I'm drawn to hip hop classes. I can't help it. My brother taught me how to breakdance when I was six, so it's not surprising I'm curious about this street dance. I've taken a few classes. But between my breakin' days and the current handful of classes, I've taken many other styles that have codified form, names for moves, and a very different posture. Hip hop is still a beast I cannot tame.
You may recall the time Evie and I got served back in 2010. The two crackers in the class, the teacher had us square off against a couple of non-pasty ladies who obviously had more understanding and experience in the style. Did this keep us away from hip hop classes? Nope. I took a short series last year and she joined me for the last class. Our teacher didn't have the crackers square off against the other students, probably because the class was filled with crackers. My "mastery" (ha!) of the moves in that class was much better, but I was by no means a hipper hopper.
We bought a discount coupon for some dance classes at IDA. I knew we were entering a school where they had advanced hip hop classes so it would be intimidating, but I figured that a place that had beginning hip hop on the schedule could handle we two crackers. When we checked in to activate our discount pass, I asked the girl at the desk if the hip hop class we were taking was truly a beginner class. She said it was. I asked for reassurance because Evie and I had been served in a hip hop class before. She said with surprise, "You got served?!" She acted like this was the first time a couple crackers came in and said they got served. They had a discount coupon, an appetizing for crackers who've been served throughout LA. We saw some white and nerdy types going into the classroom so it seemed like we would be okay.
WRONG! There were some great dancers in the class, and the folks you wouldn't expect to be natural talents with the hip hop held their own quite well. Confused by the rapid steps and moves without names, Evie and I tried to keep up. We were having fun, even if we weren't television's next dance crew. As the hour drew to a close, our teacher split the class up so we could dance for each other. Yeah, that's fun for everyone but the folks who can't understand what the hell the moves are in the turn after the grapevine and don't comprehend the moves well enough to do it without a teacher or sample dancer as a guide. The crackers in the other group were hip hoppers in disguise, able to do the bouncing poses without looking like a group of dicks. They could do the crazy turn and make the right faces. Our group had two or three really skilled dancers, a cracker or two, plus me and Evie handicapping the group's overall street look. Yeah, we got served again.
I suggested to Evie that we make hipping & hopping outfits for these classes so we at least look like we're supposed to be there. We're finishing out our discount coupon with a few other classes, but we may wind up taking crunking on Friday night if we miss the classes we picked for Wednesday and Thursday. They don't serve crackers in crunking class, do they?
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