Living in the Tension

Abstract

AbstractHip hop movement practices are central to understanding not only dance but also the ways in which subversive knowledges are produced and performed. This chapter examines the Hip Hop dance performance, Popping, and what it reveals about social injustices and social justice practices. Working at the intersections of social science, dance and performance, the chapter analyzes Stephan “Mr. Wiggles” Clemente’s Popping aesthetic to examine physicalized micro-level containments, pops, tensions, and releases, and what they convey about the structural realities within which Popping was produced. This analysis is situated within a social justice framework in order to intervene in the movement practices that typically define acts of social justice. Reading Popping logics and aesthetics as embodiments of knowledge foregrounds the ways in which performing individual dancing bodies transform into a collective body to perform historical knowledges, even when those knowledges are choreographed rather than lived.