from: Kristie
I teach dance to kids ages 8-15 at a studio in the area. Most of my classes are Hip Hop. The kids in my class only think hip hop is "booty dancing" because that's what they see all over the television. The younger kids think that the word "sexy" is a bad word and yet they model what the dancers on TV are doing that is considered "sexy". Hip Hop is really not about the "booty popping" its about hitting the beats. There are a lot of teachers out there that do teach children inappropriate choreography for their age. The picture I took was at my studio. These are two girls in my class that are outgoing and wanted me to take a picture of them. Of course as soon as I take the camera out they get shy so this picture actually doesn't show what they may do when the camera isn't on them. I took it against the mirror because children in my class constantly break themselves apart. Mostly they comment on their weight. Everything goes back to what these girls see in the videos. When I ask them to free style which means to just dance freely all they do is move there butts. When I choreograph they often tell me this isn't hip hop but really they don't know what it is. Because it's on TV it must be the only way and the right way to be done. I combined two pictures together one of them dancing and one of them next to each other. I did this just to show them dancing and posing. They also think that some of the choreography I teach isn't for girls. Which is completely untrue they just don't see many girls doing what I teach. I also like a lot of the Hip Hop I see on TV but I wouldn't teach my young students that choreography.
1 comment:
I think that says a lot about society and that even at a young age, kids still pick up on not only gender stereotypes but racial stereotypes. The fact that children learn so much fro just watch tv can be scary at times, because tv has taught them about rap music, black culture, how they should look, etc., and the problem is that everythng they learn isnt right. Hip hop is really its own art form and its a shame that it is exploited the way it is, because it devalues it in society and it devalues the people in the videos, who happen to black and women.
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