Florida State University Libraries Honors Theses The Division of Undergraduate Studies 2010 A Battle of Repression: Hip Hop Bgirls, Burns and Gestural Languages 1970-2010 Ansley J. Jones Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DANCE A BATTLE OF REPRESSION: HIP HOP BGIRLS, BURNS AND GESTURAL LANGUAGES 1970 to 2010 By ANSLEY JOYE JONES A Thesis submitted to the School of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2011 The members of the committee approve the thesis of Ansley Joye Jones defended on 6 December 2010. __________________________________ Sally R. Sommer Professor Directing thesis __________________________________ Tricia Young Committee Member __________________________________ Rick McCullough Committee Member __________________________________ Jennifer Atkins Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________ Patricia Phillips, Co-Chair, School of Dance _____________________________________ J. Russell Sandifer, Co-Chair, School of Dance _____________________________________ Sally McRorie, Dean, College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii I dedicate this to all women in hip hop dance and to the progression of hip hop culture as a whole. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my committee members for all of their support: Tricia Young, Sally R. Sommer, Jennifer Atkins and Rick McCullough. Special thanks to Sally Sommer and Tricia Young for graciously commenting and editing drafts of this thesis. An extra- special thanks to Sally Sommer for encouraging me to follow my heart through this process and giving me the courage I needed to continue. Thanks to the FSU in NYC program directed by Sally Sommer. The information, personal connections and opportunities I gained were invaluable to this research. Without these experiences the thesis would have a very different voice; perhaps a premature one. I would also like to give a shout-out to all the women (and men!) of hip hop -- bgirls (and bboys) poppers, lockers, rockers hip hop party dancers and freestylers -- that shared their heart and soul with me, making the documentation of this rare material possible: Kim “Kim-A- Kazi” Valente, Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, Aiko Shirakawa, Asia “Asia-One” Yu, Ciprian “Radio” Gontea, Mandi “Beyond bgirl” Shavon, Jorge “Pop Master Fabel” Pabon, Candy Bloise, Carla “Ill Mischief” Silveira, Misty Dawn “Dura” White, Riyanna “Dvine” Hartley, Lauren “Ellz” Rodeheaver, Jocelyn “Evil Lynn” Eckhout, Kate “K8” Morrissey, Margie “Kaotic Blaze” Flecha, Tammy “Cadence” Tso, Kellye “Mohawk” Greene, Lisa “Mona Lisa” Berman, Dawnette “Patience” Joseph, Charlotte “Pretty Sick” Schultz, Steven “Mr. Wiggles” Clemente, Tiffany “Schizo” Hines, Stephanie “Seoul Assassin” Aasen, Miri “Seoul Sonyck” Park, Nicole “Severe” Rateau, April “Squirrely” Vaughn, Sarah “Smalls” Saltzman, Stasha “Stash-One” Sampson, Monica “TahXic” Kelly, Adrienne “Vendetta” Lee, Brenda K. Starr, Lane “ Yoda LaneSki” Davey, Hanifa “Bubbles” McQueen Hudson, Violeta “Fire Starter” Galagarza, Auristela “ Lady Champ” Nunez, Colleen “Miss Twist” Soto, Naomi Bragin, Nadine “Nene” Sylbestre, Nicole “Olopop” Guess, Mariette “Peaches” Rodriguez, Pebbles “Pebblee Poo” Riley, Doreene (Deena) “SnapShot” Clemente, Wanda “WandeePOP” Candelario and Lenaya “Tweetie” Straker. Special thanks to Kim “Kim-A-Kazi” Valente and Ana “Rokafella” Garcia for sharing their invaluable experiences and thorough explanations regarding the material. Thank you Kim for the conversations (for letting me pick your brain) and encouragement. Your words kept me going when times were rough. And Kim, you are recognized and will be remembered! Thanks to iv Bubbles for your wisdom, encouragement and accessibility -- you were always there with an answer when I needed you. You are truly a Queen. Thanks to Fabel for the opportunity to be your intern, I learned so much through our conversations and your research has buttressed and enhanced all that I have done. Thanks to Christie Z Pabon for the support and for helping me find interviewees. Thank you to Mr. Wiggles for giving me the names that helped me find some very important women in hip hop. Thanks to SnapShot and WandeePOP for allowing me to intern with you, for all your help and wonderful advice -- and for supporting me and giving me the chance to get to know you. You have been wonderful. Thank you to Vickie Jones, my mother for supporting me no matter what. You are the reason I love. Thank you to Donnell Jones for your endearing support, I love you. And finally, thank you to Ciprian “bboy Radio” Gontea for our countless conversations on women in breaking and hip hop over the past 5 years. Thank you for supporting and believing in me inside and outside of the cipher when no one else did. Thanks for standing up for me. You are my role model, my inspiration, my best friend and I love you for it. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract vii 1. PREFACE 1 Personal Note 1 2. INTRODUCTION 3 Chapters and Methodologies; Terminology; Review of the Literature 3 3. Brief Historical Overview 18 4. 1970’s Bgirls and Dancing Spectators 29 5. The 1980s 39 6. 1990s and 2000s 56 7. 2000s Oppression Through Panopticism and The Abject Body: Battling as Self-Discovery 73 8. Bgirls as Drag Kings 86 9. Afterthoughts of Bgirls about Liminal Burns 97 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 107 11. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 118 vi ABSTRACT The gestural language of a hip hop dance battle is one of the most important elements of the form. This study’s primary focus is the gestural language of “burns” used in battles by women hip hop dancers. Burns, the specific gestural language in battling used to insult the opponent, will be analyzed through several theoretical points of view such as feminism, queer theory, and historiography to name a few. These theories will be used to trace the evolution of women burns from the 1970s in New York City to today’s contemporary bgirls. The masculinized/sexualized forms of battle behaviors have shaped the physical expression of the women. However, this gestural language has evolved from the transformative to the repressive affecting the bgirl psyche in many ways, becoming both empowering and disempowering. I will question why there exist few potent female-centered gestures in the women’s burns, and how empowerment might be gained through bgirls using their own sexual/reproductive gestures in battling. vii PREFACE PERSONAL NOTE I am a bgirl. When I was battling frequently (1996-2006), strategic planning and the use of carefully chosen gestural language was my main focus. In fact it won battles--and to win was all that mattered--but never at the expense of denigrating girlhood. As young women who got down on the floor and battled, we prided ourselves as girls in control of the scene and gloated when boys came to join our crew. However, battling was also changing tremendously as I matured. I noticed how phallic gestures, such as “throwin’ the dick” became a primary gesture in the battles. Consequently, I began to watch, attend, and research the setting of this language— “bboying battles.” I quickly became fascinated with gender and its representation in the breaking battle by investigating breaking and its representation of women to its gendered spoken language. I started to concentrate on women’s identity (as a collective) in hip hop dance. Next, I began questioning the rarity of specific women’s burns in battles, such as “nursing the baby” or other female sexual-reproductive gestures, comparable to the omnipresent, male-centric phallic gestural languages. Peculiarly, bgirls themselves started to heavily utilize male sexual-reproductive language in battles, thowin’dick even against other women. Dancing inscribes the body and affects self-expression and definition of womanhood. The unquestioning adoption of hip-hop’s homogenized masculinized/phallic physical and verbal languages caused women to repress female-sexualized language in breaking, in their movement choices and gestural phrasing. This began to affect my self-esteem immensely. I would say to myself, “God! I have got to lose this ass in order to be good.” I struggled with body image (wanting to lose my hips and thighs) and I began thinking of my body in negative ways. Eventually, I began to police my body like the weight-conscious ballerina: I monitored what I thought, what I ate and how I exercised. Things began to shift into harmful rituals. It became a constant battle between wanting to lose weight and not wanting to lose what I deemed my femaleness -- which was strong, fearless, confident and extremely exaggerated in battle. But I was starting to think of myself as biologically weak, uncontrolled, thoughtless, and became severely insecure as a result. With a lot 1 of hard work, strength and perseverance, I eventually realized that I had second-guessed what I knew best: my body. As I watched other bgirls use phallic gestures I began to question the effects of breaking culture on their psyche: Why are women using male sexual-reproductive gestures as a statement of strength? Are women affected by this negatively in subconscious ways? Are the clichéd male battling gestures manifesting those negativities? More importantly, how can this power-hold of gestural language on women be lifted? Can women be empowered through the development of pro-woman language? This study focuses on the battle “burns” used by women hip-hop dancers. “Burns” are specific physical gestures or danced gestural-narrative phrases that are directed at the opponent. They are meant to insult, demean and discourage the rival and highlight her/his weaknesses. These exchanges are quick (lasting about ten seconds or less) physical dialogues that can be crude or clever, witty or cruel, flashing by in a danced one-upmanship. But if they are to count, they must always be in rhythm with the music and on the beat.