I. Danse urbaine au Maroc (archives): HM Style VS The BBoys (Casablanca, 1999) 20:01 minutes

In the YouTube video “Danse urbaine au Maroc (archives): HM Style VS The BBoys (Casablanca, 1999)” we see 20 minutes of archival footage of a cypher/battle between two crews: HM Style (HM = Hay Mohammadi in Casablanca) and the Bboys of Casablanca. The uploader only identifies themselves as “Genius” but their channel is full of videos of rap and b-boy archival footage in Morocco that has the text “archives Abkari” overlaid, and there are comments thanking Abkari (in French) for uploading the footage, so we can infer that there is a good chance the channel is run by Moroccan breaking pioneer Hicham Abkari. Hicham Abkari was one of the first adults to build infrastructure for the hip hop, and specifically for the breakdancing, community in Morocco and remains a key figure in the scene. In the New York Times article “Morocco’s D.I.Y. Dance Crews”  Abkari explains why him and his friends first became hip hop practitioners telling writer Aida Alami that “we were first attracted by the music, the appearance of the dancers,... they dressed as they wanted and they looked free. We loved that it was simply an artistic expression free of judgment” (Abkari qtd in Alami). In 1999 he started a dance series at a municipal arts center in downtown Casablanca, the Complexe Culturel Sidi Belyout, as he was the adjunct director of the complex. In her dissertation Kendra Salois quotes him in a 2008 interview where he states that in 1999 “it all began with the first national championship of break dance, conceived in the form of a ‘battle,’ like those that exist, for example, in Germany.... It had contests between different breakdance groups, and, between these battles some rappers would sing. It was truly the beginning, [since] there were not many groups, at such a level for breakdance as for rap” (Cestor 2008, translated by Salois, Pg. 77). We can infer that this video likely was taken at the Complexe Culturel Sidi Belyout right around the beginning of Abkari’s initiative because the video is labeled as taking place in 1999. In the video we first see two levels of audience (one on the ground, one seated on the floor above looking down on the event) surrounding a big open space, cheering as the announcer speaks. There are people sitting on the ground stretching (presumably the crews) one of whom flashes a peace sign at the camera. The music begins and people from both crews take turns for the duration of the twenty minutes going into the spotlighted center in the middle of the room, showing off their moves and challenging the other team. There are judges shown who are taking notes, and the crowd is mostly not visible but their auditory reactions serve as a constant barometer of how the battle is going. The movement is all codified breaking movement, with a clear special interest in tricks like handstands and headspins. At the end the MC gets back on the mic to talk (I don’t speak the language but are presumably wrapping things up/maybe declaring a winner but there is not a big cheer like I would expect from that kind of declaration) and we see the dancers and crowd exit the building, one of whom looks and points into the camera and yells “yeah mothafucka!” which is the only English in the video. This video serves as a primary source into what the first wave of Moroccan breaking looked like and is a great window into the earliest, community-built infrastructure and Abkari’s work. I want to use it in conjunction with Salois’s writing, to talk about the evolution of the landscape of the breaking scene in conjunction with the evolution of neoliberal state policy and compare and contrast it with the Lion’s Crew video and the video of Lil Zoo at the International Breaking competition, which I also discuss here. 

“Danse Urbaine Au Maroc (Archives) : HM Style VS The BBoys (Casablanca, 1999).” YouTube, Genius, 13 Nov. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsJXwwnp0jk.

II. The Lions Crew - Dance Saves Us  Mohammed Bouriri, 28 Aug. 2017, 3:28 minutes

“The Lions Crew - Dance Saves Us,” is a montage video of members of the Lions crew breaking in various urban spaces in Casablanca, both individually and collectively, with the song Not Giving In by British band Rudimental featuring John Newman & Alex Clare overlaid. The song is in English and has a very emotional/sentimental feel to it with lyrics lamenting that the singer lost their heart and soul, but that this time they won’t give in, and is clearly different from the songs the dancers were breaking to because their movement is not synced with the song at all. The title of the video “Dance Saves Us” sends a very clear picture of the message the crew would like to convey, and even without any further explanation the viewers can understands that this video is not simply footage of dancers, it is a statement about these dancers relationship to their art form and how they see it as a form of personal salvation. The fact that the song and title are both in English might suggest that this video is intended for viewing by a Western audience, but certainly reflects the way in which this art form is inextricably linked to the West. The video opens with time-lapsed clips of sites in Casablanca: the ocean, notable architecture, people walking through a plaza, the train, cars driving down a street, pigeons, clotheslines; all markers of their particular urban landscape. The video then is a collection of clips of the men of Lions Crew doing codified breaking movement in five different locations: solos in an outdoor pathway with columns on both sides and what appears to be green festival barricades on the right and group shots in the plaza from the opening shots, on a street corner in a commercial area, in front of a grey building where all members are sitting except for the person dancing and in front of a blue and orange tiled wall with the words “Move Power” graffitied on the left. Their movement consists almost entirely of up-rocks, windmills, freezes, down-rocks and various tricks; they are all very talented, agile breakers with great control that takes years to build. There are multiple moments where one dancer jumps over another and a section at the end where three of the dancers do two eight counts of breaking choreography together and then proceed to execute a complicated stunt of throwing a member/jumping over each other. They also are clearly encouraging each other throughout the video and around 1:07 a couple members do a version of a gesture with their hand that somewhat resembles a finger gun that is very common among street dancers around the U.S. (and seemingly the world) to signify being impressed at something the dancer did/ to tell them that was a good move. I plan to use this source as a primary example of what Moroccan breaking community looks like and how it allows individual Moroccan dancers to enact a sense of physical freedom and personal power. I also will draw connections with this video and Yoriyas work because multiple of Yoriyas photos are of the Lion’s Crew.

“The Lions Crew - Dance Saves Us.” YouTube, Mohammed Bouriri, 28 Aug. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUAQxcOqcNc.

III. Thesis vs Lil Zoo, Red Bull BC One, Nov 4, 2017, 4:38 [Check out the annotation tab on this video for play by play description]
In “Thesis vs Lil Zoo | Quarterfinal | Red Bull BC One World Final 2017,” uploaded by the Redbull BC channel we see two professional break dancers Thesis, from the US (Knuckleheads Cali Crew) and Lil Zoo from Morocco (Lhiba Kingzoo crew) battle for the chance to go to the semifinal of Red Bull BC One. In the description of the video it states that Red Bull BC One is the biggest one-on-one B-Boy competition in the world, explaining that every year, “thousands of dancers across the globe vie for a chance to represent at the World Final. Sixteen B-Boys earn the right to enter into an all-out battle on the Red Bull BC One stage, but only one will be crowned the champion” (video description). The video begins a graphic appearing at the bottom of the screen with both dancers' names, crews and the flags of their countries with VS and Quarter Final written between them. You can see the dancers on either side of the stage, with a clearly large crowd completely surrounding them, two big screens which read “WORLD FINAL AMSTERDAM” delineating the place and occasion behind them and a man in the center of the screen with a mic. The man on the mic motions for both dancers to come close to him as he says “bring it in” once they’re on either side of him he says “You’ve been here before, you know what to do” looks at each dancer and asks “you ready?” before loudly shouting “three rounds, let's battle!” The dancers than separate to opposite sides of the stage while the crowd cheers and the music begins, an unidentified lyric-less song which sounds like the music most people traditionally break to (that being, a song with a breakbeat, horns, super clear percussion). Both dancers prepare themself and then Lil Zoo begins when the intro to the song ends. He begins with a series of toprocks (the codified footwork of breaking before you go to the floor) for two eight counts and then spins to the floor where he begins a series of power moves like mills, headspins, before transitioning into downrocks (he moves too fast to be able to identify exactly how many steps he’s doing in each but he demonstrates his tremendous ability to transition seamlessly between many different footwork patterns in a short amount of time). He then does a one handed freeze on the record scratch, before returning to the floor, doing a pindrop, more downrock and then spinning out of the center into a pose as the eight eight count ends.Thesis then begins, immediately going to the floor for mills and other power moves, a shoulder freeze and then a little threading on his back (which is relatively untraditional), before a series of many freezes in a row. He only dances for seven eight counts before Lil Zoo mimes taking notes on his hand and flips towards Thesis before landing and pointing at him. Thesis then shrugs and pretends to run at Lil Zoo angrily swinging his arms, to which Lil Zoo pretends like he’s going to hit Thesis in the face. They both clearly are doing this in jest/are laughing slightly. Lil Zoo then circles and begins to dance again, and then Thesis does the same. Zoo’s moves all reflect codified breaking movement while Thesis is obviously using primarily breaking elements and techniques but makes shapes that are not as common. They then immediately begin round three. After Zoo goes he clearly mimes to Thesis to take note off of what he just did and then gestures in his face, to which Thesis does a series of more unclear gestures (though the one clearly recognizable one is the hitting of two forearms together which means bite, or that you bit (stole) something in your movement). While Thesis begins Lil Zoo brings a can of Redbull over to his part of the floor and drinks it, and at the end of the round Thesis mimes taking a sip of the drink and then falling back and dying, to which the crowd lets out a big shocked “ooooh!” Thesis then picks up his bottle of water and gestures it to the crowd and both men hold their drinks to the sky. The music cuts out and the dancers hug each other before the announcer brings them back to the center and begins the judging process. There is a panel of five prominent break dancers from different countries sitting in front of a big RedBull BC One logo who each lift up their card with a name on it, three of which say Lil Zoo and two of which say Thesis and so Lil Zoo wins and gets to go on to the next round. 

This video gives us a plethora of information about the ecosystem of international professional breaking and its relationship to global capitalism. Almost everything in the video is branded with the Redbull logo, and many of the comments are jokes about how the producers made Lil Zoo win the moment Thesis dissed the drink by pretending to die from drinking it. I want to use it in conversation with Salois’s analysis that Moroccan youth’s participant in hip hop networks actively creates the conditions for a state-serving neoliberal subjectivity, to extend that conversation past the bounds of physical Morocco to talk about how it also does that within transnational breaking communities. I also want to question what it means politically for a white man from California and a Moroccan man to compete on an international, commercial staged competition judged by five nonBlack judges in an Afro-diasporic artform born out of the struggle of Black and Brown youth in New York against systems of oppression.   

Red Bull BC One (2017). Thesis vs Lil Zoo | Quarterfinal | Red Bull BC One World Final 2017. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYrzsTehlcE [Accessed 7 Dec. 2019].