Popping Put Into Perspective:
An Ethnographic View on Popping and Tutting
Popping, a dance form created in the 1960’s by Boogaloo Sam, was used by dancers, in Los Angeles and Oakland, who aimed to look like tough gangsters while they danced. Jerky movements initiated by flexing different muscles of the body characterize this dance form. Another branch of Popping, called Tutting, is inspired by Egyptian like dancing and is connected with the King Tut system (Knowledge Style, 2016). Tutting and Popping continue to gain popularity in today’s society due to its freedom of expression in an urban setting.
Under direction of Tommy Hypno Chan, I partook in a class at the Popping Dance Academy where I experimented with Tutting and Popping. Chan …show more content…
In Deidre Sklar’s essay “On Dance Ethnography”, she introduces the idea of an empathetic kinesthetic perception that “often provide[s] clues not just to the sensations of particular movements, but to the whole complex of concepts, values, affects, and action that comprise”(Deidre, 30) the dance form. The quality of the form is directly linked to the motivation behind the movement. Tutting and Popping, originally, enabled dancers to be perceived as tough gangsters in the streets of Los Angeles. As I performed the movements, I felt the confidence, strength, and urbaneness essential in city …show more content…
Many dancers are self-taught through imitation, dance battles, and constant practice because they are unable to afford dance classes. The dance form does not require any specific footwear, or uniform which makes it more accessible for anyone to learn, regardless of financial status. As mentioned in Joann Kealiinohomoku’s essay “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance”, the way that Popping and Tutting is practiced and shared reinforces that the “forms of dance reflect the cultural traditions within which they developed” (Kealiinohomoku, 2016). Traditions of crews among people, street toughness, and financial scarcity is reverberated in the streets of cities and, conclusively, in the dance form of Popping and
An Ethnographic View on Popping and Tutting
Popping, a dance form created in the 1960’s by Boogaloo Sam, was used by dancers, in Los Angeles and Oakland, who aimed to look like tough gangsters while they danced. Jerky movements initiated by flexing different muscles of the body characterize this dance form. Another branch of Popping, called Tutting, is inspired by Egyptian like dancing and is connected with the King Tut system (Knowledge Style, 2016). Tutting and Popping continue to gain popularity in today’s society due to its freedom of expression in an urban setting.
Under direction of Tommy Hypno Chan, I partook in a class at the Popping Dance Academy where I experimented with Tutting and Popping. Chan …show more content…
In Deidre Sklar’s essay “On Dance Ethnography”, she introduces the idea of an empathetic kinesthetic perception that “often provide[s] clues not just to the sensations of particular movements, but to the whole complex of concepts, values, affects, and action that comprise”(Deidre, 30) the dance form. The quality of the form is directly linked to the motivation behind the movement. Tutting and Popping, originally, enabled dancers to be perceived as tough gangsters in the streets of Los Angeles. As I performed the movements, I felt the confidence, strength, and urbaneness essential in city …show more content…
Many dancers are self-taught through imitation, dance battles, and constant practice because they are unable to afford dance classes. The dance form does not require any specific footwear, or uniform which makes it more accessible for anyone to learn, regardless of financial status. As mentioned in Joann Kealiinohomoku’s essay “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance”, the way that Popping and Tutting is practiced and shared reinforces that the “forms of dance reflect the cultural traditions within which they developed” (Kealiinohomoku, 2016). Traditions of crews among people, street toughness, and financial scarcity is reverberated in the streets of cities and, conclusively, in the dance form of Popping and