HIP HOP PROGRAM FEATURED ON CNN

Embedded video from CNN Video

International hip-hop artists find their roots in U.S.

By Jill Dougherty
CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Six hip-hop artists from five countries speaking four languages are on stage, warming up for their show at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

International hip-hop artists warm up for their show at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday.

“Warming up” doesn’t really capture it; the dancers explode across the stage, each one with a different hip-hop style.

Michelle Salazar is chic-grungy in black jeans and white T-shirt, her long black hair swirling around her head. Hassan El Haf, from Lebanon, tall and thin, does a kind of electric hip-hop mixed with salsa.

Argentines Mauricio Trech and Silvia Fernandez move in a dramatic break dance. Both hail from Argentina, home of the tango. Hien Ngoc Pham from Vietnam, with a buzz cut and dressed in white jeans and a white T-shirt, has Broadway bravado in his every move.

The dancing stops and Samer Samahneh begins rapping — in Arabic. No translation needed; it comes from his soul.

Three weeks ago, the dancers had never met, but now they’re a team, participating in the State Department’s Cultural Visitors Program. The program consists of three weeks of meeting American hip-hop artists and dancers and visiting New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

“It’s like a dream come true for me,” Salazar said Tuesday, the day of the team’s show, “because I only read their names in the Internet and now, like, I met Afrika Bambaataa, the founder of hip-hop. I was right next to him. It’s a real immersion into the culture. I don’t want to wake up!”

Salazar isn’t just star-struck. She’s learning a lot and she plans to bring it back to her fellow dancers in the Philippines.

“Dancers in the Philippines don’t have much of a foundation [in hip-hop],” she says. “They don’t understand why dancers do this” — she moves her arm — “or why they do this” — she strikes a pose. “Because if they knew why they would feel it. I can feel it by watching these [American] hip-hop dancers.”

Samahneh agrees: “You’ve got to feel it.” His rapping, he says, comes from inside-out. “Even if you don’t know the language, you can get involved with what I’m saying.”

Samahneh says that when he raps in his hometown of Nablus in the West Bank, he is “asking God to bring peace to our land.”

Colombia Barrosse, the vibrant head of the State Department’s Cultural Programs Division of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, says the cultural cross-fertilization is the goal of the program.

“There is nothing that can substitute for being in the United States and meeting Americans in their place, to look at the richness and diversity of the United States. That’s irreplaceable,” she says.

The Cultural Visitors Program is part of the State Department’s cultural programming around the world. The $8.5 million budget is supplemented by institutions like the Kennedy Center, which is co-sponsoring this performance.

Most of the visiting artists in the program found their way to professional dance through hip-hop.

Pham, a member of the Vietnam Dance Association, is currently working to open a hip-hop training center in Ho Chi Minh City to reach out to young people.

With a broad smile, he says, “Hip-hop is such energy. It’s so young. It’s also an opportunity for our countries to get closer, and I have a lot of friends all over the world.”

Hip-hop may have started in the United States, but it belongs to everyone. Here’s how Hassan El Haf puts it: When he got to New York, he felt as if he had landed on his “real planet.”

“Yeah, I see them, all the dancers in the street, the music, all the people that like hip-hop music,” he says. “When I do hip-hop, it makes me feel happy all the time. This is my life.”

DAY 15

We are here at the capital, DC. This is where Kennedy Center is located. THE JFK Center for Performing Arts is America’s living memorial to the late president (a known advocate of the arts: “I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities,” President Kennedy once said, “we, too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”) It is also the nation’s cultural center. The Center is a venue to great performers around the US & the globe. And this center was the one responsible for the 6 of us being here studying about the genre we are all so passionate about.

Here is the stage where we will be performing on Tue. The show is part of their outreach program where they have free performances everyday. 365 days a year including Christmas & Thanksgiving! How cool is that?

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DAY 13

It’s Saturday noon & I smile at the day & heave a sigh of relief as I don’t have to get up from bed til 6pm tonight. Sarap. I can still bury myself under the sheets & watch the time pass by.

But my body is soooore. 7 classes a day was too much. But I ain’t complaining. What I got was worth a gem. I got to love lockin’ more, I was formally introduced to house & waaking, I learned at lot more about breakin’, & popping… it hates me haha!

I could have really soaked it all in, though, if I didn’t strain a muscle on my left foot. I think I got it from Marjory’s house class last Monday. So yeah, for the whole week I was really struggling. Even pain killers didn’t help. But it didn’t stop me from taking the classes. Keber na lang kahit lumala.

I loved all the teachers. They were so generous in sharing some nuggets of info about history, even anecdotes about how they were back in the days. It was all mind-opening.

They taught us a lot of techniques which helped us to really dance with the music. But it was important too that we learn where all these moves came from so that we can understand why we do them. Skeeterrabit shared that muscleman was originally his way of saying “hi” back then & that Don Campbell came up with his move coz he couldn’t pull off the Funky Chicken… I noticed that they were all so strongly in touch with the history but they are also very open about dance evolving. It was also interesting how some of them (like Mileage & Buddha Stretch) were so open about dissing “Lyrical Hip Hop.” They said that it is not hip hop. LOL Coz you dance to the beat & the melody, not with the lyrics. Dancing to words is just an excuse for teachers who doesn’t really know how to DANCE. Interesting.

Illadelp Legends Festival is in its 10th year. I hope that in the following years, hip hop dancers from the P.I. will get to experience this coz personally, I know that this will help me a lot, not only with my techniques & musicality, but with my outlook in this dance itself. Mas masarap na lalo sumayaw. Parang pagkain na mas masarap kainin kapag nalaman mong pinaghirapan lutuin para sayo… Haha, there I go with food analogy again. :p

Now, my next challenge will be to teach what I have learned. Honestly, I believe that one cannot teach if he/she is still not a master of his/her craft. But just like what they say, we dancers should be ever-evolving. We should forever be students & not get content with what we know. So when can I give classes?… I have been teaching kids & I only do it because I love to teach them! I see myself more of a student. But then this was given to me for a purpose… to share. And I think I’m doing it now, here, so people can read this & learn. Teaching class? I’ll see, I’ll try, I’ll ponder over it.

* * * * * * *

I got to stroll around (albeit injured foot) Philadelphia. It’s a nice city. The roads are narrow, the structures are very historic & the atmosphere is sooo relaxed. I felt like I was in the province coming from NY. But as I spent more time here, I discovered that Philly is such a cool city that is mixed of both the old & new, historic & modern, laid-back & fun!

They don’t have a lot of billboards which is very nice coz billboards only clutter the grand view of the city. What they have a lot of are murals, of ads, history, art, etc.

I loved walking on the tree-lined streets of the area where we’re staying at coz I got to walk over dry fallen leaves. Hehe. Weird but I love the feeling of dry leaves crunching under my feet.

Tonight we will rehearse for our performance in DC. We will practice our MJ tribute number where each of us will try to do 8/8’s of a style we have studied at Illadelph with MJ’s song (Blood on the Dance Floor). Here are our respective assignments: Hien (Waaking), Silvia (Hip Hop), Mauricio (Breakdance), Scorben (Popping), Samer (House), & Michelle (Locking).

DAY 8-12

This will be a week FULL of classes.

Punong puno, indeed! God has been good to me lately. Well, ever since naman e. He always answers my prayers &, boy, does he go beyond! It’s like I’d ask for a serving of sinigang, and he’d give me adobo, menudo & asado too. Ha-ha sorry for the metaphor coz I’ve been craving pinoy food! Haven’t eaten any decent lutong-bahay for a week.

Anyway, I’ll be having a week’s worth of master’s classes from the MASTERS themselves, the pioneers/legends/innovators of hip hop dance. Kung ndi pako gumaling nito, ewan ko na lang. :p This has been what I’ve been wanting to do, learn old school. We used to take classes with Prince. And everytime, sobra nag-eenjoy ako, si Sheena at Chelo. But then, time was an enemy coz it would not permit that in our schedule anymore. So I am just so grateful to be here.

Let’s get it ownnnnn!

DAY 7

It’s Sunday morning & we are on the train to Philadelphia. Awww, I couldn’t look back & think that I’m leaving New York. I just realized that I could see myself living there–if I didn’t have a family. I mean, if I was single & didn’t have a baby. But considering my situation now, I don’t think that would be possible anymore. Everything there is fast-paced. & time is so so so precious. They have what they call lunch hour where they do things in 15 minutes. Plus everything is just so expensive. It’s not really ideal for raising a family… So I am very grateful for this experience where I was given a week to have a taste of being a “New Yorker.”

I’m actually sad, I’ve gotten sooo into the whole absorption of the hip hop culture that I feel like I am leaving a part of me there. Maybe I am not a consummate non-hiphop after all. Maybe I’ll change my tag now. Coz I realized that I may have been hip hop after all. Hip hop in heart. Its journey is my journey too. Embracing undaground & not losing the whole essence of hip hop is what Allstars is all about. Keeping it real to the heart. Not being too technical. Expressing emotions in its truest form. Standing up for the undadogs. Sharing & spreading the word. Fighting for the movement. That is real hood right there.

Awww I miss Allstars already!

Anyway, good bye New York… nothing but good memories.

I had fun with these people. My brothas & sistahs from anotha motha. Ha-ha!

The crazy things we do in the subway.

New York at daytime.

And at night.

With Michael in it.

Or me. Ha-ha!

The parking spaces!

And the Haagen Daz in the streets!

And this is for Sheena. Maybe she’ll see you next year. *The Secret*

Farewell, Big Apple!

. . .

Hello Philadelphia!

DAY 6

This morning, Silvia, Mauricio & I walked from our hotel at 57th all the way to 45th to attend class at the Broadway Dance Center. (Warm-up! :p) Laki ng place. They have 5 or 6 huge studios, and from the receiving area, there are 4 big screens that show live feeds of ongoing classes. Ganda, pero parang ang serious. The atmosphere is a lot like Steps in Pasong Tamo Ext. I was expecting to see that grungy studio featured in the movie Centerstage. Mas masarap yata sumayaw dun.

We took Shyrelle’s Adv. Beg. (meaning, in between) class. Parang Nikoboi/Madelle yung style nya. Sarap!

After that Silvia & Mauricio went on to visit their friends, Marco & Martin, the Lombard twins, who are part of the supporting cast of the movie Step Up 3 while I strolled around & tried to find cheap buys.

Before dusk, we went to the Educational Alliance at East Broadway & watched Sneakerbox Jam, a 2-on-2 breakdance competition. Supreme Beings & Dynamic Rockers went head-on in the finals & it was Supreme who got it. Most people thought Dynamics won, but I understood why. One of the bboys in Dynamics was all power & tricks. He got the crowd, yeah. But the judges felt the other side more. I’d have known this, but I have a deeper understanding now.

Before the night ended, we stopped by the Grand Central Terminal & checked out the Step Up 3 shoot. Mauricio said they were shooting the scene where the lead girl was gonna go to California, saying goodbye to her friends, thus, the terminal. We couldn’t come near, but during one of the breaks, their friends, the Lombard twins came up to us & I was introduced to them. One of them, Martin, said that he had been in the Philippines 4 years ago for a Louis Vuitton show. Arayt.
It was our last night in NY so I left them & went ahead to walk back to the hotel & just smelled the city one last night. Ha-ha, addict!

EDITED: DAY 5

We had our last session with Kwikstep. Some things I remembered from him: Hip hop was commercialized & that underground hip hop didn’t wanna have to do anything with them. That was why commercially, there are “breakdancers” & underground, there are “bboys/bgirls”. There is hip hop taught in the studios, hip hop done on MTV, but the real hip hop is undaground. But for him, it all doesn’t matter what medium you use, but the intention. It is not the moves but the journey towards the movement. You see a jam, but to fully understand it, you cannot record it with a videocam. You record it with your heart/mind.

There are still a lot I have learned but I realized that Kwikstep & all those people we have met here in New York are what keep the movement going. They are the few ones who protect the roots, spread it to the commercially-influenced youth who would not recognize where this all came from if they see it in their faces. Hats off to them for keeping the movement alive.

Then he taught us again some footworks & how to do them with the beat.

After the class ended, Iron Man (of Souljerz) asked if I was really from the Philippines. I said yes, all the way from the P.I. He said he thought I was from around here the first time he saw me. Now that’s what I’m talking about, ha-ha!

Before dusk, under the drizzly weather, we went all the way south to Canal St. & checked out this store, Scrapyard. Canal St. is where they sell all knock-offs of major brands like Rolex, LV, Chanel, RL, etc. Yes, basically like our own Greenhills or Tutuban.

Scrapyard is this little store that sells everything graffiti. I asked if they have some bboy videos & the store owner said that he used to have around 50 of them at a time. But now, everything is on youtube that suppliers stopped giving them. Booo for youtube. Kills the movement.

It’s really funny how a lot of people learn things on youtube. Sabi nga ni Kwikstep, these people only learn the moves, but they don’t learn how to dance with their hearts. True. For me, it’s ok to use youtube as a medium of instruction if you want to learn the basics & history of things. But sometimes, a lot of us, especially in our country COPY everything on youtube. Hindi lang nakakagalit, nakakabobo kaya yung ganun! Coz copying fosters mediocrity & laziness, not to mention, nakakabastos sa mga taong naghihirap mag-isip ng orihinal na ideya. And yes, learning through the internet is a lot worse than learning hip hop in the studio. Nagiging technical lang lahat.

But thing is, I cannot blame them coz those people don’t have the resources, the money to go to a school & learn hip hop. They can’t go to New York to immerse in the culture. Even in Scorben’s country, Lebanon, it’s the same. That was why whenever we meet a bboy, he asksssss as lot of questions. As in, sobra kulit nya hahaha! But then, yun na nga, that is where the line should be drawn. When we have all the facts or all the fundamentals already in our minds, we should let the heart come in. That is when we don’t need youtube anymore. All we need is the music & the beat of our own hearts.

So anyway, before we left Scrapyard, we met this old man, a graffiti artist who were friends with Mr. Wiggles & Ken Swift. Ha-ha, it’s just surreal how I am surrounded with all these people who are friends with this or friend of that, whose names I only read on the internet. Parang ndi pako nasanay already meeting some of them at Worlds. :p

By the way, Ironman said Step Up 3 is being filmed here in New York. Silvia & Mauricio has friends who were in it & were actually inviting them to be in it as crowd but couldn’t coz we were too busy. Awwww. By the way, did you know that Allstars were originally casted for Boogie Town? Laurence was supposed to play the 2nd lead. But we had problems with visa & all that. So there, I digress. :p

DAY 4

We had another bboy workshop with Kwikstep (& his student Iron Man). He showed us a video of Roberto Roena playing percussions & dancing salsa to it. He’s sick! We were shown 2 videos of him, one when he was younger, & another in his 60s & I was like woah! There was not much difference between the two! Roberto in his 60s showed the same passion & exuberance as that in his younger years. I would really wanna be like that in 30 years.

Kwikstep then taught us some basics of uprockin’ & freezes.

Then we went to Bronx to attend a jam where DJ Afrika Bambaataa, Kool DJ Red Alert, & DJ Jazzy Jay wuz gonna play. Bronx has a strong resemblance with Tondo or Recto in Manila. Even the atmosphere. But then people are friendly, breaking the misconception that it reeked hostility. One time I was taking a photo of a graffiti of MJ & a latino guy just struck up & convo, “Taking a pic of the King?” He then asked if we were going to the jam coz everyone was just going there.

When we got to the Crotona Park, I smelled hip hop. There right there is hip hop in its raw & pure form. Majority of the people were black so we kind of stood out.

Sarap coz bboy music was played by no other than DJ Afrika Bambaataa, one of hip hop’s forefathers! Astig yung experience. Though there was this time when Silvia & Stroban was dancing & a black guy (says his name is Ronnie Raw/Ron from the Dynamic Force, Universal Zulu Nation) approached us & was like “Don’t come out here with your booty shakin’” He then went on to say something like, “You can’t fake hip hop. It is not made, it is not taught. You are born with it. It is in the heart. You breath hip hop. & it is here in Bronx” I told him that hip hop has actually spread around the world, that was why were were there. & he says, “You know how it has spread? You spread it here (points to his heart). For me you can’t fake it. I don’t care where you’re from. You can’t fake hip hop. You’re born with hip hop. Some have it, some don’t. They got school for scratch, they got school for this & that, but hip hop is not an act. It’s from the heart.”

Word.

We remember what Kwikstep said about not going in & busting a move anytime or however you want to. You have to go with what the others around are doing. Then when they see you & accept you, that’s when you can do your thing. But I realized that in that park, that works only with the old folks. They were kinda sensitive about not being given respect/homage to. Coz with the younger generation, they are just open. But I dunno, maybe it differs in every place/community.

After some time, a cypher was started & that was when we were able to connect with them through dance.

I met Crazy Legs! He was giving out flyers for a bboy event at the end of this month. Nakilala ko sha so I asked, “Are you Crazy Legs?” When he said yes, I introduced myself & said I was from the P.I. & he was like, “HOY!!!” Hahaha!

DAY 3

At the end of our Hip Hop Dance Program, we will be having an hour performance at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage. An hour show for just the 6 of us. Some of us were frantic about it coz they think that it will be hard pulling that off considering our number & the amount of time we could rehearse, which is na-da. So last night we started planning it. Since most of us were lead choreographers/directors in our own respective groups in our country, there were arguments as to who will do this, who will do what, how many 8’s, what are the music etc. But the hardest part about it all was actually communicating to each other coz of the language barrier. The 2 Argentinians know little English & Sam from Palestine knows like none. He doesn’t even understand English. So that was the hard part. But dance is language in itself, so these people naturally just gave way & just agreed to what Hien (of Vietnam) wanted to do. He naturally become the leader because he is a bit of a big shot director (who choreographs for most of Vietnam’s famous pop stars).

This morning we started rehearsing to Hien & Scorben (Hassan)’s mixed music. In 2 hours, we were able to do a 2-minute routine. Thank God.

After that was the workshop with Kwikstep of Full Circle. I learned a lot from him about bboyin’ & hip hop on a much deeper level. Kwikstep is one of the few bboys that, on the first meeting, I could already see that lives hip hop. He says that hip hop became expressions of people of color back in the time when they were being opressed. They would take to the streets & move it, or to the wall & paint or mic & rap, etc. These art personified their rage & creativity that was born out of oppression. Today we could see people not just the blacks & the hispanics do hip hop. White, Pinoys, Koreans, you’d see it around the world, thus, he says skill has no color. He said that in cyphers, it is not about the move but the movement of the people you do it for. He taught us how to listen to the beat & dance with it. “It’s not the moves that make you a dancer it’s your spirit.. your soul.”

In the evening, we watched STOMP at the Orpheum Theater. Wow. They made percussions out of mundane objects like brooms, matchboxes, trash bins, Zippo lighters & sink. Yes, as in lababo. Hahaha! I liked the newspaper part the most coz the guy who made a wig out of the newspaper was so funny. & cute hehe! Ang galing ng show! They even made us audience interact. They made us clap some beats & it was difficult! Bow ako sa kanila coz what they do is not easy. They also have ears. I tried doing that alternate clapping 0n the palm, boy was it hard! Ang sakit sa braso! & to think that this guy did it for the whole of his portion.

Today was a lesson of The Beat. & how to follow it.