International Dance Day 2021 Street Dance

Title: 'Showdown: The Boxing Match'

Performance Rights: Liba Kaucky 2021; Staging & Lighting: © Liba Kaucky 2021; Hip Hop beat: Keyboard

Happy #InternationalDanceDay2021!

Street Dance is an umbrella term for various sub genres, such as, break dance, hip hop, and even jazz and commercial can incorporate street dance which simply put, means, outside of a studio. It's a grassroots genre. I have studied all forms of dance and danced throughout my life from an early age so I don't tend to compartmentalize the genres too rigidly. Often, I like to combine separate genres in my choreography which I studied during my A Level Dance and then took further because I was lucky enough to be able to use an university library. Street Dance is very much in popular culture so is one many young people are familiar with having watched it on TV in programmes such as, 'Britain's Got Talent' and films.

Here, in this video, I have carried on the sports theme from last year's International Dance Day where I incorporated tennis into a tap routine. This year, I've taken boxing as the sport to focus on for several reasons:

One, not enough women do boxing as a sport, so I'm raising awareness of women's sports which don't fit sexist, binary, gender stereotypes.

Two, boxing is part of my fitness regime as it is for many tennis players and sportspeople in general. However, boxing fitness is particularly relevant for tennis players because it requires the same skills: a combination of muscular strength 💪, stamina and speed; complex footwork; the psychological one-on-one combat.

Three, I'm non-binary, which, in my case simply means I'm gender fluid, two spirit, non-binary ie I can express both my female and male sides which co-exist happily, side by side, within me. I don't wish to be 'boxed in' in a binary way. My base gender identity is female but my gender expression slides fluidly across all the genders. That is not the same as trans people who are, in fact, binary in that their gender identity is the opposite of the one they were assigned at birth. They wish to be a specific gender, trans man or trans woman. Therefore, I am a trans ally because I identify as non-binary rather than trans. Thus, I have choreographed this dance as deliberately gender neutral - anyone can dance this choreography, it's not specific to any gender (or race; class).

Four, the champion boxer, Nicola Adams was in 'Strictly Come Dancing' 📺 this past season although, unfortunately, had to exit early because her partner tested positive. So, just as she crossed over from boxing to ballroom dance, 💃 I cross over from dance to boxing. However, I do so while still remaining within the dance genre. Nicola Adams inspired me to incorporate boxing in my fitness regime when I heard her at the WOW festival at the South Bank. She explained the technique of boxing extremely well. I hope she approves of my technique that I learned from her just by listening to her and watching her demonstrations on stage. She's also a lesbian which means I'm more inspired by her. Nicola also fits into Lesbian Visibility Week so neatly and hopefully will encourage girls into boxing.

Therefore, I choreographed this dance as a boxing match. Hence, the clothing (the black dance zip up jacket/hoodie from Pineapple [dance studios], the pants from Elle Sports label), the lighting to represent the strong artificial beam of light as the boxers come to the ring, the attitude boxers display of 'I've got this' - I've recreated this when you see me walking with an air of confident attitude at the beginning and end of the video. My exercise equipment in the background also emphasises the sports theme/motif. I jump up on my step-up at the end to highlight the sport motif in the choreography, as well as imitating victory over my opponent.

My hood comes off mid-dance to show I'm the same person as the one in the tap and ballet videos.

For those videos and blog post, see:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PZZmFNUgRdc

https://danceaesthetic.blogspot.com/2020/10/happy-worldballetday.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6sDT2-NKMcs

The point being: don't judge someone by their clothes or the way they move!

For the related genre in art, street art, see my art blog post:

https://visualartsfashionaesthetics.blogspot.com/2021/05/lesbian-visibility-week-and-art.html