krumping

[Benjamin Zimmer]

I'm surprised this one hasn't come up here or on doubletongued.org...
This year's Sundance Film Festival features "Rize", David LaChapelle's
documentary about the "krumping" dance style (LaChapelle directed a short
called "Krumped" that played at Sundance last year). See:
<http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/01/27/rize/>.


* krumping, n.

2004 _NY Times_ 21 Jan. (Arts) 1 (Nexis) His quick, excitable mode of
speaking is similar to krumping, the whip-quick dancing of his subjects
that includes bits of hip-hop and pantomime martial-arts movement. ... "I
got to be there before krumping became a Burger King commercial, before it
started getting used in videos," he said. "You can see krumping in the
OutKast video, where the kids are dancing and breaking into it while
wearing tuxedos."

2004 _MTV News_ 23 Apr. (online) We've gotten a potent dosage of clown
dancing — or krumping, as it's called — in videos such as Missy Elliott's
"I'm Really Hot" and the Black Eyed Peas "Hey Mama." ... The dance form
eventually evolved into what he calls krumping. "Krumping is when you're
dancing and your body is doing a lot of different moves," Tommy explained.

2004 _Independent_ (London) 27 Apr. 14 (Nexis) Another artist who will be
arriving next week is Tommy the Clown, one of the stars of the current
underground movement in Los Angeles, "krumping", which is taking over
inner-city neighbourhoods.

2004 _Plain Dealer_ (Cleveland) 1 Jul. F1 (Nexis) Johnson sees krumping as
a creative, "happy" way for teens to express themselves. There are no set
moves to krumping, which is done at a hyperfast speed and mixes
herky-jerky break-dance and martial-arts-style moves with spasmodic booty
shaking. "It's freestyle; we go with the flow," says Johnson, who coined
the term krumping.

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) The allure of krumpin', a furiously
energetic street dance unique to South Los Angeles, is its no-holds-barred
physicality, its encouragement of improvisation and its unexpected and
imaginative use of theatrical face paint. ... With Tommy's encouragement,
Dragon and some of the troupe's best dancers, including 'Lil C, split off
to form a group of their own, incorporating elements of break-dancing,
karate and pantomime, as well as an undercurrent of very grown-up
aggression. They named their new style krumpin'.


* krump, v.

2004 _Independent_ (London) 27 Apr. 14 (Nexis) Some of Tommy's dancers
were krumping in Christina Aguilera's video for "Dirty".

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) Daisy is 14 years old, with red tennis
shoes, pigtails and a broad, sweet face that, when she's krumpin', becomes
suddenly lean and cat-like, beautiful in the fierce manner of Egyptian
queens. "It all comes out when I'm krumpin'," she says. "Everything that
frustrates me and hurts me, it all comes out. I'm angry when I'm krumpin',
but when I'm done, it's all good. When I'm done, I'm calm." ... "We're all
of the same tree, but we're different branches," says a 19-year-old
clowner named Rocco. "If we're krumpin', it's more aggressive. If we're
clownin', it's more happy and go-lucky. There's a style for every mood."


* krumping, attrib.

2004 _MTV News_ 23 Apr. (online) The krumping era just may be upon us.
"The clowning and the krumping dance movement, it is a very positive thing
because it really does keep kids off the streets," krumping originator
Thomas Johnson, a.k.a. Tommy the Clown, explained in Los Angeles recently.

2004 _Plain Dealer_ (Cleveland) 1 Jul. F1 (Nexis) Johnson, who recently
completed a krumping workshop in England, is hoping to take his show on
the road. He wants to set up krumping classes in other cities and is in
talks for a TV program.

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) Once you've watched Daisy in a krumpin'
competition, this catharsis comes as no surprise. ... As more and more
clownin' and krumpin' groups began to form through the late '90s, Tommy
sensed a hunger for some healthy competition between the crews. ... As
Miss Prissy says this, a round of cheers marks the end of Daisy's second
krumpin' session of the day.


* krumped, ppl. adj.

2004 _NY Times_ 21 Jan. (Arts) 1 (Nexis) "Apparently the word krumped goes
back a long ways, from the black church," Mr. LaChappelle said. "When
you're krumped, you're feeling it. It's about being brave and doing
something with grace."

2004 _NY Arts_ Mar./Apr. (online) When a person is said to be "Krumped"
they are dancing the most intense form of a dance called "Clowning". ...
"[I]f you're in that zone, if you're being brave, you're not
intellectualizing and you're just flowing, you’re doing your thing and
just creating – then you're 'Krumped'. That's why you're probably going to
be hearing this term, it's going to become part of the vernacular."

2004 _Financial Times_ 1 May 12 (Nexis) Most of the moves are practised
and rehearsed, but when a dancer is "krumped" (completely engrossed), he
or she will perform moves that are purely improvisational.

2004 _Dance_ Jul. (online) "Getting krumped" is the state in which a
dancer feeds off the energy of the audience, the other participants, the
music, and his or her own adrenaline until the movement grows theatrical,
inventive, and sometimes cathartic.


* krump, n.

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) As 'Lil C puts it, grinning: "The dance
floor is our canvas, and krump is our 'Mona Lisa.'"


* krump, attrib.

2004 _NY Arts_ Mar./Apr. (online) You go to the Krump sessions and there's
not one other person there taking pictures. ... I looked at Krump Dancing
as a valid art form.

2004 _Independent_ (London) 27 Apr. 14 (Nexis) Tommy and the Hip Hop
Clowns' krump dancing and hip-hop clowning demonstrations over the weekend
are set to shake up the normally measured conservatism of Sadler's Wells.
"It will be explosive," promises Tommy, the Clown who is bringing over 11
krump practitioners.


* krump, adj. (= "krumped")

2004 _Independent_ (London) 27 Apr. 14 (Nexis) "I started saying "He's
getting krump" when a dancer was getting really busy with the dance
moves," he says about his hyper version of clown dancing (a blend of
hip-hop dancing and traditional party clowning) "but it is more athletic,
more adult."

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) "You can't be krump unless you're pure,
unless you truly believe in yourself." ... "You have to be born krump, you
have to be in a krump state of mind."


* krumpness, n.

2004 _NY Arts_ Mar./Apr. (online) The thing about "Krumpness" this term
that they use is it is not just for the dancers; it's not just Krump
dancing. They say this in the film - "Krumpness", can be applied to your
everyday life.

2004 _Dance_ Jul. (online) As Dragon, a dancer featured in Krumped,
describes it, "Krumpness is an abstraction of your inner being."

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) "Krumpness," explains Miss Prissy, a
whip-thin 23-year-old and one of the original female krumpers, "is an
attitude. You can see my story when I dance. There’s a lot going on down
here in South Central that’s hard. There are homes being disrupted by
violence, and a lot of people do drugs to deal with that, or they drink.
Instead of doing that, we dance." ... "It's a real tribal movement," she
says quietly. "It's hip-hop in its raw form; it's the meat before it's on
the grill. That's what krumpness is, and that's how we give it to you,
every time. ... Krumpness changes every day, and I think that's what's
going to make it stick around."


* krumper, n.

2004 _Financial Times_ 1 May 12 (Nexis) By then, he had renamed his group
Tommy and the Hip Hop Clowns. Now they're called Tommy the Clown and the
Hip Hop Krumpers.

2004 _Plain Dealer_ (Cleveland) 1 Jul. F1 (Nexis) Not only do krumpers
frenetically dance like clowns, they look like them, too.

2004 _Dance_ Jul. (online) The krumpers are young and work hard.

2004 _LA Times_ 21 Aug. E1 (Nexis) She and several similarly adorned
krumpers have gathered in the parking lot... Interspersed among the
krumpers is another group of dancers, the clowners, so named for their
colorful carnival gear -- baggy patchwork pants, faces decorated with
bright mosaics of circus greasepaint. Where the krumpers are tribal in
their choice of makeup, the clowners have opted for a look reminiscent of
turn-of-the-century vaudeville.


* krumpy, adj.

2004 _Independent_ 27 Apr. 14 (Nexis) "It all kicked off when we started
to get all krumpy at weekends," explains Tommy the Clown, who has been up
all night at a party.



--Ben Zimmer