Tommy the Clown

If one was to ask you what tutting was, would you say it was another word for sucking your teeth? Or would you understand it to be a derivative of the dance form known as popping? In the past 30 years, dances such tutting alongside Popping, Breaking, Locking, Wacking, Ticking and Smurfing have become part of the vocabulary of so called Street dance. Holy Roller prefers to view all of the above as part of hip hop culture.

In recent years, there has been rising tide of new creativity out of the ghettos of the U.S, local dances making big noise with the rallying cries Stand Up and Be Recognized! Some of the most obscure local dance fads are using the technology of the 21st century and gain world wide notoriety. Some remain local phenomena, but some are beginning to stand toe to toe with the established dance cultures, for example, the LA style called Krumping has become firmly part of the worldwide dance movement since David La Chapelle’s critically acclaimed film RIZE.

We researched and discovered new young gunslingers in this wild wild west of dance. They vehemently defend their turf claiming the monopoly on originality and dance roots, heralding their city’s creative spirit. These new dances vaguely resemble their hip hop origins. The dances we looked at ranged from amazing to bizarre to throwaway.

We have attempted to create a ghetto dance A to Z of what we considered to be U.S ghetto styles…

with one or two non ghetto but interesting styles thrown in. There will only be definitions on the dances we believe are the most prominent… Read up and add to the list if there’s any you think we’ve missed!

ATL Stomp

Atlanta Swag

BLOODWALK - Origin: Los Angeles

This dance was originated by Lil Rodney nephew of DJ Quik, they they both claim they evolved it from the ‘Mexican hat dance’. It is more likely though,  that the steps are from Robert Jacksons Cripwalk. Quik took the style and used it as a routine for his shows, and he says that the Blood walk or the b-walk, was never meant to be taken seriously, until dancers in L.A. Crip-walked against it. The difference between the B-walk and the more established C-walk? …erm…

Bank Head Bounce

Beatcha feet - Origin DC

Booty Shake

BRUK-UP - Origin: Jamaica/NYC

Bruk-up is a style named after its founder, Jamaican born Brukup or ‘the incredible worm’ as he likes to be called nowadays. Called Bruk up because of the then unique contortionist body movements which was all a part of his dance. Brukup introduced the dance to NYC circa 97, and hit the world stage in Busta Rhymes’ tracks Put your hands where my eyes can see and Delirious.

Bruk-up is a fluid style incorporating, gliding, dancehall, and flexing. Watch how the dance is performed by Ghost from Bedstuy Veterans.

BUCKING - Origin: Memphis

Bucking consists of heel toe glide movements, waving, flexing and crip walking. Mixed with a random bouncing movement to the music of gangsta rap, this dance is not heard of as much outside of Memphis.

Camp Walk

Chicken Noodle Soup

Crunking (Krunk,get crunk)

CLOWNING, CLOWNWALK - Origin: Los Angeles

Clowning is a dance form innovated by Tommy the Clown aka Thomas Johnson. An ex drug dealer who turned his life around, he rose to prominence after word spread of his hip hop dancing clown act at local birthday parties. Later he formed Tommy the Clown’s Hip-Hop Dancing Academy, as a haven for black teenage dancers. His clown dance, which was a combination of the stripper dance, wild arm and body movements was imitated by other groups,the practice of clown makeup was also copied by other groups. The dance eventually developed into the more commercial form known as Krumping.

CRIPWALK, C-WALK - Origin: Compton, Los Angeles

Stanley Tookie Williams was the co-founder and Leader of the notorious Crip gang in the 70’s. Throughout the 80’s the Crips expanded into multiple chapters all over L.A. Robert Sugar Bear Jackson, a member of the Crips, innovated steps to a dance that became known as the Crip walk or c-walk. Crips say that only gang members can perform the dance, the heel toe bopstep movements spell out the the name of a member’s set as an insult to a rival gang (see http://www.etigazette.com/Cr-to-Da/cat.php)

Dribble

FINGER TUTTING - Origin: NYC (possibly)

Finger Tutting, also known as Finger Connecting or Digit Dance, is a derivative of the dance known as Tutting or King Tut. The dance is mainly the hands (sometimes the forearms) creating geometric shapes which range from boxes, hinges, finger tracing to interpretive abstraction (also see hand performance). This dance is taking the internet world by storm, and many are claiming to have originated the style, In fact we traced the finger tutting style as far back as 81, in the Talking heads video Cross eyed and painless, which was performed entirely by Popping Pete. One of the finest Finger Tutters is Jsmooth (see video’s below).

FLEXING - Origin: NYC

Flexing is combination of popping, contortionism (bone breaking), tutting, bruk up, poplocking, gliding, finger tutting, hat and shirt tricks, turfing and floorwork. The use of a hat is essential in flexing which takes hat juggling to incredible levels.

FOOTWORK - Origin: Chicago

There are claims that Footwork started in Chicago, although a dance style in itself, it is also often referred to as Juking (see below). The rapid leg movements of footwork resembles the uptempo dancefloor jazz dance of the UK circa 80’s, in fact some of the movements are almost identical, this could be due to the tempo of 160 bpms which inspire jazz like movements. But the jazz connection rapidly dissapears as the young blacks of Southside Chi-town dance to the twisted, sometimes dark, sometimes pitched vox sample filled instrumentals, known as ghetto house, or the more commercial Juke music.

The FootworKINGZ who are the best known and finest of the footworkers, are currently taking the world by storm. They have documented the roots and current state of their culture in their excellent DVD, Take Flight.

GET LITE - Origin: NYC

Get Lite consists of everything, from knee-drops, miming, bugged out performance art, vogueing, chicken noodle soup, finger tutting, the harlem shake, floormoves, the removal and the juggling of kicks, to something that resembles the early 20th Century dance The Can Can! The dance is performed to a chorus of young people clapping a steady rhythmical pattern of 1, 3, 1 ,3 embellished with vocal chants, cheers and semi raps.

This is a true ghetto phenomenon, and a very local dance. It is mainly performed by young black and Puerto Rican kids. Some names to look out for includes Kid Pat, Dot Lite, Yoshi Lite, and Kid da Whiz.

Hand Performance

Harlem Shake

Heel Toe

Hyphy  (get hyphy)

Jerking

JIT - Origin: Detroit

It has been said that Jit dance movement started in the early 90’s, then again it has also been said that it started in the 80’s.
Detroit Jit is a whole world in itself. It is performed to Detroit club music Ghetto Tech and is stylistically confusing. Jit incorporates everything from footwork to house dance to booty shaking. In fact, Detroit claims that footwork origins lie in Detroit and not Chicago. On face value, one could say there is no difference between the up tempo version of Jit footwork and Chicago footwork  which is part of Juke music culture.

The Detroit vs Chicago issue has been a long running heated debate, with both cities laying claim to Footwork. Make up your own mind, watch Brandon ‘Jitting Jesus’ Hobbs from Detroit’s Incredibles and compare with Chicago’s FootworKINGZ.

JUKE - Origin: Chicago

Juking or Juke is a sexually explicit dance form from Chicago, performed to Juke music (Chicago club music) mainly by females. This dance involves the sexually explicit moving of all areas below the waist. There are many variations of Juking depending on where you’re from, the names range from booty shake, booty bounce, the stripper dance, to dutty wine, lap dance and twerking. You will find a hilarious definition of juke on Urban Dictionary.com.

See Footwork above for the other dance often referred to as Juke.

KRUMPING - Origin: Los Angeles

David La Chapelle’s groundbreaking film RIZE launched the dance known as Krump on to an unsuspecting world. When Tight Eyes and Lil C split from Tommy the Clowns Dance Academy, they took Thomas johnsons dance of clowning further than he could have imagined . The style morphed into Krumping, a dance which they used to channel agression and rage, in a sense ‘exorcising’ their inner demons. The ghetto churchness of this spirit dance was probably never meant to be a commercial ’street dance’ as its predeceser breaking and poplocking became, but La Chapelle’s ultra slowed  down slick pop vid styled montage of toned down Krump dancing made it a sure shot for commercial success.

Krunking  (get  krunk crunk)

Money Shuffle

Mutating

New Orleans Bounce

Perculator

Ricky Bobby

Rock Star Fresh

Rocking - Origin Baltimore

Stripper dance

Swag Surfin

Stanky Leg

Thizzelle Dance 

TURFING - Origin: Oakland, California

Turfing is another dance that uses glides, bone breaking tutting and krumping floor movements.The dance was innovated by popular Oakland dancer Jeriel Bey.Bey is ceo of Oakland turf dance group the architekz There is controversy as to the origins of this dance. The Flex vs Turf, east coast vs west coast, argument has cropped up with these two dances.

‘Get hyphy’  or ‘go dumb’ are terms used when dancing to  hyphy music which is the preferred music of  the turf dancer

Twerking

Uptown Shake

Whoop Rico