Violence is not a solution, but dance is. At least since the 1970s, in New York’s street gang-dominated neighborhoods, some young people and gangs preferred to challenge each other with their dance moves rather than take each other down with fists or weapons. A socio-educational dream, so to speak. So, in a nutshell, B-boying, later called breakdancing, emerged as an acrobatic part of hip-hop culture – which is now known to be the dominant culture in the world.
Battles are written into hip-hop’s DNA. And if one could accuse any other of the beautiful arts that worship the gods of any competition, then it is only logical that hip-hop dance is an Olympic sport discipline this year. Whatever criteria the jurors want to use to award gold, silver and bronze.
Actually, the Wanted Posse company from near Paris should be a contender for a medal. In 2001, this group won the unofficial Hip Hop World Championship. In a high-class final of the “Battle of the Year” in Braunschweig, she defeated Team Ohh from Japan, also one of the defining collectives of that time, in front of ten thousand spectators.
The group has now grown to more than 20 members and has certainly not gotten any worse. However, they will not compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. As early as 2002, they decided not to defend their world championship title, preferring to do theater, as in the plays “L’arret de Bus” (1996), “Possesion” (1997) and “La Prison” (1998). Now, however, their sphere of influence had expanded massively: With “Bad Moves” the Wanted Posse went on a world tour in 2003 from Japan to Canada.
The mafiosi are vying for a sensual dancer.
(Photo: Yuri Sory)
20 years later – they have now danced their breaking, hype, house or new style moves for Madonna, Robbie Williams and “The Lion King” – they come to Munich. Here they will give a workshop with local hip-hop Olympian Serhat Perhat. Above all, they are showing their current piece “Dance ‘n Speak Easy” at the Deutsches Theater. While the dance piece “The Great Gatsby” recently brought the glamorous 1920s to life, the six hip-hoppers delve into the New York underworld at the time of Prohibition.
One of those speakeasy dive bars where you had to whisper in order to drink and party is the stage for a “cocktail of hip-hop dance, singing and burlesque” that the critic of Liberation quite tipsy: “Over the years, Wanted Posse has made no compromises on either the technology or the creativity of the production.”
Just as “Babylon Berlin” took complete freedom in its interpretation of the dark-golden party era, choreographer Njagui Hagbe and director Phillippe Lafeuille bring the twenties and thirties into today: music, steps and acrobatics from swing, Charleston, Lindy Hop and chitterbug merge here with modern hip-hop hooray. One pays homage to Miles Davis and other jazz artists who blossomed in the shadows of the speakeasies, as well as to the funk of James Brown, the pioneer of hip-hop. A story is told about six mafiosi who are vying for a sexy singer who says at one point in the play that power is breaking rules and that that turns her on quite a bit. Of course, this spurs the dancers on, the fists and the bottles fly, the bodies whirl – it gets down to business smoothly, but in the end violence is certainly not the solution.
Dance ‘n Speak Easy, Wed.-Sun., 20-24. March, Munich, Deutsches Theater, deutsches-theater.de