PUBLIC EVENTS
Willy-B Bombazote
Saturday, June 19, 6:30-9:30
$10 general admission/ $5 students/low-income
This concluding event features many of the artists presented during the week and brings them together for a neighborhood Bombazote! to the sounds Los Bomberos de Brooklyn and of DJ King Uprock. North Brooklyn dancers are invited to show their skills in an open neighborhood showcase. All dance styles from modern to lindy hop to bachata are welcome. Stay till the end to party.
If you are a dancer or performance group based in North Brooklyn, call 646 463 5691 to join the showcase, or sign-up the day-of.
6:30 -video documentation by Razvan "Tiny Love" Gorea of historic Brooklyn Rock dancers from Williamsburg and neighboring hoods. Tiny Love intros and discusses his clips.
7:30- the party starts with performances by Los Bomberos de Brooklyn (bomba), Breaking in Style (b-boy) and Master Mind Rockers (rock dance). Sounds of Dynasty's rocker and DJ, Ralph "King Uprock" Casanova, spins funk, hustle, salsa and other jams that shook Brooklyn from the 70s till today. A neighborhood dance showcase and jam rounds off the night.
RALPH "KING UPROCK" CASANOVA
King Uprock, DJ, original rocker, b-boy, and more- has been a major force behind the rise in popularity of the rock dance. He's bringing back Brooklyn's dance from the 60s, known first as the rock dance, and later as uprock, through free classes in school gyms, international workshops, and oral history and video documentation.
King Uprock grew up in Bushwick, where Brooklyn rock evolved- attributed initally to salsero Rubberband Man and Apache of the Devil Rebels who innovated steps to funk music and live conga in Bushwick's Maria Hernandez (Knickerbocker) Park. King Uprock joined Dynasty Rockers in 1976, one of over 100 Brooklyn uprock crews that competed with each other. He earned his name in a 1980 battle. King Uprock is now leader of the Dynasty Rockers, and brings the sounds of Brooklyn's rock dance era back today as a DJ with Sounds of Dynasty.
RAZVAN "TINY LOVE" GOREA
Tiny Love was born in communist Romania, where he found dance to be a great expressive outlet and means of transcendence. When he immigrated to the United States, he went deeper into dance, immersing himself in club and street dance culture. He is known his mastery and virtuosity in styles such as liquid digits, finger tuts and electric boogie. Tiny has also become an advocate for Brooklyn's role in street dance history and as the birthplace of the rock dance. You can find excerpts of his video documentation of original Brooklyn rock dancers and historic Brooklyn dance places, many under with King Uprock's direction, on youtube.
ABOUT DANCE IN THE HOOD: WILLIAMSBURG TRADITIONS
Presented as part of CPR's series, New Voices in Live Performance, and curated by Nicole Macotsis, Dance in the Hood: Williamsburg Traditions is a week of workshops, performances and discussions recognizing neighborhood dance traditions and expert local artists - from the late '60 to today.
For many New Yorkers, North Brooklyn's Williamsburg embodies the waves of gentrification that have transformed parts of the city in the last decade. As its neighbors, geography and prices changed, the area began to be represented by media and developers as trendy, hip and creative.
But despite its recent recognition as an "artistic center", the creation of art, and especially dance, in Williamsburg isn't new: hipsters in the hood were dancing long before it was safe to ride the L train. From Los Sures to the North Side, generations have made a tradition of innovating dance genres, such as Brooklyn rock dance, reviving older ones, such as bomba, and mixing culturally specific dances and neighborhood narratives into contemporary forms, as does CARAS El Puente Dance Ensemble'.
Dance in the Hood: Williamsburg Traditions week-long program is only able to highlight a few dances, but many others not included, such as Dominican, Polish, and Italian social dances, have a long history in the neighborhood and are still performed today.
The purpose of Dance in the Hood: Williamsburg traditions is three-fold: to draw attention to the legacy of dance artistry in the neighborhood; to get neighbors talking about changes in cultural expressions due to social and economic changes; and finally, to stimulate collaborations between CPR's modern dance regulars and other neighborhood dancers who have been performing and perpetuating vernacular and formal forms for generations - each with their own story to tell from the hood.
The New Voices in Live Performance Series is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; The Mertz Gilmore Foundation; and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
