SWARM>IN MINDS: BBoying with more BGirls

A TALK WITH NIELS "STORM" ROBITZKY

HipHop has now existed for around thirty years as an international movement between street and theatre, social project and art. Katrin Roschangar of corpus and the renowned Berlin HipHopper Niels "Storm" Robitzky who teaches at ImPulsTanz, talked about techniques and philosophy, competition and injuries, women and regionalisms in HipHop culture.

corpus: Could one say that HipHop has developed from the street to stage dance?

Storm: No. HipHop is a culture. And the dances of this culture have long been there. Among them are dances which never were intended to be stage dances. For instance, Swing and Tap had a great influence on HipHop.

corpus: Wasn't it a problem for you to take HipHop to the stage?

Storm: Actually, we were on the stage from the beginning. It's just that we ourselves decided what should be our stage. An example: William Shakespeare's first theatre was a street theatre. It took place on a sand area next to the Thames. He didn't open a theatre first to perform his pieces. Theatre is theatre, one shouldn't make that depend on any buildings. That's a too imperialistic thought.

corpus: You were one of those who brought HipHop to the theatre – at least in Germany.

Storm: If we're talking about theatre as an institution, you're right.

corpus: Was it frowned upon in the scene when people started to go on stage or to teach?

Storm: I've never been attacked because of my theatre performances. When people see what I'm doing then they also realise that it wouldn't be possible anywhere else. In the theatre I can concentrate fully on art. That's hardly possible at other events because they're often just about five minute demonstrations. In the theatre you can work with entirely different means, e.g., with a dramaturgy.

corpus: What topics do you take up in your pieces? Do social issues play a great role in your performances?

Storm: It varies. One and a half years ago I did a piece in Berlin which was more a social project. I worked with youths from Neukölln and Paris. It was called "Es war einmal …" (Once upon a time …), a modern metropolis tale. I wanted to reach the Berlin Kiez and tansport the positive fundamental idea of HipHop. If one's thinking of HipHop one mostly thinks of Gangsta Rap or vandalism. That's bullshit. People sell their records with it, but it doesn't reflect what HipHop culture has to offer. Another piece we're performing next week in Greece is called "Geometronomics", and the "Discípulos do Ritmo" from Brazil will dance my choreography.

corpus: You also did a piece with classical music.

Storm: That's my new solo. I'm currently working on it. At the moment it's more or less in the stage of improvisation.

corpus: Does the city of Berlin support your projects?

Storm: Partly. I would appreciate better support. One of the reasons may be that I'm not so often in Berlin. On the other hand, HipHop – especially in Germany – is still seen as youth culture and often as a means for drug and violence prevention programmes. In the 1990s, these took hold so well that we made all youths dancers. (laughs)

corpus: So it's not just a cliché that HipHop gets young people off the street?

Storm: The fact is that it works better than other things. But I don't know why.

corpus: Do you have a good connection with youths?

Storm: I can deal with them well. Especially if someone's considered to be difficult. I like it when people have lots of energy. Maybe they need more attention, but in the long run they also deliver more. Sleepy heads are much more difficult because you have to play the entertainer.

corpus: How do you get information about the newest moves or currents?

Storm: First, I travel a lot – and second, I think that many currents originate with me. I work on myself every day, I give courses and meet friends. My friends tell me when I'm off course with a thing, and then I let it go again.

corpus: How does a movement come into being?

Storm: Through training and often through external influences. Everything that moves inspires me. It sometimes also happens that I see movements in ballet which I can process.

corpus: How does the HipHop vocabulary come up, the terms? E.g., you talked about the "corkscrew" yesterday. How does a specific term get spread about so that every HipHopper knows what a "corkscrew" is?

Storm: It's important to know what one's talking about when one talks on the telephone to each other or doesn't want to dance just then. So the conversational partner has an inkling what you mean.

corpus: You're on the road a lot – do you see any differences in HipHop of different regions?

Storm: Well, not really. Nowadays, with the Internet and heaps of DVDs, I even get the feeling that the personal note goes down the drain. It used to be different ten years ago. The Swedes hat their special handwriting, the French too, just like we in Berlin had ours, and there was a certain New York style.

corpus: The Battle – is it still a common format?

Storm: Certainly. Only "Battle" meanwhile sounds somewhat unfashionable. After all, a Battle is nothing but an exchange. I mean, if I meet with Attila and we're making music and letting go, we actually just show each other what we've been working on during the last year. This doesn't necessarily mean that we want to outdo each other. HipHop likes exaggerations in language. We call our movements "Power Moves" or "Freezes", it's all pretty exaggerated. It's gotta sound like that …! (laughs)

corpus: So it's not about taking each other's measure?

Storm: Well, it is for sure. Many presenters organise dance competitions in which one group runs against another and they try to do each other in. The winner then goes home with 100 Euros.

corpus: Let's talk about women and HipHop. Many women come to your lessons, but as far as I've seen the videos on your website only show men dancing.

Storm: There's a lot of women in HipHop, and my wife is one of them. Probably you haven't seen the video: There was a show called "The Art of Urban Dance" and … okay, we didn't really have fifty-fifty. Sonja and Klara took part.

corpus: Is HipHop a domain of men?

Storm: Yes, it is. But I wish there were more women into it. In America the ratio is a bit better than here. For a while it was really bad. In the 1980s I had the feeling that when you went to a HipHop jam you landed in some men-only clubs. In the meantime, there's a lot of BGirls, too. Really good women who are also able to stand up to most men technically. Owing to that, the style develops in another direction.

corpus: How has your style changed through the injuries you sustained from dancing?

Storm: Insofar as nowadays I concentrate more on Popping. Especially in BBoying one deteriorates and cannot keep up the standards. I'm nearly 39 now and I can still teach well, but I don't turn on my head any more and rarely do any acrobatic stunts. Not because I couldn't do them but because I'm not developing in my stunts any more. On the other hand, I have too much respect for the movements. You can't do them a bit slacker if you don't have so much energy. It just doesn't work in BBoying. If you're tired the danger of injury is bigger. And if I'm getting injured today this also means that I can't feed my family any more. That's one thing. But what's even more important for me: I have a lot of fun at training. With Popping I feel that I'm getting better with age. How I see it today I can still do it when I'm eighty. When I sustained an injury at BBoying, I cured it with Popping. The isolation exercises help one to make the muscles supple again.

corpus: What else apart from the steps do you want to convey in your lessons?

Storm: Much more than the steps. Actually, the steps are a minor point. For the dancers, the philosophy is much more important.

corpus: What then is the philosophy of HipHop?

Storm: Now I could go into detail and we wouldn't be done by tomorrow. There's no such thing as the one HipHop philosophy. The dance styles I'm teaching (Popping, Locking and BBoying) were all created up at different times in different places. This means that the music is different, the fashion is different, and the whole approach to dance is completely different.

In Popping it's important to try to impersonate a puppet, a cartoon character or a robot. The dancer looks as if his body was made of rubber or water. He makes movements which aim at a non-human effect and create an illusion. That takes a lot of work. It has a lot to do with precision mechanics and fine motor skills. And every little sub-style, e.g., Waving, is something completely different from dancing Puppet or Electric Boogaloo. And every little peculiarity has another approach. Moreover, the music is entirely different.
Locking is either zany or emphatically cool. One can dress as a clown in Locking or wear a smart suit; both work.
BBoying came up in the Ghettos of New York in the 1970s. We're talking about Concrete Jungle philosophy there. No matter where they happened to be, people basically had to watch out that they didn't look like victims. This also became apparent in dance. That's why the dance looks like martial arts.

corpus: How deeply do you still feel connected with this origin?

Storm: That depends on what I want to show on the stage. When I'm going to a HipHop jam I'm bound to the old school format rather more than with a theatre piece. But fresh impulses also create new paths.

corpus: And how strongly is your teaching connected with your pieces?

Storm: Not at all. Maybe I'm indicating a new direction now and then. But basically I want to reach the participants of my courses just like HipHop reached me.

corpus: A final question: Where do you see the future of HipHop? In what direction will it develop?

Storm: Hard to say. I hope that the market will promote the good people more. For a long time, I believed that HipHop was a new branch of Jazz. And for me Jazz is intelligent music. Whenever I hear what's going in the charts and what people associate with HipHop that's really painful. Especially since I have to defend myself every day. Therefore I would wish that its quality became better. But still even the best Jazz musicians don't earn lots of money – as opposed to some pop stars who look a bit sexy and yell into a microphone.