America’s Best Dance…..Family?

Written By Safi A. Thomas
Courtesy of Recidivism Deferred (A Hip-Hop Dance Blog)

There are many who posit that a crew in hip-hop dance is about “family”— much like gangs who push the same rhetoric.— Although this was the original emotional or subjective impetus for many crews, it is not our general ethos. This halcyon viewpoint neglects to recognize that a strong familial foundation is but one component of true sustainability. People need more than a pseudo-familial bond to survive.

What is the efficacy of “family” or crews if there is no economic independence, no feasible trajectory towards reliable & stable employment, no pedagogy, no protection from socio-political agendas, no consistent mentoring, no balance between peoples egocentric needs and our sociocentric responsibility etc.? These are but a few of the quagmires that disrupt the average familial unit and send it into disarray. These issues are often compounded by the conditional nature of the pseudo-familial bond (if you’re down with us you’re cool, if you are seen with anyone from another crew that we don’t like, you are immediately ostracized.)

As I often state, we are placated by our bias blindspot of Availability Heuristic. We often view hip-hop within the confines of our own field of view. We see “some” people confuting the status quo and we assume that this is the whole community. However this is only representative of a “pocket of resistance” against the status quo. It is not representative of a cohesive and unified movement centered on future sustainability efforts for all involved on a national or international level.

The United States has pockets of strong crews that have positive intentions and have been instrumental in creating stronger social community ties over the last decade. Yet we are still divided nationally and globally. Our focus is inconsistent and flawed because we leave out the necessary ingredients for long-term capability; consistency, higher education, economics and infrastructure.

With an older generation who’s bitter, a younger generation who’s apathetic because of their progenitors’ bitterness and then pockets of the embattled, it leaves little room for an effective long-term strategy to gain a foothold. Lets shift our mindset from crew building to community building. Let’s start valuing the vast collective contribution we all can make if we stopped segregating ourselves by race and by style.

We must focus our collective consciousness and perspective towards truly benefitting the hip-hop dance community. When I speak about the community I am speaking about our totality not our scattered groups.

Safi A. Thomas

Artistic Director

The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory

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