Origins
Since the spontaneous rise and propagation of Liquid throughout the rave culture in the 1980s and early 1990s, the root origins of the dance have ultimately remained a source of contention between both those involved directly with the dance as well as those outside of the immediate culture. In fact, even the time frame is difficult to pinpoint. Sightings of the dance range all the way back to the early and mid 1970s. While some argue that the dance evolved spontaneously from combining elements in the rave culture, others still contend that the dance is merely an extension of existing ideas from other art forms. Scores of these artists (Funk Stylists, Glowstickers Contact Jugglers, Mimes, & The Unknown) attended raves regularly all throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In the wake of the decline of the original rave scene, liquid has become a standing part of a worldwide club culture and the underground street dancing movement.
B-boys and funk stylists generally contend that liquid dancing is a development of waving, a technique in popping. Liquid dancing covers many of the same fundamentals as popping and it is fully possible (and common) for dancers to combine the styles, further blurring the distinction between the two. The defining difference is liquid dancing concentrating on smooth movements while popping is characterized by jerky pops (hits) and contractions.
In 2000, a group of liquid dancers from throughout the northeastern United States formed the Liquid Pop Collective (LPC). The name later caused some confusion since some thought the LPC did a dance called "liquid popping" but the name was chosen because many members did both liquid and popping. In Philadelphia, they began performing at events run by Reflective Multimedia, a collective of DJs and visual artists. After performing for a bit, they noticed other people in the clubs who they did not know starting to do liquid and digits. Before this, those that were interested in liquid generally knew each other. The LPC was concerned that these newcomers to the dance did not have anyone teaching them. They thought about how funk styles flourished without any direct teachers and came to the conclusion that they needed to develop a standard vocabulary for the dance. Around this time, the LPC put a video (now available on YouTube) of one of the members, Eric, liquid dancing on Napster. The video spread and people wanted to learn the dance. So, the LPC decided to make an instructional video by the name of All Access Liquid and Digitz, Volume 01 (no other volumes were made) which defined the concepts that are the foundation of liquid and digits and had performances of four members. They sold about 2000 VHS tapes through their now-defunct website lpclabs.com and shipped to all over the world. LPC has since disbanded, though the instructional components are available at http://www.youtube.com/darkmattersquad
Read more about this topic: Liquid And Digits
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)