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Hip Hop Battles and Facial Intertexts

Hip Hop Battles and Facial Intertexts <jats:p> Hip hop dance battles are organized around a face-to-face danced exchange and, although dancers mobilize a diverse range of facial expression, scarcely any scholarly work addresses the face as a choreographic device. Several scholars, however, have noted that hip hip battles are dialogic or conversational in style, and I assert that dancers strategically employ facial expression to challenge and comment upon their opponents. In this article, I draw on the theory of intertextuality, and in particular Henry Louis Gates's concept of signifyin(g), to show how dancers deploy facial choreography as a mode of embodied articulation. Based on an ethnography of hip hop battles in Philadelphia, I examine the choreography of facial expression in four particular ways: as a strategy to signal generic particularity; to make commentary on the actions of other body parts; to create dialogic exchange between other faces at the battle event; and to reference facial intertexts from the broader popular culture. </jats:p> http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Dance Research Edinburgh University Press

Hip Hop Battles and Facial Intertexts

Dance Research , Volume 34 (1): 63 – May 1, 2016

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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© 2016 Society for Dance Research
Subject
Media Studies
ISSN
0264-2875
eISSN
1750-0095
DOI
10.3366/drs.2016.0146
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

<jats:p> Hip hop dance battles are organized around a face-to-face danced exchange and, although dancers mobilize a diverse range of facial expression, scarcely any scholarly work addresses the face as a choreographic device. Several scholars, however, have noted that hip hip battles are dialogic or conversational in style, and I assert that dancers strategically employ facial expression to challenge and comment upon their opponents. In this article, I draw on the theory of intertextuality, and in particular Henry Louis Gates's concept of signifyin(g), to show how dancers deploy facial choreography as a mode of embodied articulation. Based on an ethnography of hip hop battles in Philadelphia, I examine the choreography of facial expression in four particular ways: as a strategy to signal generic particularity; to make commentary on the actions of other body parts; to create dialogic exchange between other faces at the battle event; and to reference facial intertexts from the broader popular culture. </jats:p>

Journal

Dance ResearchEdinburgh University Press

Published: May 1, 2016

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