Heya
Charlie.
I just
realized something, when I tried to explain some of things the lack of
knowledge on how we judge (and so understand/perceive) hip hop makes it
difficult to be explained.
And when
you think about it… its normal, as an analogy: if you can barely read or if you
don’t know anything about types of speech, literary devices… You can’t really
understand what makes a text beautiful. And once you know at least a little bit
of it you can start to understand how intricate a text can be.
SO THAT’S
WHY I’M HERE TODAY!!!
To complete
your general knowledge let’s start by looking at what is really a battle. (also
all that I will say are general guidelines, since we’re discussing art people
change the formula constantly)
(Side note: Here
we will talk of impro battles, the most common type of competition (and, for
me, the only type of real battle). There are some competition that are more
choreography based but it’s not really a tournament it’s a talent show. I mean,
there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s a competition of who did the best set
choreography on a set music. We are more judging the capacity of the dancers to
follow guidelines and the choreographer’s imagination rather than the artistic
ability and sensibility of the dancers themselves.
But if you like these types of thing you can
see some really great performances. After all, it’s not for nothing that shows
like “insert country here” ‘s got talent are so popular. My point is, It’s just
not really a battle.)
A classic battle, like the one in academic competitions is structured in 4 rounds. A round is structured like this.
1) The DJ blasts a music unknown to the dancers.
2) The first person to go is chosen randomly (spin the bottle)
3) They enter the dancefloor, dance, and have to leave before the 45 seconds are over. (the question)
4) Then, once they are out of the dancefloor, the other team comes in (this part is also called the answer or response), dance for the 45 seconds, they leave the dancefloor.
5) Music stops, judges finish their notes on the round comparing the question and the answer
And repeat it
all over again from step 3 for 3 more times for a classic battle. Everything
depends on the competitions some are 1/2/3/6 rounds long
Like I say because
it's art everything is modular and people do what they want but that’s the
general basic skeleton that most people can get behind.
To guide us
in this journey let’s look at the inner workings of a battle and the judge’s
sheet. (I'm sorry i only have it in french so you will have to suffer through it)
First on
the top we have the different styles. We judge consistency, because yeah
freestyle is cool but being able to test your capacities in other types of
movement than your comfort zone. But what we really want to see is if the
styles are varied. In Hip hop, there are so many different things that you can
do, and so inventing is cool but still mastering the old base can make
everything so much better. Here with styles we strive for variety and the wider
range of choices the better.
And boy! If
you are a jack of all trades master of none you are a valued member of a crew
and holy hell will you dominate solo and duo competition. Because if one’s
passage has a real great part of it (4 x 8 beats, or 'temps' for the classics that want to sound sophisticated by speaking french) is of one style and has no
cut in the middle of it you gain 1 point. And since your overall grade goes to 18points max and if you dominate your rival on every single aspect you get 14points so if you can get up to 4points you have a ridiculously large
advantage over your opponent. I mean imagine, just because you can use one
different style precisely each battle you have 22% of the points you could get covered.
Only little
problem... us judges already have a lot to keep track of a bunch of things so… let’s
say that counting precisely this length of time while also wondering if you are solely doing things of this style and nothing else isn't something we look at the most. So its valued but not always so
it’s not too broken if you think of winning a maximum of points. And so if it
is to be counted, you need to make it reeeeaaaaally obvious. Therefore, we judge how much you can change style and how obvious you can change styles, because here, subtelty is to be thrown out of the window if you want to make sure we identify your style.
Moving on a little further down the sheet,
another element that just brings points up are special effects. These points
given are for each passage.
Here the
for each passage the side that us
ed the most special effects gains the point.
Here there are different elements to toy with.
First there’s space. Here you can find changes in the formation of the dancers like the burst of its/ changing of geometric shapes/ differences in heights/ orientations…
But lets go back to our point and not opinions.
We judge teams by the quantity and quality of special effects they use. But one thing that we hold as most important is their diversity. For example (and based on a true story), a team that does 5 A+ effects but only on time, will lose their points when in face of mediocre effects but that have one in space and one in other. Since they are more diversified, the bad ones get the point.
And now we enter the big 3 : the 3 things on which you’re mostly judged on :
- Precision
- Musicality
- Presence/space
The first criterion that enters judgement is the technical precision.
It’s just one’s mastery of their movement, if they’re precise and controlled. Can they be varied and fluid? Are their moves technical?Which one of the 2 did the moves seems to be the most difficult to reproduce? And is it precise and controlled enough to make it more difficult to be reproduced? And that’s it. Wierdly, this is the most simple of them all, you really have this gut feeling (and I know when we think about it it’s weird, but actually it’s the thing the simplest part). Somehow even though it sounds to be the most difficult, to the untrained eye, it’s the first one you get correctly. Especially since when you judge you just need to determine which one of the 2 is best, so you don’t need to give a grade it can just be a feel or a particular preference.
The most difficult thing to get is the precision, because you can easily make the difference between 2 dances which one seems to be the most difficult to reproduce. As an example, you can tell if you look at someone, when they quickly put their arms in front of them, if they're just swinging it very fast in a direction and have to force to stop the movement, or if someone very precisely does somehting quick and stops instantenously because they have controlled their movement.
And now for the one that I think might be the most difficult to explain to newcomers but actually is logical to analyze and is the one that I find one of the most important and the thing that really shows someone's skill.
MUSICALITY I talked about this one before but it is how much a dancer can correspond to the music. You can fail at musicality if you dance off-beat which can be difficult to spot at first but you can mostly see it with the messiness of their choreography and how it just looks like watching a video with the sound off in the middle of a party. This then can be better one with being actually on beat and using different elements of the music.
To clarify, a
music is composed of different elements and the best musicality are the people
who can deconstruct the music and use all of these elements separately. For
example, when you listen to a song, you can dissociate all sorts of sounds, the
melody, the beat. So a good dancer for musicality, by basing his dance on
different elements of the music, can therefore show how well they can adapt to
the music given. They will base themselves on each different instrument that
compose the music or different type of beat.
The best
don’t just embody different aspects of the music but they have such a fine
capacity to decompose the music that they make you discover sounds you didn’t
even realized were there but also embody the general feel of the music, slow
when it slows for examples. They follow the music so well they are one with the
music (I know it sounds cliché but that is it). Mind you all of this is
improvised so it’s an ability to decompose and analyze the music IN ORDER TO
PREDICT IT!
And that’s
why in a battle you see people sometimes jump in excitement and tap their ear
to show off that they found a detail very well hidden or that they already
heard the music so that they already know what’s in it!
And that
is what makes it so interesting, music is pleasant to our brain because it is
made of a quantity of different patterns that repeat themselves or that follow
a certain algorithm, and our brain loves this. So musicality is how well
someone can understand the pattern and reproduce it as the music is going. It's literally applied music theory!!
That is
crazy, and the musicality centered music are made to trick you and mess with the
way you would normally expect a music to happen but still following a pattern
so it doesn’t sound bad. Try this exercise at home, for example when a music
builds up, try to guess when the beat will drop. One of my perfect examples of
how everyone is able to do this is with the song “Radio gaga” from queen. In
the chorus when you try to clap your hands, you know how the music goes even on
the first time you listen to it, and even though the time at which you clap
them isn’t always at the same time because your brain has integrated the
pattern that is already within the song.
here's a video from a dancer that explains the concept better by showing with a music as example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zZqjF14WU
Finally,
the last element that plays into it, presence/space taken. Here it’s really
about confidence how well you can act, the lowest levels is someone not taking
a lot of space, no expressions, seeming timid and doesn’t have the confidence
to take the dancefloor. To win it’s the one that are giving their all. But the
pros know that there’s a level above, it’s controlling the flow of your space
taken, going small, and then BOOMING and taking the space leaving a stronger
expression. It’s sort of who can set up the best act.
Dancing
using the body just like any other act centered around the body uses acting,
especially in battles, you have to show confidence, play a role sometimes, have
your own special vibe so you pop out of the competition. I think of the French
freestyle winner of the UNSS championships 2019 which is part of the Criminalz Crew
now, you might know him as the kid dancing in Papaoutai.
Rubix usually in a battle has different personas like you would imagine David Bowie have different personas for his different songs. The most notable persona he dawns is the grizzly, we see the aggressiveness in his movement, close to the ground and puffs himself up, seemingly bigger every time he jumps up after getting low to the ground; he is a master of space and flow because when you look at him he catches your glare in a second and you can’t let go.
For example,
here is a compilation: https://youtu.be/RnSOVwtfx14
And you can
see that, in the first passage from 0:15 to 1:05, the general mood of when he
goes into the persona, the aggression, the booming of movement when he is
standing and slowing down to reposition himself when he’s on the ground, the
provocations.
HOWEVER
On the
third extract, from 2:22 to 3:10, here the mood totally changes he is playing,
having fun, joking with the judges. You can see that here dancing good and on
the music isn’t just that, it’s also an act, you must perform different emotion
to empower or give a certain feel to your moves.
He still
masters space and through his act is exert a certain presence, an aura that shows
confidence and gives emotions to his performance.
Well that’s a wrap, now with this post you can see what is important, how the art of Hip-Hop battle is to be broken down to be better appreciated.
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