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In ballet, attitude means standing on one leg with the other leg lifted in the air, toes pointed, knee bent. In hip-hop, attitude means “bring it on.” Tap has the step-ball-change and the paddle and roll.
Hip-hop has head spins and Brooklyns.
In “Swan Lake,” dancers move to a score by Tchaikovsky.
The dancers in Cassie Pillsbury’s Tuesday night hip-hop class move to the beat of Gangstarr. And Gwen Stefani. And Kanye West.
On a recent evening, as Pillsbury led her students through a warm-up at Thomas School of Dance, bass shook the windows of the studio high above West Market Square. The energy in the room crackled as four young women followed their teacher’s lead, stretching, swiveling their hips, strutting and snapping, dropping down into splits and inching their way forward on the hardwood floor.
Clearly, this is not your mother’s dance class. And that’s what makes hip-hop one of the most in-demand classes in Bangor and beyond.
“At this point, there seems to be more interest in hip-hop than in jazz, but jazz will probably come back because it’s the standard,” said Jane Bragg, the school’s owner and director. “Hip-hop tends to attract people who may not have had any other dance background. Everyone loves to move, and it’s just the latest thing.”
Some come for the music. Others come for the exercise. Kim Bertothy, a 20-year-old from Bangor, comes for the MTV-style moves.
“I go out to clubs and I dance like this,” she explained a bit breathlessly after class. “When you go out to clubs, you all have the same kind of dancing, but you each have your own way.”
“You can change every step to make it your own and it’s still right,” Amy Whitmore, 22, added. “In ballet or tap, you can’t fake it.”
Almost everyone in Pillsbury’s class has had years of formal training in ballet and jazz, but they say hip-hop has its own appeal.
“It’s an aerobic expression of your own funkiness,” Whitmore said.
“It’s a good way to stay in shape,” Tess McLaughlin, 14, said.
“And it’s really fun,” Alyssa Duron, 15, added.
On this evening, the dancers rehearsed a piece of choreography that Pillsbury had created for their recital in May.
The sound of Gangstarr’s “Battle” filled the room and the students formed two lines, strutting and shaking to the beat, smiling. In the final “battle scene,” they went head-to-head, krumping, arms in the air, all up in each other’s faces.
The music faded and the dancers huffed and puffed and wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
“Do you want to cool down or do it again?” Pillsbury asked.
“Do it again!” Bertothy exclaimed.
Before they could start again, someone asked if their recital costumes would arrive in time for the dancers’ scheduled performance at the Y’s Spring Fair. Pillsbury shook her head.
“If not, we’ll just come as we are,” Whitmore said. “It’s hip-hop.”
After class, Pillsbury, 26, set the record straight. Yes, hip-hop may seem less disciplined than the more formal, rigid moves of ballet. But the coordination and physical strength it demands – not to mention the way dancers need to isolate certain body parts – requires technique.
“There are disagreements about what is hip-hop and what should be hip-hop and what people are doing and calling hip-hop,” Pillsbury, who has a degree in dance and cultural studies from the University of Maine in Farmington, explained. “It comes from the street. It comes from dancing in clubs. A lot of that dancing is showing who you are and what you’ve got. When you come to dance class, yes, you show who you are and what you’ve got, but students also come to learn choreography.”
Pillsbury is one of two hip-hop instructors at Thomas. She also teaches in Belfast, Waterville and her own studio in Unity. She says she has always followed musical trends and enjoys dancing to “whoever’s hot.” When it comes to teaching, she shows her students basic form and footwork and allows them to express themselves within that structure.
Given the nature of the dance form – there’s whole lot of booty shakin’ going on – hip-hop is not for the timid. And it’s not just for beanpoles, either.
“Look how you’re moving your body – you have to have some [confidence],” Pillsbury said. “If you have stuff, you need to be comfortable with it.”
Comfort and confidence are key. And so is attitude. In a Dance Magazine article about krumping – a full-body, freestyle form used in dance battles, Taisha Paggett writes, “If movement were words, this would be a poetry slam.”
For Pillsbury, it’s poetry in motion.
“I like to move my body. I like loud music and I like high-energy music,” she said. “I have a body in motion. It doesn’t want to stop. And hip-hop is good for that.”
Though this article focuses on Thomas School of Dance, most dance schools in Greater Bangor offer hip-hop classes. For information on classes in your area, call your local instructor.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY KATE COLLINS
Hip-hop instructor Cassie Pillsbury (center) does a choreographed dance with student Katie Butler (right) at the Thomas School of Dance in Bangor.
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