New Obsession: Krump

I began taking advantage of the free hip hop class offered by a guy at church mid-February.  I've not been the best, but I've had great fun and didn't do too shabby during our performance (which you can see here).  Two months ago, we deviated from hip hop into straight krump.  We watched the documentary Rize, figured out the basics, and let our creativity run rampant through the chest pops, arm swings, and stomps.  I really liked hip hop, but this is something else.

I'm serious about krump.  I've had different hobbies, and I've wanted to be good in all of them, but there's something burning in this one.  Maybe it's the competition the guys in class give me.  Maybe it's the pull to be one good white girl krumper among the Asian males I'm with here.  I was skeptical and scared at the beginning, but now I can't get enough. I've called this a new obsession, but "obsession" implies "trendy" and "passing."  I've been looking up krump crews in other countries and planning out how much time it would take to keep this up and to get better once I return to the States.  This is going to last.

Krump is freedom.  Freedom with my body.  Expression, sure, that's what most people say, but that's not what comes to my mind.  To me it is the essence of creativity, calculated creativity, within this mad wild style of dance.  There are the three basic moves I mentioned, but then you can bring in and tweak and twist and stylize everything to make it krump.  I love that.  You can think of stories and tell them through krump.  You can use ideas from hip hop and hammer them into hard cut precision.  Everything can be taken and used.  My imagination is unlimited here, and then comes the tricky part, the part that makes you proud, the part that you work for: turning that creativity into something that looks sick.

 My teacher learned krump from the best crew in Korea some of whom are the best in the world. The members of Woo Fam have become my krump idols.  My teacher's show us loads of their videos, had us study their ways, and even had us do a 6 hour night practice session like the Woo Fam did when they were starting. Bucky and Kid Monster are my favorites, but the whole gang is so fly.  My teacher's trying to get us into one of Woo Fam's lessons or sessions, and I'm buffing up my Sharpie pen so I can get signatures.

Here are some of my favorites of their sessions.

I am, by the way, working on compiling a video of myself krumping.  I'll post that when I get it.  Then you will be exposed to the budding amateur that is Kid Darkness aka Linja.  See?  I've even got a krump identity.