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.

2. Hip-Hop

When the ISU selected hip-hop as one of three acceptable rhythms for this year's blues-based junior short dance, the reaction in the skating media -- and fan media -- was typically thus:

ISU opens door to 'clean' hip hop in ice dancing
Young figure skaters allowed to go gansta
Tupac and Dean? Hip-Hop Approved for Ice Dance
Hip Hop -- wrong way for ice dancing

which provides some perspective on the context into which this genre was so shockingly thrust.

After making their pronouncement, the ISU provided its skaters with a handbook on hip-hop rhythm, including a list of helpful examples of "new style hip-hop": four selections from the American and British versions of So You Think You Can Dance. The routines are well-performed, and most are based in the lyrical hip-hop style -- SYTYCD US's usual approach to hip-hop. But in its perusal of the popular dance program's offerings, the ISU opted not to include something more intensely beat-based (as demonstrated often on the Canadian series), or more in the vein of this well-known piece:


Junior performers ranging in age from 13 to 21, blades and ice, and an audience and judging panel including many parties not traditionally predominant in hip-hop's fanbase -- these present some very real limitations on the diversity of work today's teams can present.

And yet the genre's addition to the line-up this year does mark a fairly radical shift in its way for the ISU. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto's 2007-08 exhibition to Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" and "My Love" is, to date, one of the few readily locatable examples of hip-hop (in its broadest sense) in ice dance:


After unveiling the program at the 2007 Marshall's Showcase, the team shared their desire for hip-hop's recognition and acceptance in the sport. What's not touched upon, however, are the technical elements that may additionally have limited its presence -- and by which even Tanith and Ben were not unaffected.

Surprisingly, the best overview of historical and modern hip-hop comes from Wikipedia, which also offers video links to illustrate each general style. While hip-hop is really a blanket name for an extensive variety of subgenres, one of its primary components is an element of improvisation -- though this is not true for the studio-based hip-hop also popular today, and it's this latter with which ice dance must by necessity be compared. Within the realm of choreographed commercial hip-hop, however, certain rules still apply. From our Wiki entry:

New style hip-hop is choreographed hip-hop social dancing. From a technical aspect, it is characterized as hard-hitting involving flexibility and isolations -- moving a specific body part independently from others. The feet are grounded, the chest is down, and the body is kept loose so that dancers can easily alternate between hitting the beat or moving through the beat.

It is not overstating things to suggest that an effort to reproduce this on ice would be, to say the least, challenging and, in the case of a competitive program, outright detrimental. An exhibition does permit for a stationary moment; see, for example, 1:08-1:14 in Belbin and Agosto's performance. But that same sequence, as carried out on blades on a frictionless surface, can't be quite as effectively grounded as one conducted in sneakers on floor or paved surface. Certainly in competition this requirement is even more questionable; competitive programs are about edgework and maximizing movement across the ice, a bit antithetical to real rooted hip-hop action. In either approach, these simple issues of gravity and grounding may also impact that balance of crisp movement and flow throughout the body.

Ice dancers can't exactly rely upon full-body movement or footwork to showcase their groove. What they can offer instead are upper body isolations. We see this throughout Belbin and Agosto's program; it's a mainstay of recent hip-hop influenced Stars on Ice group choreography which even, occasionally, allows a surprise demonstration of breaking.

Perhaps unsurprising given the inherent challenges, a relative few teams are tackling hip-hop, and to this point in the very young season, most are yet to compete. Of those who have, even fewer have been recorded. To that end, Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter of the U.S. were one of only two duos at last week's JGP Courchevel to present hip-hop, and theirs was the more successful effort. Pairing Róisín Murphy's "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" with Flipron's "Zombie Blues":


It's certainly a novel approach to the program (if not wholly original), but also not quite hip-hop as, say, Tanith and Ben seemed to intend. On the other hand, at today's JGP Lake Placid short dance, Canadian duo Andréanne Poulin and Marc-André Servant gamely worked the upper body motion in their program to Usher's "Mars vs. Venus" and David Guetta & Usher's "Without You":


Of course, neither program goes especially hard-hitting, and it remains to be seen if something just a little heavier from another junior couple may still await us.

And failing that event, perhaps some inventive team in the future might consider giving this man a call.