Via: FayObserver.com
He stretches his face into exaggerated expressions. He contorts his body to the rhythm of the pulsating music. Slowly, Williams transforms into an alter ego he calls “Goblin.”
“Goblin is how I used to be,” said Williams, who is 23. “I used to have a temper and be real disrespectful. Since then, I took all that negative and put it out my personal life and put it in my dance to make me a better person.”
Williams is a krump dancer. Krumping has been considered underground until it hit the mainstream last fall, when a krumper became the first person to make the Top 12 of the Fox reality show “So You Think You Can Dance” – and win.
The timing couldn’t have been better for local dancers such as Williams and LeJuane “Wylstyle” Bowens, who have worked to cultivate the burgeoning krump dancing community in North Carolina. Both have organized dance battles in Clinton and Fayetteville. Now the two have joined forces to help the movement grow.
“We came together to bring something positive to the community as far as the dance and the art form itself, since the arts are a dying breed,” Bowens said.
Williams, who is also the founder of the krump crew Sector 7, said krumping is more than just dancing.
“There’s a deeper meaning behind the dance as far as self-expression, releasing anger,” Williams said. “The letters in krump stand for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise. You can battle and perform, but as long as you’re dancing and glorifying God, it’s not about your tricks, it’s about your spirit.”
Krumping made its debut in Los Angeles in the ’90s, with its roots in another hip-hop dance called clowning. In clowning, performers paint their faces like clowns and dance. Krumping, however, is more raw, spontaneous and rarely – if ever – choreographed.
The dance has been featured in a few movies in the past five years, but it became more known when the 2005 documentary, “Rize,” hit movie theaters. Krumping stepped into the forefront again when Russell Ferguson joined “So You Think You Can Dance.”
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