INTRODUCTION

The term Urban Dance refers to a community and culture revolving around choreographing

pieces by a dancer or groups of dancers. Such choreographies may be influenced by various street

dance styles such as breaking, hip hop, popping, locking, etc. Some take their influences from

classical and modern dances such as ballet, contemporary, jazz and so on – but all is based on the

choreographer’s own interpretation of the music or story he or she wants to deliver. In order to

have a better understanding on how this type of dance came to be, we must first delve into the

origins on some of its major influences that shaped it on how it is today, especially in the Filipino

context.

STREET DANCE STYLES AND THEIR ORIGINS

Due to several incorrect use of the name “Hip-Hop”, many have come to a misconception

that it is just a style of dance. Hip Hop is a culture and movement originated in the late 1970s in

an economically depressed Bronx, New York by the African-American-Puerto Rican

communities. It first started out as block parties: parties in the street with a DJ playing with two

turntables and speakers, then later became an art movement that would serve the youth as an escape

from gang and violence. Hip Hop is considered an umbrella term for four main elements which

are: Breaking (or what mainstream media knows as breakdancing), MCing (also known as

rapping today), DJing and Graffiti. Those who were exposed in the culture vented out their

problems through these art forms. Examples include; protesting through graffiti – tagging or

vandalizing public areas to voice out their opinion to the public, as well as taking out an

individual’s problem with another through dance battles instead of gang fights. Breaking continued

to grow, attracting many people to watch its entertaining movements, by 1984, According to New
York Times, breaking had to go in complete hiding due to it being banned by the government

because of public disturbance.

As time went on, hip hop music evolved – from being fast and upbeat, to a more medium

pace of rhythm. This meant that the dances to this type of music had to evolve as well. Around late

1980s, while Breaking was in hiding; people danced to these kinds of hip hop music and called it

party dances (or social dances) wherein dancers would connect with one another by following

one’s movements and exploring those movements, creating a new dance step while in the rhythm.

When Buddha Stretch, pioneer of Hip Hop dance was asked what style he was doing, he called

this Hip Hop Dance because he was dancing to Hip Hop music. In the past, when we saw pop

music videos such as “Walk it out”, “Running Man” and “The Shake” (also known as Harlem

Shake), today, we can relate to these with dances such as “Teach Me How to Dougie”, “Watch Me

Whip” and so on.

Popping and Locking on the other hand are different street dance styles that are not

associated within the hip hop culture. While breaking originated in Bronx, Popping and Locking

developed in the West, California. Locking was created by Don Campbell by watching popular

dances in the 1970s, such as Funky Chicken, The Sling, etc. Though not the same, he did them in

his own way which then created a unique style of dance. According to Sean Slusser, in the 1960’s,

“The Robot” was created from dancers influenced from watching movies with robots. This dance

was made famous from a locker named Bill “The Robot” Williams – which was then shown on

TV show called Soul Train at the time. A man named Sam Solomon then created another dance

style inspired by this dance, which was now known as Popping. Popping, unlike Locking,

consisted of sudden contraction and release of muscles to the rhythm to produce an illusion that

makes a dancer look similar to that of a robot.

 In the Filipino context, in an interview with Jesse Gotangco, also known as B-Boy Reflex,

one of Philippines top well-known b-boys and dancers in the community, I asked him how was

Hip Hop introduced in the Philippines and he said, “Back in the late 70s to 80s, there were several

shows that were adapted in the Philippines which were influenced by dance shows in the US such

as ‘Soul Train’. These shows were locally produced by Penthouse Seven and Dance Ten. It started

out with Disco and Ballroom, but when Hip Hop Culture (mainly breaking) and Funk Styles

(popping and locking) made its debut in the US, it eventually was shown in the Philippines through

these local shows.” (Gotangco) This was a time when dancers in the Philippines only had TV as a

resource in learning these dances – they learned the dance but not the proper culture. When dance

in the media industry grew in the US, it also grew in the Philippines, dance became so

commercialized which sparked the “TV Dance Scene” versus the “Underground Scene”. Many

misunderstood certain styles with others due to the how commercials marketed the term “hip-hop”

which resulted into a misunderstanding. In terms of the misconception of hip hop, Jesse Gotangco

says, “In terms of the dance culture itself, it wasn’t very well communicated at the time well enough

for people to understand what it was about. Instead of misconceptions, it was really just a lack of

information in the culture and where it came from. Because then again, how it was introduced to

the Philippines was already through television. Even as simple as defining different terminologies

in Hip Hop, people didn’t know how to call certain styles and certain moves, when they saw

breaking on TV, they would stereotype it as a dance that needs you to do gymnastic and acrobatics.

The misconception there is that many see breaking as a stunt dance instead of the dance culture

itself.” (Gotangco) There were so many misconceptions which branched out from the US itself,

affecting everyone’s understanding globally, even the mainstream media was the one who coined

the term “breakdancer” when the correct term was “Break-boy, Break-girl or B-boy, B-girl” for
short. The moment that some individuals in the local dance community learned it from people who

actually taught it abroad, they shared these knowledge with the local community in the Philippines.

Another way that the Philippines started to learn about the dance culture itself was through the

advancement in technology; the internet. “It’s not always legit, but there always ways to find legit

information from reliable sources. It started in early 2000’s when people started getting the right

terminologies of hip hop.” Jesse Gotangco said. In terms of comparing the birth of hip hop in

Bronx, New York and putting that context here in the Philippines, we as Filipinos are very

musically inclined, it is not hard to see that, especially considering that Karaoke is a very Filipino

thing to do in parties. Everyone in the Philippines generally like the “fiesta culture” which involves

dancing and singing, which is exactly how Hip Hop was born in New York, through partying.

“The hip hop culture fits right in to the culture we have in the Philippines. And not to mention that

lots of parts in the Philippines mirrors the economic state of how the Bronx was before. Just like

what B-Boy Dyzee (One of Canada’s well-known b-boys) said, the Philippines has the right

ingredients to actually start Hip-Hop.” Jesse Gotangco said.

There are many more street styles that grew in different environment, leading to a different

growth in culture such as Waacking, which started in gay bars. Vogue which started in prison,

taking its influence from the modelling industry. Krump, which is an acronym for Kingdom

Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise, has a similar upbringing to the Hip Hop culture in which they

went to dance as an escape from gang violence. House, which evolved in parties using hip hop

steps through the change in music.

As time went on, especially during the 1980s, several street dance styles became

popularized because of mainstream media and pop culture. The media started to get these

dancers to choreograph for high-end pop artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and more.
With the music dance videos having a big hit around the world, choreographed dances became the

marketed “dance-form”. At some point, everyone thought Michael Jackson’s moonwalk was

“breakdancing” because the public thought anything associated with street dances were

“breakdancing” or “hip-hop”. Another way that popularized these street dance styles is because of

dance movies that have had a big hit such as the “Step Up” series, “Stomp The Yard”,

“Honeybee”, “You Got Served”, etc. Due to television (and later, internet), this misconception

only grew worldwide, with many people understanding Hip Hop as a synonym of Street Dance –

which also resulted in many “professional” dancers (those not exposed in the culture, especially

studio owners of ballet and jazz schools) to market their dance classes as “Hip Hop”. This only

sparked the originators of hip-hop to spread and educate what hip-hop truly is, especially in

competitions and workshops. Soon, footages of workshops taught by pioneers came online,

defining what hip-hop is. Slowly but surely, those who learned dance via mainstream media started

to understand. In the early 2000’s when people started releasing “choreography class footages” via

YouTube, the public still misunderstood it to be hip-hop, in which today, it is termed “Urban

Dance”.

THE ORIGINS OF “URBAN DANCE”

According to STEEZY’s video on YouTube entitled “Why You Shouldn’t call Urban

Dance Hip Hop”, “Urban Dance IS NOT a street dance style NOR Hip Hop.” “Urban Dance” is

currently a term used to avoid misconceptions that arose in the early 2000’s wherein the public

called this kind of dance “hip-hop”. It takes its influences from different dance styles and is not

limited to street dances, such influences can come from ballet, jazz, tap, folk dances and more –

resulting in the choreographer to create a more authentic, personalized style. Around the late

1980s, “choreography-making” (before it was termed “urban dance”) started to evolve in Los
Angeles, California. With music evolving, people started valuing artistry, they started breaking the

rules of sticking to one certain style and adding their own personal tastes as well as influences

from other dance styles. Similar to the Filipino context, because of these commercialized dances

from the US, many “urban dance” choreographers in the Philippines started out by imitating dances

by watching these videos and made their own variation of choreography, and since it was so

popular, many of these choreographers started to do shows or moved to entertainment business

and choreographed for Filipino celebrities.

Another factor that helped define the Urban Dance culture today are competitions.

According to STEEZY, a big part of Urban Dance culture rooted from collegiate dance teams and

competitions: Around the 1990s, Arnel Calvario and his friends used to make their own routines

to perform in the “Hip Hop suite” at a Filipino Culture Night. He said, “All these different groups

popped up in different areas. But we never had a chance to compete together until car show

promoters noticed the appeal in hip hop crew performances and created dance competitions at

their events. Car shows were a great way to meet other dancers from other areas and watch them

dance, but the setting wasn’t very relevant to us or to dance. We were just a marketing tool for the

car community – a buzz for promoters to capitalize on.” Later, Arnel’s roommate suggested

hosting their own competition to give these newly formed, aspiring groups to showcase to each

other in a more authentic way. This competition is known today as the “VIBE Dance

Competition”. In comparison to the Filipino context, I did an interview with Von Ace Asilo,

former director of UP Street Dance Club and currently a member of The Crew, he states that,

The Crew was established in 1997 as UP Diliman by Jerome Dimalanta by inviting PE students to

be part of the group which was eventually formed. Unlike most local dancers, Jerome Dimalanta

researched about different street dance styles and its terminology. Later, what first started out as a
joke in joining a competition, they then flew to the US to represent the Philippines and compete in

one of the biggest competitions today, known as “Hip Hop International”. (Asilo) So while street

dance styles evolved through the exchanges between dancers in either parties or dance battles,

Urban Dance on the other hand evolved through the exchange from showcasing their pieces in

yearly competitions. However, similar to the US, Urban Dance didn’t start out from one aspect in

the Philippines. In an interview I did with Adam Alonzo, director of Team Package Members, a

local urban dance team, he said: “Urban Dance didn’t start out with a particular segment here.

Some people learned it from classes. Some from YouTube, and some in competitions. People then

started building a group and expanding their knowledge. Take me for example, I started learning

from YouTube but started meeting other urban dancers here through classes.” (Alonzo) In

addition to this, ever since YouTube was created in February 2005© by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley

and Jawed Karin (Mary Bellis), this enabled a global exchange. With the ability to upload videos

online around the world, this allowed the public to learn different things from each other. These

things could range from culture, art, religion, education, etc. Urban Dance choreographers started

out by uploading footages of their dance classes in order to market themselves so more people

would take their classes. At the same time, choreographers around the world could learn new steps

and variations from others by watching them in YouTube. This global exchange continued to

evolve by creating “concept videos” – from footages of classes, choreographers started adding

elements of videography, such as adding angle changes in the middle of the dance to make the

video more dynamic. Soon, they started adding different artistic elements into the videos, such

elements are taken from directing, acting, visual arts, set design, costume design, lighting design,

props and so much more – this is where the storytelling element in the Urban Dance community

started to grow, this clearly shows us that Urban Dance can be a type of theatre form. “Concept
videos encouraged more originality. And that sense of competition shifted more toward being

authentic. It pushed artists to think outside of the box again.” says Arnel Calvario. In the Filipino

context, according to Adam Alonzo, he said that: “This kind of dance started at a time when

YouTube was a huge trend, people from the US started releasing class footage and a lot of locals

here use it as resource to learn more about ‘urban dance’. During that time however, it had a

different term, people called it ‘the bay area style’, ‘lyrical style’ or ‘new style’. The person that

really excelled for me was a guy named Eauj Corpuz who would always fly to the US and showcase

in the Philippines what he learned there. In terms of dance competition, Ama Dance Troupe’s

director, Gojie Chua was the first to use this kind of dance ‘style’ in competitions locally. But

basically most of us were inspired from footages of ‘urban’ originators in the US such as Shaun

Evaristo, Jun Quemado, Jed Florano and teams like Team Millenia, The Company, Gentwo and

Kaba Modern.” (Alonzo)

Aside from concept videos, class-taking or class-teaching is also an important factor in the

Urban Dance community; the first choreography-making footages were held in classes. Many

dancers based in the Urban Dance scene (or community), grow by taking one from another through

learning one’s personalized style – how he or she tells the story and interprets through different

textures of movements. With this kind of cycle going on, with one dancer teaching another, vice

versa, the community will only continue to evolve and grow. Here in the Philippines, since Urban

Dance branched out from the US, most of the local choreographers started by taking influences

and learning by watching YouTube videos from U.S.-based choreographers. As the community

evolved, dance groups started forming – this resulted in different environments, different set of

minds, different interpretations, thus different set of movements. Today in the Filipino Urban

Dance scene, though watching U.S.-based choreographers is still relevant in the Philippines, many
dancers look up to the country’s top choreographers. In comparison to the dance scene in the past,

instead of having to learn and watch from YouTube, they can now take classes personally.

URBAN DANCE THEMES IN PHILIPPINES AND ITS THEATRICAL ELEMENTS

Many dance themes, or story-telling aspects are seen in concept videos. Today, many

choreographers in the Philippines such as Jobert Lachica, Raf Paramo and Les Paul Sanez produce

Filipino-themed concept videos. If U.S.-based choreographers danced to English music and lyrics,

in the Philippines, choreographers adapted it by interpreting it with the Filipino mind or some even

using OPM songs as way to tell their stories.

For example, on June 24, 2018, a concept video was released on YouTube by Les Paul

Sanez. The music he chose for this dance is called “Everyday” by an American rapper who is

known by the name “Logic”. The song itself revolves around how Logic works hard every day,

getting nothing back but does not regret it. But Les Paul does not simply dance to the song but he

adapts this title “Everyday” into Filipino and interprets it differently from the song itself. The video

introduces us to Les Paul’s everyday life, from commuting, driving, getting through the slow traffic

and how hard it is to live the life of a Filipino. He then narrates that even if life is hard as a Filipino,

one should be happy to be alive because we only know of this life, and it could be the only life we

have, so therefore we have to challenge ourselves to get through whatever struggle we are going

through in order to reach our goal. After the narration, the video shows him dancing to Logic’s

Everyday in different places, such as in an open area right outside his car, the road between MRT’s

North Avenue Exit and SM North and his home studio with a big sign that says “Dream Big and

Never Give Up.”

 This way of story-telling is not just limited to concept videos but can be done through dance

competitions as well. On October 28, 2017, Adam Alonzo and Josh Junio, directors of Team

Package Members also known as TPM, directed a dance piece in the national qualifiers “Vibe PH

Dance Competition”, in which they won championship, giving the team an opportunity to compete

in the US for the international competition. The piece was five minutes and thirty seconds long,

which was a comical story that talked about the cultural tradition of the infamous “Tuli”, (or

translated as “Circumcision”) during the teenage years of Filipino boys. The use of props, moving

set pieces, music and sound design, costume design, video design, lighting design and even smoke

machines were used in order to help tell the story. The piece starts with Smash Mouth’s famous

song “All Star” wherein it shows us the typical Filipino kid acting brave upon hearing rumors of

the circumcision, these Filipino kids tell their friends that they are brave enough to go through this

circumcision and later the doctor is shown as a comic character holding a pair of oversized scissors

which scares the boys and hesitate to go through the circumcision. The next song comes on, Linkin

Park’s “Crawling”, which is divided into two segments wherein the first part shows what Filipino

kids have to go through. These kids are bullied and called “supot”, especially when their friends

have already gone through the circumcision. The second part shows the rage and anger that is kept

inside these Filipino kids from being bullied – which pushes them to get over the fear of having to

go through the process. The third song, Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” gives a comical

reinterpretation of the process of circumcision, even the acting on biting the “Bayabas” is used to

signify the Filipino way of what they use as anesthesia during the circumcision. Eventually, the

stage goes dark for a bit after the circumcision and when the lights go on, one dancer is seen

wearing a red skirt – this signifies the Filipino cultural tradition of what boys wear right after going

through circumcision, thus bridging it to the last song, Goldlink’s “Dance On Me”, remixed by
Basstracks. The team gives out a final dance number playing with intricate movements but still

showing a concept of carefully holding the front part of the skirt in order to avoid the skirt from

touching the newly circumcised penis.

REFERENCES:

 Tate, Greg, and Alan Light. “Hip-Hop.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia

Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/hip-hop.

 Ap. “AROUND THE NATION; Coast City Moves to Ban Break-Dancing in Public.” The

New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Mar. 1984,

www.nytimes.com/1984/03/06/us/around-the-nation-coast-city-moves-to-ban-break-

dancing-in-public.html.

 Slusser, Sean. “Straight Outta Fresno: How the Popping Dance Movement Empowered

Youth of Color.” KCET, 17 Nov. 2016, www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/history-of-

popping-fresno-origins-street-dance-funk-boogaloo-sam.

 Pons, Jennifer. “Buddha Stretch - Elite Force Crew - Defines REAL Hip Hop

Dance.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Nov. 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4if1XfMr78w&t=1s.

 STEEZY. “Why You Shouldn't Call Urban Dance Hip Hop | STEEZY.CO.” YouTube,

YouTube, 1 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQWJ5Ytr2Qo.

 Johnson, Brandon, and Jessie Ma. “What Is Urban Dance?” STEEZY, STEEZY, 16 July

2018, blog.steezy.co/what-is-urban-dance/.

 Bellis, Mary. “The Creation Of YouTube.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 03 April 2018,

www.thoughtco.com/who-invented-youtube-1992691

 Gotangco, Jesse. Personal Interview. 26 November 2018

 Alonzo, Adam. Personal Interview. 26 November 2018

 Asilo, Von Ace. Personal Interview. 22 November 2018