14. Hip-Hop Revisited

In its second installment, long ago at the outset of the 2012-13 season, Step Sequences explored the hitherto relatively unexplored territory of hip-hop on ice. At this time, it was a permitted supplementary rhythm for juniors, accompanying a Blues pattern-based short dance, and examples of its other use were few and far between.

In more recent seasons, hip-hop has taken on a new life at the senior level in capacities both competitive and show, and will be on offer as a supplemental rhythm for senior and, again, junior dancers in next season's Midnight Blues/Blues short dances. We'll take a look at those outings and revisit the off-ice world as well -- recalling still that all on-ice renditions of the genre are essentially adaptations of lyrical or studio hip hop, with an obvious emphasis on that category's basis in choreography rather than improvisation, and its utilization of heavy-hitting isolations and more grounded, rounded movement as its defining elements.

For their 2014-15 free dance to pieces from the soundtrack of 2013's The Great Gatsby, Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue explored a range of rhythms and accompanying dance styles. Of concern here is their approach to Beyoncé and André 3000's "Back to Black" -- seen from 1:58 to 3:00:


Although this blog has very recently made a point regarding overuse of choreoliteralism, the incorporation of choreographic gesturing within the difficult twizzle sequence is a nice, and technically tricky, touch, obviously reminiscent of the lyrical hip hop approach ("and your tears dry" at 2:25-27). While the couple have excellent flow, carefully incorporated upper body isolations mean this movement actually doesn't pose significant trouble to their interpretation -- though it really wraps at 2:44, with the subsequent transition movement returning to a more general skating vocabulary.

While the choreography is unrelated, it might be useful to take a look at choreographer Miguel Antonio's "Back in Black" studio piece as a complement; it is also interesting, however, as a demonstration of the genuine closeness that exists between commercial hip-hop and a fellow trained genre like jazz. Many of the harder hit moments are less grounded and staccato than snappy -- a product of choreography or dancer?



Also last year, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir tried their hand with an exhibition to Usher's "Good Kisser," completed with the aid of hip-hop instructor and choreographer Samuel Chouinard in addition to choreographer Marie-France Dubreuil:


Interestingly, this number happened to come on the heels of a very popular Dave Scott hip-hop routine from So You Think You Can Dance's eleventh season in 2014, featuring Tanisha Belknap and Rudy Abreu:



While it's difficult for skaters like Virtue and Moir to wholly adapt their usual fluid movement to the more staccato aspects of hip hop, they do some solid work in the stand-still sequences here, with Moir particularly strong; where some hip-hop essence is lost, of course, is again in the many moments of greater ice coverage. But Dave Scott's routine, though a strong entry to Dance's body of hip-hop work, itself relies to an apparent degree on the other-genre strengths of its two dancers -- one a heavily cross-trained contestant who classified herself as a ballroom dancer, the other a cross-trained contemporary dancer.

And Dubreuil students Kayla Charky and Simon Dazé, junior competitors for Canada, also tackle a hip-hop segment in their largely classic R&B-based 2015-16 free dance to "Ain't No Sunshine," "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Otis." While Kanye and Jay-Z's track drops in at the 3:08 mark, the hip-hop derived movement only enters at 3:34, stretching for a 15-second segment. Choreographically, the intent is clear, though execution is clearly young -- though also performed here at a July event:



What shall the 2016-17 season bring? Step Sequences waits in eager anticipation for the brave souls who opt to take the road less traveled.