Olivia Oles
Ms. Hadley
Choreography/Performance 3/4
05 November 2017
Hip Hop vs. Ballet
When viewing a work of art, either from an old theater, the streets of New York City, or the screen on your iPhone, it is hard not to notice the overall style and vibe of a dance, in other words, how the dance is to the eye. From the music, the way the dancers move, and the individual skills or steps in a dance, Hip Hop and Ballet are two of the most polar opposite dance styles in the history of the art, but the origin of the watcher’s viewpoint can occasionally be strained, a viewpoint that the two styles are not glaringly contrasting in many aspects.
From the origin of Ballet and the origin of Hip Hop styled dances, the two are very diverse. Around the sixteenth and seventeenth century, European countries, mainly zoning in on France, popularized Ballet as a formal art piece. Ballet began as an idea in the Renaissance Period throughout the fifteenth century, in French Courts as entertainment for those wealthy enough to view it. Since the start, Ballet has gained a widespread vocabulary, stemming from its French ancestors, and globally, Ballet style and technique has been embedded in other styles, such as Modern and Contemporary, with steps such as a plié and grande jeté making an appearance in almost all dance styles derived from the one. The style and classicality of Ballet has been widespread throughout the world, main ports of the art stemming in Russia, America and France. Ballet is very similar throughout each teacher and class it is instructed in, due to the set vocabulary and movement style used. Many studios and Ballet Academies will perform a Standard Repertoire, many involving the same dances, such as The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a music score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Hip Hop, or Hip Hop-Culture, highlights a type of street dance, stemming from music of the same genre. Moves such as popping, locking and breaking, became widespread by American dance troupes and groups in the 1970s, commercialized by many popular Hip Hop-Culture television shows, such as Soul Train, Breakin’, Beat Street and Wildstyle. The American, and worldwide dance and art industry responded by implicating a very studio-based version of the Hip Hop style, sometimes referred to as "new style", and again, included and influenced a hip-hop arises style of jazz dance, referred to by the name, "jazz-funk". Similar to ballet, dancers can be “Classically Trained” in the styles of Hip Hop and Jazz Funk. Classically trained dancers and choreographers developed these branches from the tree that was Hip Hop-Culture in order to solidify and choreograph dances based from hip-hop dances that were performed, and the choreographers witnessed on the streets of the Bronx and other communities similar. Because of this development in studio style dance, Hip Hop styles of dance are practiced and performed in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.
The two dance styles, however not originating through the same line, decide to meet through their need for storytelling. Both Ballet and Hip Hop styles intend to tell a story, however the stories tend to be slightly different, Ballet stemming from fairytales or illustrating a book or play onto a lifelike canvas, whereas Hip Hop can explain the dancer or dancers signs of struggle, happiness, longing or fear. Hip Hop can be used as a more commercialized, performed for solely entertainment purposes in Dance Competitions, but the style itself, when stemming from cities and small or large groups of dancers, began with attempting to convey the feelings of darkness and light in the dancer’s world.
Although, using the name itself, street dance, a popular name for hip hop style dance, you would envision it to be performed in the street, in which it often is. When looking at ballet, you rarely see dancers pirouetting and leaping across the streets with their friends, but there is an element of Hip Hop dance that is translated to a more concert style, similar to ballet. Compagnie Käfig, for example, is a dynamic dance style, based in France, a company that brings together athletic samba, hip-hop, martial arts, capoeira dance, and a bit of acrobatics into their overall performance. The main director and choreographer of Compagnie Käfig, Mourad Merzouki and his very talented and trained dancers have been visually and technically influenced by many styles that evolved on the streets, but they have translated them into a style of repertoire choreography that can be performed for an audience in a performance venue or hall setting. Their moves, while likely pre-staged and pre-choreographed, have an air of improvisation and innovation. These moves, while perfected in the studio, may have been created through informal social interactions or collaboration in the regions where the styles originated. Compagnie Käfig dancers seem to combine characteristics of both street and performance dance.
Works Cited
Fuhrer, Margaret. American Dance: the Complete Illustrated History. Voyageur Press, 2014.