Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | hip-hop dance
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November 21, 2009

MAY 2011 UPDATE: After a year and a half of hard work, revisions and improvements, East West Players has opened a finished production of "Krunk Fu Battle Battle" which runs through June 26, 2011. If you're in LA or gonna be in LA, don't miss this musical -- we wish we could fly from Denver to see it! Here's a video trailer: Now, back to the original post: It's not often that we get the chance to see the embryonic stage of a theatrical project, and see how a play is developed. So we were fortunate that our visit to LA to attend the BANANA conference of Asian American bloggers coincided with a free "workshop" performance of a new project being developed by East West Players. "Krunk Fu Battle Battle," is a hip-hop musical, which features hip-hop music and b-boy dancing, woven around familiar but tried-and-true plots of a boy who falls in love with a girl from the other side, and has a mentor who helps him overcome his obstacles. Think "Romeo and Juliet" meets "West Side Story" meets "Karate Kid." East West Players produced a reading of the play, which is in very early stages, by rehearsing a partial script, several songs and dance numbers, and performing a 35-minute excerpt for anyone who showed up, then asked audience members for their opinions and reactions. The preview was hosted by the Japanese American National Museum (the EW Players' home, the David Henry Hwang Theatre around the block in Little Tokyo, was busy with performances of its latest play, "Po Boy Tango").
September 21, 2008

The hip-hop dance scene of b-boys and b-girls isn't exactly underground -- 39 million votes were cast for the second season finale of "America's Best Dance Crew" on MTV, and movies such as the 2007 documentary, "Planet B-Boy" and the movie "You Got Served" from 2004 (or, for that matter, the previous generation's "Beat Street" and "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo," all from 1984), have all proven that there's a healthy above-ground audience for the exciting moves and urban beat culture of hip-hop dance. But last night, when Erin and I attended Rockers Rumble III, the third annual competition of Colorado breakdancers, held at CU-Boulder's Glenn Miller Ballroom, I had a flashback of nights hanging out in crowded clubs, makeshift concert halls and low-rent bars in the early '80s, when I used to be a music critic. The scene back then was small but growing, and there was a palpable sense of community, kind of a shared language and shared values. Everyone knew what was good and what was bad, and everyone agreed on the sound and spirit of the underground music scene. Check out the move that comes about 20 seconds into this clip -- and then watch for a couple more seconds.