A gaggle of teenagers hittin' it hard greeted me as I walked into Vibe Street Dance's hip hop sessions at Euro Dance Studios. In the characteristic way of adolescents, the mostly female group of about twenty students clustered chatting at mach speeds when the music was off; but as soon as the beat dropped this eclectic gathering became a cohesive group. I could tell from the concentration and attitude they but into the moves that these girls loved their hip hop. I was about to find out that hip-hop dance was all about the attitude.
I decided to drop-in with an open class where there was various levels of dancers. I didn't feel out of place for my skill level, but fashion-wise I stuck out like a sore thumb. Evidently, sweats are the way to go for a hip hop session and I had made the uncomfortable choice to wear cords. No one made me feel uncomfortable, I was just self-conscious. I didn't quite feel cool enough.
Missy, our instructor, pulled out a new piece of choreography for us to try. The warm-up was short and everyone was eager to get dancing. Hip hop is a combination of locks and smooth movement, which theoretically and somewhat technically is similar to the muscle isolation in belly dance, but the speed and precision challenged me. Each movement, whether soft or hard, requires complete commitment to look good. I carefully studied Brooke Kilgore, the founder of Vibe Street Dance, to try copy some hip hop attitude.
At 24 years-old, Brooke is a home-grown Victoria entrepreneur. With a little push from family and friends Brooke opened Vibe Street in January of 2006, Victoria's first and only hip-hop company. Since she was not studio trained from childhood Brooke had her doubts about being able to make it in the dance profession. But what started as a teaching a few classes part-time at recreational facilities after she graduated from high school, grew with student demand into a full time job. And she always knew that she wasn't interested in a 9 to 5.
Even though she is now a dance professional, Brooke has never felt that connected to the Victoria dance community. While growing up she felt like she was always more “funky” then the local prevailing ballet culture. Also her family couldn't afford pricey dance classes, something Brooke hasn't forgotten with her own school. She offers special arrangements for students whose family's can't afford the full price.
When Brooke was younger there weren't any hip hop schools in Victoria, so she learned her moves by watching Janet Jackson, Usher or Aaliyah VHS tapes and mimicking the choreography. Brooke said it could be a labourious process, “play/pause—see what exactly their hands were doing there--/rewind.”
Since the Canadian hip-hop dance scene is still growing, Brooke often travels for dance training and workshops. She was in L.A. last summer, Montreal and Toronto this spring, and she is constantly on the lookout for conventions with world renowned choreographers. She even studied with Shane Sparks of So You Think You Can Dance fame. Sparks was a choreographer whose hands on approach really helped Brooke learn by repositioning her entire body. “He uses every milli-count of a beat, so there is no resting between counts,” said Brooke. “He moves on fast, so it's do or die.”
I tried to keep up with the quick lifts and drops of Missy's choreography. Hip hop choreography is unstructured, there are no specific terms to describe movement. Hip hop has a certain funk to it and is not as “uppity” as the Jazz Funk that is taught as hip hop at many dance academies. Brooke says most movements in hip hop should be “danced into the ground” with bent knees. “Real hip-hop in my opinion starts from the bounce,” described Brooke. “You've got your head bobbin' like 'yeah, this is a good track'...its almost like it's in you.”
Brooke draws a lot of her influences from the music of Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Ali & Gipp, Lil'wayne, Ice Cube and other “ghetto-grime” hip-hop. But now Brooke is looking to local influences for her choreography. “I've been asked to choreograph a music video for a local band,” said Brooke, but she couldn't discuss the details for contractual reasons.
The pop, the lock, the angles and slides of Missy's choreography filled the room with movement. She used the momentum of one last swooping move to turn us around, then bounce up into the air, releasing our fist like an explosion at chest level.
There's no doubt that Victoria will hear more about Vibe Street Dance in the future, with its fresh, young crew. As I walked away from my hip hop class there was a bounce in my step that wasn't there before, and I felt just a little bit cooler.
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