[dance-tech] Re: theory query & krumping

>>
Just as breaking, electric boogaloo, krump, hyphie, etc, have emerged  
as powerful and relevant dance forms outside institutional  
structures; can we expect an emergence of some kind of digitally  
mediated/enhanced dance?  Will this new form be as culturally  
significant as the above mentioned forms of (for lack of a better  
phrase) "street dance"?  Will it be characterized by a division of  
labor.
>>


thanks for asking these questions, Tony. They are good questions, and rarely is 
street dance, and the techniques devoloped "outside" the institutions, 
addressed in dance technology research forum contexts, theories, or the dance 
circuit/festival scene, although this may be a differentiated situation and 
vary from location to location. Hip hop is part of the dance scene, however, 
and it has also been commodified by high culture (Rhythm is it), and it is part 
of a much wider economic spectrum (the music industry, etc). 

so one would need to examine  carefully what kind of practices are enabled (in 
what kinds of relations of production) in the spectrum, and Troika Ranch, for 
example, are not part of "powerful university institutions", and dance, 
incidentally, often does not occupy much economic power in institutions in the 
first place (our science and engineering folks here have research funding one 
can only dream of, so do the "human factors" researchers, as they draw from 
military funds). there is much bottom up work being done by artists, many of 
whom are independent, and do not get funded by the military-industrial 
entertainment complex.  they are often not the ones that are written about.

(but check Yvonne Watson's presentation:  
http://www.digitalcultures.org/Library/Yvo.html) 

regards
Johannes Birringer
DAP-Lab

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