Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.09.2014, Page 24

24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2011
It’s a family
Despite their frustration with the sta-
tus of local street dance education,
both Brynja and
Natasha have been
gratified to see the
culture thrive and
grow here. Two
years ago, in fact,
after a success-
ful crowdfunding
campaign, Brynja
staged the first ever
Street dans einvígi,
or Street Dance
Battle, in which
dancers competed
in hip hop, dance-
hall, waacking,
break, popping,
and original crew
(group) choreogra-
phy.
“I decided to
jump the gun and put on the battle
that we’ve always wanted to do,” says
Brynja. And, even better, in addition
to herself, Natasha, and some of the
other teachers at her dance school,
Buddha Stretch, a dancer who has
choreographed for Michael Jackson,
Will Smith, and Mariah Carey, among
others, acted as a judge. “That was in-
sane,” says Brynja. “My students get
to learn from the best. That’s crazy.
I was always like, ‘One day, I’ll have
Buddha Stretch and [Henry] Link
teaching in Iceland,’” she laughs.
“Yeah, right. But it happened!”
That first battle proved to be an
inspiration for local dancers and is
now an annual event that they can
look forward to. “It’s a huge thing for
our culture,” says Brynja. “I already
see people preparing for the next one.
They’re training re-
ally early and they
expect more from
our classes, which is
fantastic. They want
to ask and they want
to know and they
want to do better so
that they can win in
the battles!”
If this sounds like
it is a strictly com-
petitive and aggres-
sive environment,
however, Brynja
assures that it is
anything but. “After
every battle, every-
body hugs. Because
it’s all about love...
It actually brought
me to tears. I saw everyone come to-
gether. The breakers were like, ‘that’s
waacking?’ And the waackers were
like, ‘Oh yeah, so that’s popping?’ And
everyone was just exchanging infor-
mation. It was a beautiful thing.”
Outside of teaching and practic-
ing with her own crew, the Element
Crew, whom she plans to compete
abroad with next year, Natasha’s lat-
est project is with “the little genera-
tion,” a kids’ crew called the Little
Rascals. “They’re excellent dancers,”
she laughs. “And they’re only five and
six.” The Little Rascals practice twice
a week and even performed during
the National Day festivities this year.
In her opinion, however, Natasha
says that street dance still has a long
way to go before it really becomes a
flourishing culture in Iceland. “You’re
gonna have to get off this island to get
a name,” she says of up-and-coming
dancers. Moreover, she believes that
people here need to learn to diversify,
to expand their familiarity with other
styles of dance. She herself has tried
tap dance and modern dance, for in-
stance, and found ways to incorporate
certain techniques from those styles
in her break and hip hop dancing.
“If you want to be a good street
dancer, take up different types of
dance. “Try not to be in this little
bubble—go out and try new things!
Buy a new pair of sneakers,” she jokes.
“Think, I’m not going to wear Nikes
anymore, I’m gonna wear Adidas!”
But even if the street dance com-
munity still has a way to grow here
in Iceland, both Natasha and Bryn-
ja intend to stay here and work to
strengthen it in the long term. “I love
what I’m doing,” says Brynja. “I think
it’s really important. And I’m so in
love with the kids that I’m teaching.
I can see them getting into the mind-
frame and understanding the dance
styles. It’s a family, it’s a whole cul-
ture.”

Breaking
Break dance is very physically chal-
lenging, Brynja explains. Dancers must
maintain their rhythm when danc-
ing upright and great strength and
originality is required when it comes
to floor moves. Break dancing, or B-
Boying, is the first dance style to come
out of hip hop culture. “This is what
they were doing in the beginning of the
70s,” she says, “spinning on their heads
on concrete streets at block parties.
You used to recognize B-Boys because
they had actual bald spots from doing
head spins.”
Dancehall
“Dancehall comes from Jamaica,”
Brynja explains. “That music is so
addictive, it’s… it’s crazy. But that is
where I really felt that I could get into
feminine steps. Because the female vo-
cabulary is often concentrated on your
hips. It’s a lot of winding—you have to
build up a technique with your hips...
It’s sexy—the attitude is so rough and
raw with dancehall. It’s very, very nice.
The groove is kind of complicated,
but when you get into it, you can’t get
enough of it. ”
Hip hop
“Hip hop comes from the streets of
New York,” says Brynja.“It’s basically
what people do at the clubs. It’s so-
cial dancing—everyone’s just learn-
ing from each other and from that
environment, the curriculum and
vocabulary has been building since
the 80s. And that’s where our founda-
tion comes from. It’s a party dance. It’s
what we do when we have fun. You go
to the clubs and you’re sweating down
to your knees and everything is a mess
but it’s beautiful.”
House
House dance originated in the same
clubs around the same time as hip hop:
the mid-80s in New York City. Every
weekend, says Brynja, dancers would
go to clubs like Union and the Roxy,
“creating and bouncing ideas off each
other.” With minor changes, many
hip hop steps became house steps, she
says, and vise-versa. “House incorpo-
rates African, salsa, hip hop, tap, hustle
and other dance styles with the general
idea that everything and everyone is
welcome inside this House. Inside this
House we are one.”
Popping
Brynja and Natasha have slightly dif-
ferent interpretations of this popular
style. “The thing that people don’t re-
alize about popping here in Iceland,”
says Natasha, “is that it’s not all these
head isolations [makes creaking nois-
es]. All this ‘ent, ent, ent.’ It’s boogaloo.
We move our bodies. People need to
know that the background of popping
isn’t all this robot. It’s boogaloo inside.”
For her part, Brynja says that pop-
ping can be both “robotic with accu-
rate isolations of your body parts and
also very groovy, incorporating illu-
sions into the performance. You have
to have muscle control to make your
body POP. Popping dancers have to
have all of those elements in their art.
The style has subgenres like the Robot,
Boogaloo, Animation and more. Hip
hop, for example, was created under
heavy influence from popping (and
Toprock).”
Toprock
Toprock is the foundational dance
in break dancing, basically a vertical
dance style that breakers use to tran-
sition into floor moves. It’s recently
gained popularity as a style all on its
own, though. “It’s growing so fast… it’s
all funk music, jazz music, salsa mu-
sic—all together,” says Natasha.
Waacking
“Waacking comes from the gay com-
munity, from LA,” Brynja explains.
“It was contained in a few clubs in Los
Angeles for over fifteen years. They did
it only in these clubs, the drag queens,
and they were dancing and imitating
famous actresses like Greta Garbo and
Rita Hayworth—embodying all these
characters. The beats are disco, but it’s
not like this disco [gestures ‘Saturday
Night Fever’-style], but ‘funky disco,’
like Diana Ross and Donna Summer.
They talk about heartbreak and it’s
very dramatic, it’s all about your per-
formance. You have to embody the
emotions, you have to have your heart
in shambles. You have to go there. And
then you have to catch the beat with
your hands… So you melt in and out of
characters and you use your hands to
catch the rhythm.”
Know Your
Street Dance
Brynja And Natasha Break Down
Some Of Their Favorite Dance Styles
24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2014
“I started teaching when
I was 19 and that was
out of pure desperation,”
Brynja laughs. “There
was nothing going on
here.” She shakes her
head. “Seriously. I just
really wanted to create a
dance class that I would
want to go to. But oh my
god, I was so nervous. I
was building something
from nothing. Nobody
was doing it.”