Talking about KRUMPED: An Interview with David LaChappelle – Rita Michel

Talking about KRUMPED: An Interview with David LaChappelle

Rita Michel

A dreamer suddenly creating a documentary, in KRUMPED he lets us witness dance energy so powerful that the little film immediately created an intense “word-of-mouth buzz” throughout Park City. When a person is said to be “Krumped” they are dancing the most intense form of a dance called “Clowning”. “Clowning” is a highly individualized dance routine with face paint. The Los Angeles ex-gang teens that originated this amazing dance-art form paint their faces and then proceed to engage in accelerated dance movements that look as if they’re having some kind of passionate fit. The dance evolves and grows daily. If you missed it yesterday – you are out of the loop.

NYARTS: The thing I liked most about this documentary is the spirit. I saw an African dance troop a few years ago at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York City. I walked out of BAM with the same feeling I had watching KRUMPED, as if dance had evoked some long ago spirits and bought them to life.

LACHAPELLE: Really!

NYARTS: Wonderful characters were highlighted in the film from the little 4 year old girl doing the “Stripper” dance to the lead Krump dancer with the pierced lower lip…

LACHAPELLE: Little C…

NYARTS: He could have been a host for MTV Cribs; he was so articulate…

LACHAPELLE: …and handsome and just real self possessed; he was a star.

NYARTS: What did you as a director do to help that spirit come through in the documentary?

LACHAPELLE: I think it was about intention; what I intended to do with this project. My first thoughts when I saw them dance – they were called “Stripper” dancers back then, the brothers (LaChapelle’s producers) showed me these kids …they thought we’d put them in a video or something, but when I saw them I said I wanted to do a documentary. We just started talking and these guys (the Krump dancers) blew me away. I never wanted to make a documentary but this had to be documented and I felt like I had been given a gift to do this. I felt like I’d been privileged and as I shined the light on them by putting in the spotlight I’m the one that’s been enlightened about a lot of things. I think our intention was so pure when we went into this that they just trusted us immediately. If you go to any extreme sport event or any skateboard ramp in Los Angeles, you have Hollywood and there are like hundreds of people with cameras all making documentaries, all making stills or whatever. You go to the Krump sessions and there’s not one other person there taking pictures. I was the only one. Artists want to share their work. They don’t want to sing in the shower. There was that…that they were waiting for someone.

We went there not to exploit something or to do a reality show or trendy novelty act. I looked at Krump Dancing as a valid art form. I didn’t go in there to look at the poor little ghetto children making their way in the world. They are heros to me, they’re Olympians, they are artists. I love dance, and I have a huge love and appreciation for dancers. When you meet someone… it’s in the air… you know what their intentions are. Before when this was just a seed we decided that if ever there was going to be any money made off of this – which now there is a possibility – it would go back into that community; we’re not going to make a profit from it at all.

NYARTS: I was excited also because I felt like I was at the beginning something. I got in on the ground floor. I saw this documentary and immediately I called – I have a cousin who is on the top radio station in Houston, Texas. Robert Jr., Are they doing Krump dancing out there? He said no, what’s that? I said ask around. Then I called my son in New York he’s seventeen – Spanky are they doing Krump dancing in New York? He said no. What’s that? So I know this is the beginning and it’s going to spread.

LACHAPELLE: That’s why I feel that I was given this…because I was around when break dancing first happened in New York. I was in awe of these guys, Crazy Legs and the Rock Steady Crew (break dancing group out of New York) but I saw that whole thing become commercial, so quickly. My friend was a manager for Rock Steady and it just…it became a Burger King commercial. What I feel privileged about is we got to spend a year with these kids before it became adulterated. We know we have the beginning and it will be part of hip-hop history and part of black history and film history and dance history.

NYARTS: The kids have so much energy. Were they interested in becoming a part of the filming process?

LACHAPELLE: I think they were interested in performing for a camera, which they knew was a window into a wider world. They knew the kind of work that I did; they knew that it was serious. It helped me, the fact that I’d done videos that they saw me on MTV, that gave me a credibility with them they knew this wasn’t a joke.

When they first saw the documentary and we came back to show subsequent footage, they really got more excited and they thought about their lives and what they were doing and why they were doing it; they became even more articulate. Before, I would hear people talk about ghettos and I’d think ‘just get on with it (life)’ but when I spent time there and really realized that poverty means there no opportunity… I had art programs thrown at me when I was a kid. They don’t have any art programs.

NYARTS: But somehow these kids created their own art form…they contextualized a natural phenomenon.

LACHAPELLE: The thing about “Krumpness” this term that they use is it is not just for the dancers; it’s not just Krump dancing. They say this in the film – “Krumpness”, can be applied to your everyday life. They call me a “Krump Photographer” what that means is you can be a “Krump Journalists”, you can be a “Krump Jewelry Designer”, if you’re in that zone, if you’re being brave, you’re not intellectualizing and you’re just flowing, you’re doing your thing and just creating – then you’re “Krumped”. That’s why you’re probably going to be hearing this term, its going to become part of the vernacular.

NYARTS: If you do just look at the dancing the movements are reminiscent of an abstract painting. If the dancing were in a frame, and people were standing around looking at it from different angles they would be seeing different things, it is truly art in 3-D.

LACHAPELLE: …and with the addition of the face paint that they put on. A lot of these kids have not been exposed to African art at all but it’s in their blood. The girls doing the dots, they don’t remember seeing pictures of that, they’re just attracted to the dots. They don’t know why. The boys are doing asymmetrical face painting with stars. They’re doing pure African face paint, war paint, tribal paint they’re doing it without even knowing. I’ve been to their houses, their parents don’t have African art books or National Geographic lying around, there’s “THE LITTLE MERMAID” and other DVDs. They’re getting it from their ancestors: the circles, the pantomime and the storytelling through dance; its just in them.