Black Expressive Culture Narrative Stage: DJ Artistry; The Disco Kings and Queens; The Philadelphia Tap Dancers
Web Video Text Tracks Format (WebVTT)
WEBVTT
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[[Body Talk by The Deele playing]]
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[[Body Talk by The Deele slowing and speeding up]]
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Speaker 1: That's two casual records. In the beginning, it was a little offbeat. Now Im'ma show you another style.
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A disco record with a casual record.
[SILENCE]
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Speaker 2: One of the problems we constantly have with blending out here at the festival is that we're moving the turn tables and the turn tables are assembling back and forth between the main stage.
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to the workshop stage and back to the other.
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Turn tables weren't really made for all that much movement in a day's time.
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Since we're trying to set them up here, moving them down here,
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then taking them back them up there later in the day.
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It's often a little harder around the workshops stage to get them calibrated just right where they'll work with each other .
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A real important part of blending is something we are invariably asked in the question and answer sessions is
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how is it that you can match the beats of two completely different records?
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Speaker 1: --is in a small knob or dial on the side of the turntable called the pitch control.
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What the pitch control does is allow you to vary the speed of the turntable
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by approximately 15 percent in either direction.
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So if you've got the record playing at the speed at which it was recorded,
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you could slow it down by about 15 percent
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or you could speed it up by about the same amount.
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So when you're listening to one of the records,
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you can cue the other one up in your headphone,
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play with the pitch control until you match the two tempos,
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and then when you push up the volume on the second one,
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you've got the tempos matched perfectly so the records will blend and sound as one.
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Speaker 2: For example, here go a record that got a good vocal on it,
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but the music to it ain't 100 percent
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"No Parking On The Dance Floor" by Midnight Sun with "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa and Zulu Nation.
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[SILENCE]
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[[car turning over; horn honking]]
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[[inaudible]]
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[[siren]]
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"Excuse me madame, you're standing still in a no parking zone"
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"You don't get a move on that body, I'll be forced to give you a ticket"
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[[record continues playing]]
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Speaker 1: Let's give a hand for Grand Wizard Sly
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lending here a casual record with vocals
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and the disco beats.
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[[record resumes]]
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[host] Are there questions now? Well
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the workshop has really gone a little bit over time
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unexpectedly due to our set up time
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with the turntables so we're going to have to cut it at this point.
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Before we move into a workshop on GQ dancing.
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Are there questions for either the DJs we have here, Grand Wizard Sly or Grand Master Nell, and --
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Yes, sir?
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[SILENCE]
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Do you use expensive turntables? Oh- special turntables
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It's really the same thing
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{DJ 1} Well the best kind of turntables to use would be 1200s. Just about every manufacturer that makes a turntable- he make a 1200 model.
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[SILENCE]
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On a regular turntable?
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You could do it but it wouldn't come out as good as it would come out with, um, magnetic turntables.
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{host} One of the problems which a lot
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of people meet up with
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when they try and go home and do blending or scratching-
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especially scratching - is that they're turning the turntables
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the disc on the turntable backwards against the motor
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well now, that's the best way to burn out a motor on most turntables, because what you're doing is
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forcing the platen to go against
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the motor's direction. The way that the DJs will get around that
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A) Is to use a special turntable
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and B) is to put something under the record that will allow the disc to slide against the movement of the turntable
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Now, could you explain what you put under there to allow it to slide and why you do that?
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{DJ 2} Ok, I took the rubber mat off because- the reason why I took off the rubber mat cause when I put on the record, if I want to bring it back
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the whole entire player would come back like this
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and what I be doing is forcing the motor back.
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And if I keep doing that there- I'd burn my motor out.
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so, what I done- I cut out 2 round circles
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{DJ 2} Took the rubber mat off
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Put it on top of the metal plate
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Just put the record on top
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There's your slide
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Two pieces of paper -- slides and glides.
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Now- now watch how I take off, when I get to the spinning
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It's going backwards now,
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Slow down, come on, slow down, slow down, slow down, slow-
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There you go, I ain't even hurt nothing there.
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Okay, slow down.
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Oh, it was all party time. I'm sorry!
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{Host} I didn't think that was right, go ahead and turn it on and let's see.
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{DJ 2} Okay.
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{Host} Go ahead and turn the volume up and -- and show how when you slide it backwards, exactly what you're doing there. [[crosstalk]]
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{DJ 2} It's going to sound a little ugly now, hold your ears.
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[[record begins playing]]
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{DJ 2} It's going back.
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[[record continues]]
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[[record fades]] {DJ 2} That's what the paper does for you. It gives you that precision back.
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Now, if I had that um, the rubber mat on here to come back like they said, it would be forcing it and the needle would jump. It would burn your motor out faster.
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[[record continues]]
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[[record stops]] {DJ 2} Going to take off like,
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[[record continues]]
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{DJ 2} Dragon.
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[[record stops]] {DJ 2} That's the difference.
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[SILENCE]
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{Host} Are there other questions -- yes sir.
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[SILENCE]
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{Host} Okay I'll -- we'll answer the second question first, okay? Can you use three turntables instead of two? Sly.
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Sly: Well, um, you can use as many turntables as you want. Well, the man that really um, started this, not so much started it but gave it the big name it got today is Grandmaster Flash.
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{Sly} And Grand Master Flash when he usually spinning he usually use five turntables and they all be rolling at one
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Speaker 1: The use of the box and a tape loop right, [[long pause,background noise and conversation]]
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now do you ever use a tape loop when you're working with a rap?
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Speaker 2: you talking about a real to reel [[background conversation]], talk about a real to reel, [[mic noise]] uhh no sir
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Speaker 1: okay lets, lets break the question down, first of all, why is it that a DJ will not record the material in advance,
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program the mixing back and forth and go into an event with a pre-mixed tape thats got all the mixes built into it,
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rather than, why do you prefer to use the double turntables and go on and do it live at a club instead of the other way now?
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Speaker 2: well using tapes make you lazy, for real it does it makes you lazy,
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a lot of times like if you throwing a party and you going to a club, people will like this see what they pay their money for,
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now if you paid $6,000 to go inside a club you look up at the DJ you see a tape playing, you might hear mixing and scratching you going to be wondering "What is that?" you know what I mean, who is doing that?
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[[background noise]] so thats why I prefer you know to bring my two turntables and mixer, so you can see me.
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Speaker 1: The other advantage of course is the different audiences have real different preferences for the sort of music that they want to listen to,
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so that when a DJ works a particular club, he might get there and find out that one set of records that he brought is just not working with the dancing audience,
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so he has to quickly be able to switch and to play with the audience until he hits their taste, until he clicks into the groove. Now, the question about rap
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let's ask
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Transcription:00:11:08
Speaker 1: The raps - the rappers that work with the DJs, the raps, I should say, that accompany these DJs, are always performed live.
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Speaker 1: You never work with a recorded rap.
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Speaker 1: Because rapping is as much a form of artistry that is recognized as the, as the work at the turntables
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Speaker 1: and is, again, a very, a currently popular vernacular art form that is widely acclaimed within the community.
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Speaker 1: One builds one's reputation as a rapper.
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Speaker 1: Now today at the festival, we have with us two rap teams who will be performing later on the main stage.
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Speaker 1: The Punk Funk Nation, who work with Grand Master Nel, and two women rappers, the International Playgirls.
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Speaker 1: Now, maybe the best way to close out the workshop
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Speaker 1: is to give you an example of what it hears like -- what it sounds like
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Speaker 1: when a rapper works with the DJ at the turntables.
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Speaker 1: I've asked MC Caesar, who's one of the members of the Punk Funk Nation,
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Speaker 1: to come up here and just give us a very, very brief example of a rap,
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Speaker 1: to sort of whet your appetite for the performance later this afternoon.
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Speaker 1: So, now, if you could hit the tables there, and, Caesar, if we could do maybe a,
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Speaker 1: a bit of a speed rap, or a general rap, to show the people what it sounds like. [[faint talking]]
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MC Caesar: I'm'a rap a little bit for you. And this is how we -- this is how we usually start it off at the club or disco.
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MC Caesar: The MC talks about the DJ very briefly before he starts the record up, and this how it goes.
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MC Caesar: Check it out, you say, all you party hoppers throughout the land. We're here to announce the masterful plan.
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MC Caesar: We have disco Caesar as your MC to rock, rock your body from here to eternity.
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MC Caesar: So, listen everybody, we're going to tell you the real deal. We got Grandmaster Nel aboard the wheels of steel.
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MC Caesar: Cutting the wax and making the side out of everything on the turntables [[??]] shot.
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MC Caesar: You go, one, two, listen to the bass, Nelly Del in the house, gonna rock the place like this, y'all. And ya don't quit, keep it uhuh, and to the sure shit.
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MC Caesar: You got MC Caesar on the microphone. I never ever leave the bass alone. You see the music is pumpin' so it's got the floor shakin'
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MC Caesar: and the ability to move has got the able-bodied breakin', movin' faster and faster,
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MC Caesar: and somehow it seems as though we're fantasizin' or livin' a dream.
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MC Caesar: Pop block, punk rock, never alter the floor, the MC's about the rhythm, the rhyme galore.
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MC Caesar: For all of those out there who appreciate rappers, we were ready to kick it live
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MC Caesar: cuz the fresh shit's snappin'.
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MC Caesar: Windmills, backspins, and spinnin' on your knees, the DJ's a spinnin' beats of twos ta please.
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MC Caesar: The feelin' feels good and your adrenalines with it,
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MC Caesar: the graffiti walls has blurred your visit.
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MC Caesar: Listen up in the dark, home boys are makin' art. The MC's out there tryin' t' get it for the job;
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MC Caesar: Billboard, black stars are on magazines,
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MC Caesar: the record sales are boomin'; sellin' to the teens.
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MC Caesar: The evolution of music in all its shape.
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MC Caesar: Everything 's so different [[??]] straight
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MC Caesar: Gibbadee, I like it dark and [[??]], Nellie Del, huh.
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MC Caesar: It's all the quick fix, Nellie Del.
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MC Caesar: Gotten so down [[??]]. Caesar in the place rockin with the floor
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MC Caesar: Do, do, weh, Goin' to give you much more.
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MC Caesar: Check out the bass, and listen to the scratch. Nellie Del in the place.
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MC Caesar: And that's the pure fact. Check out the scratch. Check out, it go a little like this.
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MC Caesar: [[drums]] Three, four, huh.
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MC Caesar: You don't stop a'rockin', you don't stop rockin', and don't stop beeboppin', Caesar.
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MC Caesar: Down with the floor, huh. Caesar goin' to give you more important.
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MC Caesar: [[??]] eagle, my [[seagull?]],
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MC Caesar: he was a drug pusher, but her never thought he'd be a [[fine self-based??]] user
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MC Caesar: Let he [[??]], let he dope, let he free-base goat
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MC Caesar: Give all other ash that he could smoke
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MC Caesar: Til he built up a superstar dependency,
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MC Caesar: But the problem was he didn't have the money, you see.
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MC Caesar: [[??]] a bad habit,
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MC Caesar: like a love with rabies, with [[??]] rabbit.
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MC Caesar: But Lee was found dead in a corner den,
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MC Caesar: in the course [[??]] fell in love with his head.
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MC Caesar: Have to end the ash problem, at a [[??]] a day,
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MC Caesar: That's a hard coldness of the ghetto game.
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MC Caesar: That's a little example.
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Speaker 1: Let's have a hand for MC Caesar Grandmaster Nel, both of Grandmaster Nel and the Punk Funk Nation.
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Speaker 1: [[applause]] I want to thank you all for being a great audience and ask you all please to come back to the main stage performance area at 4:15
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when the International Play Girls Grand Master now, the Punk Funk Nation and the break dance team the Scanner Boys
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will all be gathered together for an hour long show, you'll be able to see a little bit of the artistry you've heard about here on the stage.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we just gave y'all example.
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Speaker 1: We ask you to please stay around though, the next workshop is going to be at least as exciting
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perhaps a little bit more in terms of body action on the stage, we're going to have the Disco Queens and Kings,
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a street dance group from Philadelphia, come up here tell us a little bit about their history and give us some examples of the different forms of stepping [[grunt noise]] especially GQ stepping which is popular in Philadelphia right now.
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We're gonna take a break for just a minute as we get the turntables off the stage, then we'll be back with the Disco Queens and Kings. [[mic feedback]]
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Speaker 2: All the females come back here I'm taking phone numbers now, you know.
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[[pause, mic feedback]]
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Speaker 1: Of the Festival of American Folklife, if you look on the schedule either posted there or in your program book, you'll notice that what is scheduled,
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what was scheduled for about half an hour ago because the DJ workshop went on a little long and we got started late was a workshop on GQ dancing, popping, and breakdancing.
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What we've decided to do at the festival from this point out is to break that workshop into component parts, looking on certain days at the tradition of GQ dancing,
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on other days at the traditions of popping and breakdancing. So we've divided the groups up, two of the days, two of the upcoming four days we will have with us the Disco Queens and Kings, a street dance group from Philadelphia,
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the other two, the breakdance group the Scanner Boys. Now today we've got with us the Disco Queens and Kings, two members of whom are seated on the stage, Richie? Richie
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Speaker 1: Singilford- [[muffled]] Is that right? Right, okay.
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Ellison Thomas he says. Well, we're going to be doing is discussing traditions of GQ dancing,
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now the two people who are on here on the stage with me have a long long family history of dancing,
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they've been dancing since they were young children with their families who were dancing before them, we're going to be sitting here basically talking about the tradition in the family
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then going through a series of the moves trying to break down GQ dancing into its component parts.
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We figure that the best way for you to understand what goes into the dance is to start from the beginning with some of the very basic steps
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and take those basic steps through the progression to the more complex steps which make up the dance that you see them doing on the main stage.
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Perhaps the best way to start, Ellison and Richie, is for you to tell us a little bit about how you started dancing and what were the stages on which you danced?
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Speaker 2: one, two
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How y'all doing out there?
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Um, when we first started out I was five years old, my brother Ellison over here was six,
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we was little like the kids down in the front, small just like that, a little bit bigger though,
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like there's a playground down the street from us and a field across the street from our house, we used to take my mom pots and pans out the house, she say "Put 'em back, put them pots and pans back!"
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well we used to just take them to go play on them, that's how we learned to play instruments period.
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Playing on pots and pans and um, any- anything that's tin, we played instruments and made some kind of sound out of them.
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As to where we always been then from there we started- we went downtown one time, it was my cousins Valitor [[?]] he seen this, this man juggling fire, putting it out of his mouth
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so we knew that we could dance all our life and play instruments, so the next day we went down, there was only three of us
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we made $275, three of us collecting on the corners, banging, playing our drums center city, downtown in the ghetto corners
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then from there we started picking up more, bought a new set of drums, bought this kazoo here
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[[plays kazoo notes]]
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kept going, brung a little bit tap dancing
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Speaker 1: When we was like they size, I'm talking about way back. One of them is the cha-cha.
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Show them the cha-cha, Elsa. [[short silence]]
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One of them is the cha-cha. That's what we first learned. When I was 5 years old, my cousin taught me this, Russel. He dead now.
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That's called the cha-cha, that's 5 steps.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:08.000
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.000
Now we gon like to show ya'll the short cha-cha. It's like that, but it's still the same. 5 steps, but it's shorter.
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:23.000
3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:26.000
And another thing that's called, um,
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:31.000
the sky--
Speaker 2: Before you get onto the others, why don't you explain where you first saw people doing the cha-cha
00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.000
and why you started to do that?
00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:42.000
Speaker 1: Alright, we first saw the cha-cha-, uh, it was a group of guys that used to get socials at our house down our basement.
00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:47.000
And they used to do the cha-cha, and we was young kids, we seen them doing the cha-cha.
00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:52.000
And we just practiced every day. We had it just like them, and we created,
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.000
the steps that we created ourself with the cha-cha,
00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:59.000
and, you know, made our own routines.
00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:02.000
Speaker 2: So in a sense, then, the cha-cha was a base
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:06.000
upon which you built to develop your later steps.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.000
Speaker 2: So, what we're saying, then, is that the dancers are starting off
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.000
with a rather elementary social dance step,
00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:22.000
a step which they learned from watching older people do on social affairs, social occasions.
00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:26.000
They took this step, the cha-cha, and they relayed a short cha-cha,
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:32.000
building upon that as the base to develop the more complex dance routines which you see them doing now
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.000
and which became part of what is known as GQ dancing.
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:41.000
Now, before we talk any more about the particular steps, maybe we should try and figure out what GQ is.
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:46.620
[[background noise]]
Speaker 1: GQ means Gillford's Quality.
00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:17.000
Speaker 1: GQ is a different style. Popping is like, you know, wiggling and all that. But GQ is like more of foot movement, uh, flips, uh, feet movements, sky [[??]].
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:28.000
Speaker 2: A number of -- of the number of vernacular dance traditions in the African American community, certainly one of the oldest is that of stepping of--one form of another.
00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:36.000
And I'm sure some of you are familiar with tap dancers -- have seen perhaps [[Levon Robbins]] and the master tapper over there on the main stage.
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:47.000
Tap dancing is a form -- a complex form of stepping, which developed from an earlier form of stepping known as buck-dancing in the black community.
00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:59.000
When buck-dancing reached the stage -- the stage of the [[??]], the stage of the black traveling [[??]] and of carnivals, it became a professional stage dance and developed into what is now known as the tap dance.
00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:14.000
The tap dance, in turn, became the vernacular form -- became a street form in the 1920s and 1930s so that children on the streets were learning how to do the tap, rather than the older form, the buck.
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:28.000
Well on through the generations, there has always persisted some form of stepping in the African American community. That stepping might be expressed in the drills of young adolescent girls, or of black colligates.
00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:40.000
We've got, for example, on the main stage right now, the college group "Groove by Groove" who are carrying on an old tradition of stepping that is found on social fellowships, fraternities, and sororities on college campuses.
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:54.000
Stepping has also remained over the years, a street form. And thus, when you have a form of dance called GQ in Philadelphia, you have a dance which emphasizes the fast, complex, stepping movements.
00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:02.140
In the case of the brothers here, it's something that started off with the cha-cha and developed as other moves were added on. Now some of the moves that were
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.000
Transcription:
Speaker 1: Tell us where you began to get --
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.000
Speaker 2: Before you do that hold up, bounce.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:18.000
Speaker 2: I'd like to say this: the dance he about to do
00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:24.000
Speaker 2: When we was downtown on the corners, it was this Russian dude; that's what he told us he was, Russian, he told us that.
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:33.000
Speaker 2: He came from Russia. We would like to show you all something he taught us when we was seven to eight years old. It's called the Russian. It's a new dance.
00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:38.000
[SILENCE]
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:47.000
Speaker 2: And the one man hand he was just doin', that's the Russian right there, y'all. One man hand; Russian again. [[demonstration of "the Russian"]]
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:51.000
Speaker 1: Let's have a hand for Alison here, doing the Russian. [[clapping]]
00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:59.000
Speaker 1: So, so far we've seen two parts of the dance. One which came from the social dance tradition, the other an ethnic
00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:05.000
Speaker 1: dance tradition that they saw in the streets -- they picked up, developed in their own way and added to their dance repertoire.
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.000
Speaker 1: Now, there are a lot of other moves that you all do that are all a part of DQ dancing.
00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:16.000
Speaker 1: One of those would be, what? The skywhip. Could you tell us where that came from, and how you added that in?
00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:24.000
Speaker 2: He created that himself, the skywhip. He used to always just stay on the floor so much, and mess with his legs.
00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:29.000
Speaker 2: One day, he just took it around. Show 'em where you took it around.
00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:37.000
Speaker 2: One day, he just started the spinning so much he looked like a helicopter was moving. And it just kept going from there.
00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:40.000
[[Silence]]
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:43.000
Speaker 1: So now we've seen steps from three traditions. Social dance traditions;
00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:53.000
Speaker 1: the ethnic tradition of Russian dancing, and a tradition which was developed here by the dancers, a move which they themselves came up with.
00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.000
Speaker 1: How about something which was borrowed from another African-American tradition, a little bit of a tap dance?
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:07.000
Speaker 1: Could you explain how tap fit in to this whole complex; how you began to add tap dancing to your-to your movements?
00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:14.000
Speaker 2: Well, uh, well we started going Downtown, we used to see a lot of tap dancers down there,
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:18.890
Speaker 2: and they was really great, and we admired 'em. We loved --
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:28.000
ELLISON: --Disco tap
00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:37.000
{Speaker 2}: Now when you started tap dancing, who would you say were your influences, Ellison. In terms of people you saw either on, through the media, or in person?
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:50.000
ELLISON: Yeah we used to watch like: Fred Astaire, Bojangles, Shirley Temple. Learned a few things off 'em like-- [[Tap dances]]
00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:00.000
Stuff like that off Bojangles and, um, few more things. [[Tap dances]]
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:10.000
And um, um, we learned something. We we made this up on our own right. After we started practicing off the TV. Watching what they can do.
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:29.000
This called something we made up. Its called "A Room." Watch closely. [[Tap dances]] We made this up ourself. [[Tap dances]]
00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:49.000
Y'all like that? [[Background talking and claps]] What I like to say. Y'all heard of LaVaughn of tap dancing right? LaVaughn that's been over there on, um, American Stage?
00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:46.000
{Speaker 2} LaVaughn Robinson, Philadelphia tap dancer, whose on the main stage here at the festival.
00:27:46.000 --> 00:28:00.000
{Ellison} I like to let Y'all know, he showed my brother something. It's real hard, too. The one foot tap. [[Tap dances]] You gotta be steady to keep that foot on there. [[Tap dances]] Yeah.
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:33.500
[[Tap dances]] But, we like to let y'all know, we created called the foot tap. I gotta put the mike down and show y'all this. [[Tap dances]] Thank you.
00:28:51.000 --> 00:30:51.680
To the old films of the 1930s and 40s that they saw on the Television and from master tappers who are working in Philadelphia and who they met, not only on the street, but in many cases through concert programs and events, cultural events at which both dancers were asked to appear. There is another source of dance moves, one which is very important in vernacular dance traditions of the black community, and that's acrobatic dancing. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with dance traditions of the 1930s in the black community, where an entire tradition developed known as flash dancing. LaVaughn when he speaks of tap dancing in the 1930s, says that tap dancers at that time were a time of a dime a dozen, everybody was out tap dancing. So what happened was, a tradition developed where you had to add a little something to your act. You might add a flip, you might do some taps and go into a splits, you might be dancing on the top of a piano, do a flip off the piano onto the ground, land into some splits, do a backflip out of the split, go off the stage, go into another split at the bottom of the stage, all in conjunction with perhaps two or three other dancers. The acrobatic tradition of dancing that came to the form in the 1930s in flash dancing is, again, a tradition with a long-standing tradition in the black community. Just as stepping can easily be traced back to earlier forms of buck dancing and on back into the 1800s, so also can traditions of acrobatic dancing be traced back, in this country, easily to the 1800s and beyond so that when you look at dance movements and dance repertoires of many African nations, you see acrobatic moves, which are strikingly similar to moves which appear in the new world, both in the dancing of South American and Caribbean countries and in selected times, especially in certain areas in the 1930s today with the breakdancing
00:30:53.000 --> 00:31:05.000
Speaker 1: And periods like that - there were certain periods in the 1800s in places like New Orleans - you have periods where acrobatic dancing becomes a very important part of the vernacular tradition.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:22.000
Now, in the GQ dancing of the disco queens and kings, there's quite an acrobatic element, which adds to the flash of the street dancing. Could you tell us a little bit about acrobatics and how that began to be incorporated into your repertoire?
00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:43.000
Speaker 2: Okay we created acrobatics in our group about - uh-- four years ago. My cousin - he went to James Rose elementary - and he had a acrobatic group there, and he joined it, and he got gooder and gooder. So we just put him in our group.
00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:51.000
And he taught me how to do back handsprings and go right into dancing.
00:31:51.000 --> 00:32:06.000
And there's one thing I'd like to show you all that's part of acrobatics, it's called the donkey kick. My brother Richie created that, and we gonna show y'all it. [[dances]]
00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Speaker 1: Give a hand for Richie, with the Donkey Kick! [[applause]]
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:26.000
Speaker 2: And also, the flip that I was just telling you about, it's called the back handspring, straight into dancing, imma show y'all that. [[dances]]
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:43.000
{Richie??} See, he never went over on his feet, he kept down on the floor, kept them the two dancing. [[applause]] So that's called back handspring dancing, instead of just saying back handspring alone, back handspring dancing. Cause he went from the handspring to the floor as he back into the same GQ style.
00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:55.300
Speaker 1: The acrobatics clearly are an integral part of the entire dances sequences. There's an aspect of acrobatic dancing which the disco queens and kings are quite well known for in Philadelphia--
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:06.000
Speaker 1: Alison could you tell us how that started with you, and where you have gone with it and where you intend to go?
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:14.000
Speaker 2: Okay, stick jumping. I've never in my life seen nobody do this to tell you the truth – but, myself.
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:20.000
I started out with a stick about 6 feet, 6 feet long.
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:32.000
Uh, I-I be trying all kind of things, so you know, I just had on my mind one day to try something that I had never tried before, that I knew I couldn't do. But, in my mind, I knew I could do it.
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:44.000
And that was jumping over sticks. And then I went to jumping over taps, and then I went to jumping over keys. And next I'm going for jumping over cigarette butts.
00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:45.000
Speaker 1: Now when you say-
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.000
Speaker 2: And that's incredible. And it will- it can be done by me.
00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:53.000
Speaker 1: When you say jumping over, I think people in the audience perhaps don't quite understand what you mean.
00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:55.000
Speaker 2: Imma show you what I mean
Speaker 1: Can you give us an example?
00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:00.000
[SILENCE]
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:08.000
Speaker 2: You gotta lift your legs and make them touch to your chest every time. Your legs gotta touch your chest.
Speaker 1: Have a hand, for Alison there. [[clapping]]
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:11.000
Speaker 1: With the tap jump, in that case-
00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:15.000
Speaker 2: The pitcher, y'all, check it out. Jumping over a pitcher.
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:27.000
You gotta touch your chest with your knees though. [[clapping]] Your knees gotta- your knees gotta hit your chest so as though you won't flip yourself over, cause you will go on your head if you flip.
00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:35.000
Speaker 1: And the end point turns which he is aiming at now becomes a little more dramatic when you think about it, is using a cigarette butt. And jumping over a cigarette butt.
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:40.000
He's working on that, hasn't quite reached there yet.
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:45.000
There's a real important comment to be made on the nature of this sort of dancing;
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:50.000
a lot of people when they see folks like the Disco Queens and Kings working the streets of Philadelphia,
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:55.000
look at it and say "Oh that's real interesting, that's, something that just comes naturally to these guys,
00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:00.000
because they're real talented, they get out there, they're able to dance, and so they do it."
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:07.000
What people fail to recognize, and this is true of many many of the traditions represented here at the festival, is that
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:12.000
what we are seeing is not a matter of unselfconscious artistry.
00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:14.160
Rather it's a matter of very, very self-conscious
00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:32.000
They practice, they rehearse. They sit back and look for moves from other dance traditions to add to their own, consciously while creating their own dance routines.
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:44.000
It's not something which is at all informal, rather it is a very formal stylized dance tradition at which the dancers spend a lot of time, and at which they are making a profession.
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:54.000
Both of you could you both address that issue and tell them a little bit about how serious you look at the dancing that you do. How do you view it? What do you hope to do with it?
00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:32.000
Well, I've always been serious about it. I look at it as like something that other people can't do, and that I'm glad that I can do it, that's why I like to get out there and show it cause it's something that I need to show. Why I'm living in here in this world with the rest of the people. So as I get older, I might be the next Bojangles, Fred Astaire, that I hope I be. Not just like him, but myself. But still doing the same tap dancing, but putting a little bit more routines in to it. Not only tap dancing, but GQ dancing, and put back into a little bit of break dancing.
00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:51.000
We like to keep so many different things so we won't have to do the same thing over and over. It's always better to have something different. Why, if you have a group, it's always better to have a Horn player and a drummer, just like we need a break dancer, a dancer, and a GQ dancer, and somebody that can might can tumble.
00:36:51.000 --> 00:37:02.000
Because you always need so many different people to make you look good. So that's called different styles. We need different styles all times. Anything you like to say?
00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:21.000
When Richie is talking about presenting different styles, it's real important to recognize, that Richie and Allison are the leaders of the leader of the group, The Disco Queens and Kings, and they have actively recruited other dancers, most particularly other family members.
00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:21.900
Allison can you tell them about who else.
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:36.000
Speaker 1: Yeah we started out around in West Philly round 50th and Augner street teaching other kids
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:42.000
how to dance and they practice every day and got better and better and so they just came to me
00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:47.000
one day and they said I'm good enough to get with y'all now, so I gave him a test,
00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:52.000
tested 'em out, and they was good enough, and we put a couple people that wasn't in our family
00:37:52.000 --> 00:38:02.000
in the group. We have two parts of the disco queens and kings; part one is all family. We are all blood. And, uh, that's how
00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:07.000
it all got started.
Speaker 2:
00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:13.000
But I'd like to say this much, we always rehersal, we always rehersal, like, Monday, Tuesday,
00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:19.000
Wednesday, Friday sometimes, Saturday, and Sunday. But it's real hard, cause, we never could find
00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:25.000
nobody that could fit us in somewhere big, we always gotta go in my basement, and it's just so small
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:32.000
we can't really move, so we learn to stay close to each other and dance on anything that's small. Cause we could
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:40.000
dance on small stages, real small stages, I'm talking about, from here, this line to this line. We can dance and
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:46.000
stay in that same spot without moving. And a lot of people can't do that. Any questions y'all like to ask?
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:55.000
Speaker 3: Any questions? Yes, sir. (inaudible)
00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:03.000
The question was, how do you go about tying the various moves together to create the fuller dance sequence?
00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:09.000
Speaker 1: As a routine you need two, not really, but two together to make a good step. And make more
00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:29.000
people look, 'cause they see two flippin' each other or one on each of your legs. I'm gonna show y'all what I mean.
00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:31.000
That's what I mean. There's always...
00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:40.000
{Speaker 1}: Cause two together will create something that you would never think they can create. Two people together can create a lot of things.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:46.000
Cause he got something in his mind and he might say, "Hold it! Hold it! I got something. Let me do this one! Let me do this one! Yeah, let's- let me do this style right here."
00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:48.000
And I might tell him "Hold it, let me do one."
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:52.000
And then we fit them together and it comes into one thing.
00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:58.000
{Speaker 2}: It's also important to watch Ellison and Ritchie and the rest of the family when they're working.
00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:03.000
The- there are- there's always one person at the drums or almost always.
00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:08.000
There is a line of dancers at the back who are keeping a basic time step.
00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:13.000
Then people will emerge from that line to do featured stepping.
00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:19.000
So that Desiree or Pineapple as an individual might go forward, do a set of steps
00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:23.000
then as she moves back to the line, another dancer will take the forefront.
00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:28.000
Or another two will take the forefront and be featured there then.
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:30.000
Are there other questions from the audience?
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:35.000
{Speaker 1}: Yes, sir. [[inaudible]]
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:40.000
TV, Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire, Bojangles. People like that.
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:43.000
Just always getting up in the morning when we small
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:47.000
like I guess around 4 and when we- as we got older
00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:51.000
We just stayed in TV, always looked at TV because we liked the tap dancing
00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:54.000
And the way they- Shirley Temple used to go up the step. I couldn't believe that myself.
00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.000
I could do that right now but we ain't got no step here for me to do it on.
00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:00.000
But I learned that from just watching the TV.
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:03.000
Like every Saturday they- they might come on.
00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:08.000
And I'm talking about them old movies back in 1930 and before I was born.
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.000
But as I got older they were still showing it on TV so I started to keeping [[into it?]],
00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:14.000
watching it cause I wanted to tap dance.
00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:18.000
I never went to school for it but I learned from just them. Seeing what's on TV.
00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:22.000
Cause I could count they feet. I don't gotta go to tap dance school.
00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:26.000
If they brrat brrat I could count that.
00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:31.000
Because it's like "rrr-one, 2, 3, rrr-one, 2, 3." It's like a brrat brrat.
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:37.000
I could count it with my eyes and mind. I don't gotta go to school for tap dancing and stuff. I'm good enough.
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:41.000
{Speaker 2}: Yes, sir? [[inaudible]]
00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:42.820
{Speaker 1}: Yeah we do a lot of
00:41:49.000 --> 00:44:08.280
Speaker 1: We don't like bars hanging in bars and stuff, they always call for 60 dollars a week, maybe want us for 2 nights to dance in a bar, but we just don't like bars cause living in the ghetto, it's just too much trouble period. So we just tell 'em we rather leave that alone, see us when you get something nice and big where as though we be on stage not in front of everybody running up and down a bar where people sittin' at drinking.
Speaker 2: It's real important to note also the versatility of both of these people, in addition to dancing they also do DJ work, Richie does rapping, ah--
Speaker 1: Instruments, we play any instruments--
Speaker 2: Rapping over there with Allison, they play many different instruments. Wide variety of skills.
Speaker 1: Yeah, down at 15th street, where the clothes pin at, silver city ghetto, yeah, we make two, three hundred, but the first time we ever went,and I like to say this again, I was 5, and my brother was 6, and my cousin, my oldest cousin, that seen this man juggling fire, he seen this man juggling fire, pitting it out of his mouth, so he figure if he can do that and see people throwing quarters dimes and nickels in, he just came home and told us about it and we went the next day and ever since then, we just picked up, picked up, picked up and we used to make, the first day we went, I never forget this because I was happy, I was happy, we made two hundred and seventy five dollars, and quarters, dimes, nickels and dollar bills too.
Speaker 2: Are there other questions from the audience? You parents, what are, are your parents in the business now?
Speaker 1: Oh my uncles and my cousins,toured as [[zada dance?]]. My oldest cousin died he was, he 23 now, he dead in his grave but my uncle that showing us a little bit now, he's 24 and he's showing us some of the stuff that we were just showing y'all he's showing us better ways to do it, then what we do now. A little bit more into it.
Speaker 2: Yes, in the back there, yes.
Speaker 2: The question was, do they practice just at rehearsals or do they practice other times as well?
Speaker 1: I like to say this,um, we practice at rehearsals, but anywhere I'm at, I just dance.
00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:17.000
{Speaker 1}: I don't care who around as I go here, there, and this record store or that store to buy something to eat
00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:21.000
I just will start to moving around for some reason because it be in me that feeling
00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:25.000
Because that's what I'm used to. I'm used to doing that.
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:31.000
{Speaker 2}: As one who's staying the dormitory with him, I guarantee you they're not only dancing at rehearsals.
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:37.000
One last question. [[inaudible]]
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The question was "Do you perform every week out on the street?"
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{Speaker 1}: Yeah, we usually go every 2 or 3 days. Right on 15th and Chestnut.
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During the summer. That's all. Never in the winter. Be too cold.
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We'd get frostbits and stuff in our hands. Can't do it in the winter.
00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:02.000
{Speaker 2}: Perhaps the best way to close the stage here even though the stage is a little rough
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Is with just a short piece of GQ stepping and that will close out the workshop.
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{Speaker 1}: Okay.
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[[dancing and tapping noises]]
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Speaker 1: Let's have a big hand, please, for Ellison [Ellison Thomas] and Richie [Richie Thomas] with the Disco Queens and Kings!
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Ellison and Richie and the rest of the group are performing on the main performance area every day
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in the morning review between 11 and 1, and then later in the afternoon, shortly after 1 o'clock.
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[SILENCE]
00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:05.000
In a workshop on the tap dancing tradition and its evolution from the streets of Philadelphia, in this case
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:08.000
through the professional stage to the point where
00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:13.000
master tapper LaVaughn Robinson is now teaching tap traditions
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in Philadelphia, the very steps which he learned at age 7 on the street.
00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:20.000
It'll be just a few minutes as we get all the dancers here
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[chuckle] and the presenter, the most important person who is yet to make it over to the stage
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.000
so if you'll bear with us for just two or three minutes, the next workshop will be on
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tap dancing traditions from Philadelphia.
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{Speaker 2}: Thank you.
00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:42.000
{Speaker 1}: [[?]] we need to do since I apparently am now stuck with the tap dance workshop as well.
00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:48.000
Though it is a joy to work with these people, it just means that I don't get this half hour off.
00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:51.000
What I'm going to do, we need to draw some people over here.
00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:56.000
Everybody who's out there, standing around. You can hear me way back sitting at the tables over there
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Looking at the food. Gather around, gather around.
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:03.000
We're about to do a workshop that is both entertaining, educational and erudite.
00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:06.000
That's right, the 3 E's all gathered together.
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We're about to do a workshop on tap dancing traditions in Philadelphia.
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.000
Now a lot of you come to the stages here, you come to the Folk Life festival
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And you're able to say "I saw a lot of great traditional entertainment."
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But what we want to do is do a little more than merely entertain.
00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:27.000
If you see the dancers working the main stage you get an idea of their skill
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You get a feel for their artistry. What we would like to do though is let you get a little bit inside their heads.
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:42.000
To understand a little bit of the tradition that they represent, how they fit into broader traditions of African American artistry.
00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:50.000
More particularly, how they fit into traditions of entertainment, traditions of traditional artistry in the Philadelphia community.
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:56.000
That's right. Gather around. You don't need to stand out here because there are great seats up here, ladies and gentlemen.
00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:00.000
They feel real fine and it's a lot easier to sit than to stand.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:05.000
So come on in. We've got with us sitting on the stage three tap dancers.
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I'm going to introduce the eldest first. Master tapper LaVaughn Robinson in the center.
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[[silence]]
