"Technical Misunderstandings"

In Chicago in September 2017, I attended a pop-up heels class led by Mary-Angela Grandberry, a Chicago-bred/NYC-based dancer, Cream of Nature brand ambassador, and fellow mentee of Yanis Marshall. Her class served as a fundraiser to assist those affected by Hurricane Harvey, but another thing that was definitely served was heels TECHNIQUE. Afterwards, she and I discussed her class, our histories, and the dance community at large. In the conversation we were talking about how people approach dancing in heels, and in her agreeing in a point I made, she stated, "Well, that's because you're a technical dancer." That moment really shook me for two reasons. As I did not grow up in a dance studio--honestly, I did not receive any formal training until my first semester at Knox College--I was really grateful to have my hard work in learning classical ballet and jazz dance technique recognized by someone who is very well classically trained and has been so since childhood. However, I was reminded the definition of "technical dancer" that most of us have accepted, in that the technique being referred to is classical ballet and related movement taught in the majority of traditional dance schools or studio academies, which bothered me because I find just as much value in my roots in Chicago House style hip-hop and Afro-Caribbean movement--which are not as valued to have classes for in a traditional dance school.

Exactly 6 months later I engaged in a conversation that finally allowed me to address this topic. After an audition for Juiix, a performing artist currently on the songwriting staff for Fox Television's Empire, a group of us went to a burger and bar joint in Lakeview to hang out and celebrate. The choreographer for the audition, Jazleen Hunter, had brought up how she changed her focus from taking choreography classes (classes where the heavy majority--if not all of it--is about teaching a piece of choreography and recording it for public viewing via social media) to taking technique classes. In discussing this endeavor, the type of classes for technical training mentioned were classical ballet and modern dance, not hip-hop or anything else within the African Diaspora. As many of the urban and contemporary movement dance classes are choreography based and video performance oriented, that is understandable. However, Tre Daniels and Nadell Jackson, two Chicago-based hip-hop performers and educators, chimed in stating that what they do definitely has a technique to it. This led to a very heated conversation about if hip-hop dance can be considered a technique and why. The two major opposing arguments were the following:

• Hip-Hop dance does not have a technique because of its expressive nature. In classical ballet, "a plié is a plié", and there is no way of getting around it; but you can initiate locking or jacking in different ways, and it's okay that your movement looks different from the person next to you. Not that there is no expressiveness in classical dance, but technique mandates structure, discipline, and uniformity; hip-hop dance does not.
• Hip-Hop and other movement of the [African] Diaspora does have a technique. If it didn't, how can one honestly and with certainty say that people can't twerk? There has to be a specific way to approach it--even if people don't look exactly the same doing it--which comes from understanding the culture of the movement--just like there is a culture behind the movement of classical ballet and modern dance that is necessary to immerse yourself in to fully understand.

Two months later came a revelation from my fave, Yanis Marshall. On April 20 of this year, Yanis taught his fourth workshop series in Chicago since September 2016. He took a moment during the 2nd heels class to discuss an issue that had been pressing him for a while. Yanis confessed how it is frustrating that people come to his classes either not wanting to be taught technique but just learn the choreography--though the choreography thoroughly entails heels dance technique, of course--or not having the technical proficiency to fully grasp and enjoy what he is teaching because they don't take the necessary classes to prepare themselves for the experience. He mentioned that even those who are hip-hop dancers should find more classes for locking and breaking instead of just doing trendy hip-hop classes, since those are fundamental techniques in hip-hop dance. Being that he is a classically trained dancer from France--where classical ballet was first codified and created for concert dance format--it was refreshing that he saw the technical aspect in a contemporary and non-Eurocentric dance form such as hip-hop. Thus, if Yanis can see it, we all can learn to.

Let's open the conversation! How do you define "technique" regarding dance? What is a technical dancer? Do you feel that there dance styles that are more important to learn than others, be it someone wanting to study dance or someone aspiring to become a professional dancer? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, or e-mail me your responses to this article at averybrandon0812@gmail.com. Thank you for your time, and stay elevé-ted!

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