Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Second Stage and the ’92 Theater hosted “Hip-Hop Showcase,” a dance performance organized and choreographed by Dante Brown ’09. The hour-long performance blended hip-hop, R&B, spoken word, and electro in eight dance pieces, which showcased the variety, exuberance and power of hip-hop as a form of artistic expression.
The performance began with “Commercialized Girl,” an ironic portrayal of highly sexualized female dancers dressed in black bustiers and dancing on chairs.
The next chapter, “To A Woman,” provided a contrasting view of the female body. “My skin is brown, my skin is yellow,” sang Nina Simone in the song “Four Women,” as dancers moved diagonally across the stage one by one, embodying the various images of black women expressed by the lyrics of the song.
A duet between Brown and Tameir Holder ’08 entitled “Follow” provided some of the most beautiful and powerful choreography of the show. Brown and Holder circled each other from the edges of the stage, stopping to gaze intensely into the audience as they moved in unison.
“Missing Piece” was another particularly provocative chapter of the showcase. Six dancers, dressed in hooded sweatshirts, moved to the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, contrasted against music by Jay-Z and the Notorious B.I.G. The familiar words of King’s speech gained renewed meaning and nuance as the dancers’ spare, powerful movements became accentuated by the rhythm of his voice and cadence. As the speech came to a close, the dancers raised their hoods, faced the back of the stage, and finally raised their fists to the sky.
The latter half of the showcase explored hip-hop’s potential to express exuberance and celebration.
“[Hip-hop] is not just about racial and political issues, but also joy—joy in the movement and in the moment,” Brown said after the performance.
In “ElectrikBarbie” dancers, dressed in brightly colored spandex, moved to electro music inspired by such recent pop artists as M.I.A.
“Puppy Love” was a piece that drew laughter and smiles from the audience. Three pairs of dancers acted out the flirtations, rejections, and innocent joy that accompany encounters between people on the dance floor.
“I Still Love H.I.M” featured a spoken-word piece performed by LaTasha Alcindor ’10 that incorporated song lyrics with Alcindor’s own writing. As Alcindor’s voice rose and fell with the rhythm of the poem, Brown improvised his own movements on the other side of the stage for a full ten minutes.
The show ended with “Homage to the White Glove,” a mash-up of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits with seven dancers, each wearing a single white glove.
“I wanted to take hip-hop out of the realm of Friday and Saturday night parties and bring it to a place where I think it should be, deserves to be,” said Brown after the performance. “I feel so lucky to have worked with dancers willing to give that much energy every day.”
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