Some of Albuquerque’s dancers are break dancing while breaking down stereotypes.
Sisterz of the Underground is an all-female break dancing and hip-hop group founded in San Francisco 10 years ago. The Albuquerque chapter, founded by Cassaundra “Sassy” Bustamante, started just last May.
Group member and CNM student Jordyn Gutierrez said the group tries to reach out to younger women through its performances, one of which is a calendar release party at Warehouse 508 this Saturday.
Gutierrez said pop culture can have a negative effect on kids, and hip-hop could help if it didn’t have such a bad reputation in the media.
“(A) perfect example is Britney Spears,” Gutierrez said. “If we could show little girls they can be cool by breaking instead of shaking their booties, I would feel accomplished. What I hope audience members gain is that hip-hop isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing, and we come together as a unit without violence, to express ourselves positively and creatively.”
Group member Helin “La Mooxie” Montgomery said the group is hip-hop focused, but dabbles in a variety of artistic media.
“It’s not just spray painting. It’s expressing yourself in a hip-hop kind of way,” she said. “Even outside of hip-hop. We have a fire dancer in our group. We have graffiti artists. We have DJs, MCs and photographers. The only requirement is that you have to be female.”
Montgomery said many of the dancers grew up break-dance battling each other in high school, so an intense animosity developed, especially between female dancers.
“No one was ever like, ‘Let’s get together and go out of town and battle these cats,’” she said. “Now, finally, everybody’s like, ‘Okay we’re over a lot of this stuff.’ There’s hardly any girls anyway, so why are we hating each other?”
SOTU unites the community’s break dancers, while giving back as well. All the proceeds from the group’s upcoming shows will be donated to Warehouse 508 and Young Women United, a local community for women of color. Most of the dancers were part of the Albuquerque hip-hop scene before gravitating to the group. Group member Natane “Soula” Lim said she took up the dance style because of the freedom it allows.
“I hated jazz. I tried tap. I tried ballet. My mom put me in gymnastics, and I hated all of them,” Lim said. “They were too girly, or they were like, ‘Do this. You have to practice the same move every single day,’ and breaking was free. It was open. You could be who you wanted to be in the dance. You didn’t have to look like somebody else. You could be yourself.”
Lim, a Chicago-native and a preschool teacher, said she had seen break dancers in Chicago but wasn’t inspired to start until she saw a battle at the Sunshine Theater when she was visiting Albuquerque for the Gathering of Nations Powwow.
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“I came back, and my brother and I just set up our garage with a slab of linoleum that was super small,” she said. “We gangster-ed it from somebody down the street, and I was like, ‘We’re just going to train together.’”
Bustamante said Albuquerque has a unique but strong hip-hop community.
“People from bigger cities are just like robots,” she said. “They see people in videos on Youtube, and they’re just trying to mimic them. They’re wearing the same clothes. Around here, we all have our own style. We use a lot of native steps that they use in Native (American) dancing. The whole style is really Native-influenced.”
Montgomery said the dancers present themselves as role models.
“That’s reflected in the calendar pictures,” she said. “Nobody is like half-naked, with body pieces popping off.”
Saturday’s event includes a dance performance, a gallery showing of Montgomery’s photography, a video presentation, vendors and the release of the group’s new calendar, which features each group member somewhere on the UNM campus and all the proceeds will benefit Warehouse 508 and Young Women United.
Bustamante said anyone is welcome to check out the group, even if they have no previous experience. They have an open dance session at Warehouse 508 every Thursday from 6-8:30 p.m.
B-Girl 2012 Calendar Release Party
Saturday, 6-9 p.m.
Warehouse 508
508 First Street N.W.
