Ghost of a flea: She got krump in the trunk

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March 18, 2006

She got krump in the trunk

While the video quality is not the best I was still happy to learn all about Alyson Hannigan's training for Date Movie. Gosh. So cute when she swears.

And that would have been the end of it but I became curious just what it was of which they were making fun. Krump, it turns out, is an off-shoot of clowning, a street hip-hop dance-style rising from the ashes of the Rodney King riots first developed by Thomas Johnson aka Tommy the Clown.

"Clowning" is movement invented by Tommy the Clown who developed the strange, stilted, goofy and erratic motion to entertain audiences as a clown at parties and local events around Los Angeles from as far back as 1992. Needless to say, it caught on in a big way.

Street dance has an evolutionary life of its own and it's very nature demands constant adaptation and change. What was once "Clowning" evolved to "Krump Dance" or Krumping. As Tommy put it, "Krumping is the dark side of Clowning". In homage to the clown, some dancers paint designs on half their face.

Flea-readers with a thirst for hip-hop lore, or who enjoy a documentary, should check out David LaChapelle's Rize. Not to be confused with Dave Chappelle, LaChapelle is best known for his fashion and advertising photography and distinctive music video direction (Christina Aguilera "Can't Hold Us Down", Gwen Stefani "Rich Girl", etc.). Film promotion compares Rize to "Paris is Burning" or "Style Wars", an almost ludicrous standard to set for oneself, but the film does not disappoint.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 18, 2006 09:14 AM

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