping. It is historically inaccurate to say that the funk styles were always considered hip-hop, this is because hip-hop activist and DJ, Afrika Bambaataa, used the word "hip-hop" in a magazine interview in 1982, and “hip-hop dance" became an umbrella term encompassing all of these styles. As breaking, locking, and popping gained popularity in the 1980s, hip-hop social dancing (party dancing) started to develop. Novelty and fad dances such as the Roger Rabbit, the Cabbage Patch, and the Worm appeared in the 1980s followed by the Humpty dance and the Running Man in the 1990s. The music of the day was the driving force in the development of these dances. For example, the 1980s rap group Gucci Crew II had a song called "The Cabbage Patch" that the dance of the same name was based on. 2000s era social dances include the Cha Cha Slide, the Cat Daddy, and the Dougie. The previously mentioned dances are a sample of the many that have appeared since hip-hop developed into a distinct dance style. Like hip-hop music, hip-hop social dancing continues to change as new songs are released and new dances are created to accompany them.

Culture

The culture of urban include DJing, MCing, Graffiti, Breaking and Beatbox

DJing

Turntablism is the technique of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer. Traditionally, a DJ will use two turntables at once. These are attached to a DJ mixer, an amplifier, speakers, and many other pieces of electronic music equipment. The DJ will then perform multiple different tricks between the two albums currently in rotation. This creates a mash-up of songs which have a unique sound created by the combination of the two separate songs into one song. Although there is considerable overlap between the two roles, a DJ is not the same as a producer of a music track. In the early years of hip hop, the DJs were the stars, but that role has been taken by MCs since 1978, thanks largely to Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash's crew, the Furious Five. However, a number of DJs have gained stardom nonetheless in recent years. Famous DJs include Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Mr. Magic, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Scratch from EPMD, DJ Premier from Gang Starr, DJ Scott La Rock from Boogie Down Productions, DJ Pete Rock of Pete Rock & CL Smooth, DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill ,Jam Master Jay from Run-DMC, Eric B., DJ Screw from the Screwed Up Click and the inventor of the Chopped & Screwed style of mixing music, Funk master Flex, Tony Touch, DJ Clue, Mix Master Mike, Touch-Chill-Out, DJ Red Alert, and DJ Q-Bert. The underground movement of turntablism has also emerged to focus on the skills of the DJ.

MCing

Rapping (also known as emceeing, MCing, spitting (bars), or just rhyming) refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment". It can be broken down into different components, such as “content”, “flow” (rhythm and rhyme), and “delivery”. Rapping is different from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in sync with the beat of the music. The use of the word "rap" to describe quick and slangy speech or wordplay long predates the musical form. MCing is a form of expression that is surrounded within ancient African culture and oral tradition as throughout history verbal acrobatics or jousting involving rhymes were common within the Afro-American community.

Graffiti

The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture comes both from early graffiti artists engaging in other parts of hip hop culture, Graffiti is believed to be a visual expression of rap music, just like breaking is viewed as a physical expression. The 1983 film Wild Style is widely regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, which featured prominent figures within the New York graffiti scene during this period of time. The book Subway Art and the documentary Style Wars were also part of the first ways the mainstream public were introduced to hip hop graffiti. Graffiti remains part of hip hop, while joining the mainstream art world with renowned exhibits in galleries throughout the world. Most Graffiti pioneers do not see the connection between graffiti and hip hop for example Lady Pink says, "I don’t think graffiti is hip-hop. Frankly I grew up with disco music. There’s a long background of graffiti as an entity unto itself," and Fargo says, "There is no correlation between hip-hop and graffiti, one has nothing to do with the other."

Breaking

Breaking, which is also named B-boying/B-girling or breakdancing, is a vibrant style of dance which was developed as part of the hip hop culture. Breaking is one of the major elements of the hip hop culture. Like many other aspects of hip hop culture, breakdance comes from other cultures such as 1930s-era street dancing, Afro-Brazilian and Asian Martial arts, Russian folk dance, and the dance moves of James Brown, Michael Jackson, and California Funk styles. Breaking developed in the South Bronx in the 1970s as well as the other elements of hip hop.

Beatbox

Beat boxing is a technique where the performer creates beats and rhythms from their mouths. It is a way of creating hip hop music there for it can also be placed under the producing section of the culture however it also can be tied into the rapping element of the culture as well. It is generally considered to be part of the same "Pillar" of hip hop as DJing, in other words, providing a musical backdrop or foundation for MC's to rap over. Beatboxing was very popular in the 1980s with conspicuous artists like the Darren "Buffy, the Human Beat Box" Robinson of the Fat Boys and Biz Markie showing their skills within the media. It declined in popularity along with b-boying in the late 1980s, but has but has been bouncing back since the late 1990s, marked by the release of "Make the Music 2000." by Rahzel of The Roots

Examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twGQMzRhLNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEptD4aMBn8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkNeLq5CVLU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7gxzPJ6nk

Dance crews

The Royal Family: Is  a mega dance crew that holds up to 7 dance groups:

ReQuest Dance Crew: (also known as ReQuest) are an all-female hip-hop dance crew from Auckland, New Zealand. ReQuest were formed in 2007, with originally five members. They are based out of The Palace Dance Studio in Penrose and Hamilton, and are one of seven crews within the Royal Family megacrew, alongside Misfits, Sorority, Duchesses, In-Laws, Kings and Bubblegum. Parris Goebel is the group's lead choreographer and founder, forming the group at the age of 15. (video footage: http://www.popsugar.co.uk/celebrity/Pretty-Obvious-Why-Dance-Crew-Just-Officially-Named-One-World-Best-38232859 )

Terminology

Top Rocks:

·         Front step

·         Side step

·         Back step

·         Cross step

·         Basic 1, 2

Foot work:

·       Six step

·       Three step

·       Baby love

·       Cee cee step

·       Kick outs

·       Pretzel

Drops:

·         Knee drop

·         Pin drop

·         Sweep down

Cut out:

·         Cut throat

·         Bombs

·         Grenades

Competitions

The World Hip Hop Dance Championship is an international hip-hop dance competition created in 2002 by Hip Hop International. Countries that have participated in the past are Dominican Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Chile, Italy, Mexico, France, Japan, Switzerland, Morocco, Philippines, United Kingdom, China, Canada, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, India, Colombia, South Africa, Nigeria, New Zealand, Denmark, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Uruguay, Thailand and the United States of America. There are four sections of competition: hip-hop for adult, varsity (ages 12–17), and junior (ages 7–12) crews, popping for solo dancers, locking for solo dancers, and breaking for adult crews.