London b-boy Jonzi D elevates hip-hop to a higher level by adding a theatrical element to the genre.
Tonight, the chance to see Jonzi D's take on hip-hop will be at El Rey. He is known throughout London for his unique style, and has toured with artists like the Roots and Jeru tha Damaja.
While in town for the Revolutions Theatre Festival, the graduate of the London Contemporary Dance School stopped by Karen Price's beginning hip-hop dance class at UNM to show students the ways of an east London b-boy.
"Whenever I tour, I give educational programs," Jonzi D said. "It's a detailed way into the methods of my practice."
He told the class he had been a part of the hip-hop scene since the '80s, but as he learned more about ballet, he realized he was pretty good at it.
"I am wearing lycra and doing ballet during the day," he said. "And in the evening, I am wearing baggy trousers and doing rap. All the while I am realizing I need to do both."
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Jonzi D guided the hip-hop dance class through a workshop that taught the students to write a rhyme, and then perform it through dance.
"He really got everybody thinking," Zoe Meyer, a student in the class said. "I think I learned something, but it was really subtle. He wasn't slapping you in the face with it. He combined the two so well that you couldn't even tell you were doing hip-hop and theater - you were just doing it."
Jonzi D's performance tomorrow is titled "Lyrikal Fearta" and is a combination of spoken word, break dancing, turntablism and theatrical dance. The topics include police brutality and cultural displacement among others.
When he first started, he said critics were skeptical of his work.
"The very hardcore hip-hop heads were very strict about what hip-hop is," he said. "Some almost feel like it compromises what artists do. But I personally think that we compromise what we do once we get that record deal."
This is one of the reasons why Jonzi D, who is a prominent emcee, has yet to release any of his work on an album.
"Very early on I struggled with what it means to be an emcee and what it means to be in the music industry," he said. "The whole freedom of expression that I get through dance is incomparable to what - from what I know about the music industry - I would get through the industry."
In theater, Jonzi D said there are no compromises whatsoever. He said he believes the components of hip-hop lend themselves to theater.
"I think that hip-hop and contemporary theater are made for each other," he said. "In a play, you've got scenery that makes the stage beautifully lit. And in hip-hop you've got a deejay onstage, beautifully lit."
After touring the world and meeting b-boys and girls in every town he goes to, Jonzi D said hip-hop in London is very different from the American version.
"It's bigger here," he said. "Because there isn't as much of a commercial angle on rap music in England, in a funny way there is more of a deep culture of hip-hop. We understand hip-hop from all of its components."
In the future, Jonzi D would like to establish a theater production company to aid hip-hop artists who also want to do theater.
"I want to entrench myself in the development of hip-hop theater," he said. "I think hip-hop is moving in circles, and since a lot of people are critical of hip-hop already, theater would be a really good way to experience it."
Who: Jonzi D
When: Tonight, 7:30 p.m.
Where: El Rey Theatre
624 Central Ave.
Price: $10 students, $15 adults
Tickets
& Info: 764-2624
