What is What

The Doc is titled CRUTCH Its been a long time coming.

Above: Finally pulled off a freeze ( "Crossed-Lean Freeze from Shannon Technique" out of a flare.@ 0:14 Not the prettiest flare ever but sticking the end makes it postable. Been trying to come out of flares for years with something that is more dynamic than just putting my feet down.

My plate is full this year with multiple ongoing projects. The Rex "project" mentioned below several months ago has stabilized after 6 months of staggeringly little sleep ( or awake-ness ) and I am happy to share with you that the Rexy continues to payoff in a myriad of very small beautiful ways and I am BACK!

ABOVE: Limited Edition Lithographic Print by Bill Shannon, "I Will Dance With Strangers" 2012 I have ten of these for sale.

My dance family in NYC has been on the forefront of merging house dance and bboying flavors in dynamic and ever shifting ways since the 90's. It saddens me to share with you, my fans and followers that recently we lost one of our members B-Ill. Ths is a dancer who I had featured in a stage production called "Sketchy". The Fénz family gathered for Sketchy were veteran Step-Fénz and the next generation of the crew The X-Fénz. B-Ill represented the cutting edge of a new breakin style called "circus style" for Sketchy. B-Ill was also a featured dancer during a Maker Faire presentation in NYC I gave last year. In both events he delivered crowd pleasing and astounding moves. This video shows B-Ill presenting his "Circus Style" of dance in a rare backstage look at cast of Sketchy. I remember these days of building with the crew fondly and I always will. RIP B-Ill it was an honor to work with you.

ABOVE: Video footage of B-Ill participating in my stage production Sketchy featuring multiple generations of the Fénz Family

CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO READ MY INTERVIEW ON VEGANSKATEBLOG.COM

ABOVE: Custom Skateboard Paintjob @ Parade Starting Point /Photo by THOS

NYC DANCE PARADE 2012 was a fun and exhausting affair. I danced every block two or three times using my skateboard to exhibit my Step-N-Roll Flavor. I cannot really decide on how to title the form. Is it Stepping-Roll, Steppin-Roll or Step-N-Roll .. These are the kind of decisions I am not very good at making. Tons more images after the jump

ABOVE: The crowded floor of Sullivan Room opens up just enough for me to squeeze in a few choice steps but the powder on the floor makes the crutch tips slide around so much that I would lose control. For those of you following my blog you may remember a previous post about Juste Debout France plastic floor with seams.

There will always be those select house dancers that love to throw down their powder and get their groove on, slipping and sliding around with an extra touch of smoothness coming from the baby powder dusted floor surface. While recently out on the town in NYC I went to hear the amazingly talented Ian Friday spin at Sullivan Room as part of the long running Thursday Night Global Soul Dance Party, Libations. While hanging out warming up and just enjoying the music I felt the amount of powder on the floor was making it a bit dangerous for me to do anything beyond the most conservative two step. In the pictoral sequence after the jump you will see my solution to this powder floor problem as taken from ramp skaters who mopped their entire ramps with a coke/water mix to get the masonite dust out of their kinetic equation. While I too have applied the same idea to entire stages when too dusty for a show a club is a bit different in that you might get kicked out if you are caught dousing the floor in Jack and Cokes. Thus for clubs I switch out mopping the entire dance floor with a coke/water mix to making a small area of the floor my tip and shoe sticky zone by pouring the liquid onto a napkin in an out of the way location that doesnt get cleaned up too quickly.

 

ABOVE: Dance Delight Magazine Cover Shot 1999 This came out right when I was first hitting New York hip-hop and jungle clubs. Basically I went wherever the circle was alive. Eventually I discovered how crazy the Club Shelter Circles were under Robbie Promoter with Timmy and many other stellar house Dj's. Up until Shelter I was never that much into house music but progressive vocal house was a whole new world. So danceable and Funky.

click thru for the interview

THISISWHATISWHATIS

 

 

---

 

ABOVE: interview in Japanese

ABOVE: Video Documentation of TRAFFIC from my trilogy of street works that are designed to preserve the authenticity of my interactions with pedestrians, crowds and traffic in the street.  The " ticketed" audience rides along for direct observation of me in the street as I work with whatever situation comes along, be it kinetic sociological or stylistic. Chicago Trib review and more after the jump

thisiswhatiswhat

ABOVE: A Sweeper-Kickout Crossed-Up Heel-Hold No-Handed Rotation performed in Helsinki in the year 2002. A highly technical combination move that is near impossible to pull off beyond a 360. A progression from Sweepers combined with the kickout and heel-hold moves.

ABOVE: A video laying out the basics of Shannon Technique recorded around 5 years ago. I need to upres this on Vimeo but in the meantime its really all about the content.

Credits:

Concept: Bill Shannon, Production Bevis Evans-Teush, Camera Dave Burns, Production Assistant Clyde Jones
Special Thanks: Heather Lynch, Leah Lizarondo and Iffith

ABOVE: A video of The Sweeper-Spin (starts at :09) edited to show progression from Standard Sweeper. ( see Introduction to Shannon Technique for context )  The move reflects technical progression by way of physical limitation. For more writing about this lopsided progression of my dance Clik " read more" below.

ABOVE: This is a still of me communing with a canine audience member in Pittsburgh a few years back. Posting this up because I am looking forward to my European street performances coming up this spring 2011.

This is Stepping Roll. I created the root of this form to simply walk long distances while living in Chicago. The skating depicted in this video is me pushing the boundaries of what I am capable of and not an everyday type of activity for me. I do want to get this style on tape and uploaded for the world to enjoy and hopefully adopt. So clik thru for the background info.

ABOVE: My go at the Juste Debout Prelims in "Experiemental" category. For Experimental they will play randomn music to challenge the interpretation instead of house, funk or breaks.

- a slipping crutch tip can undermine your every move-

ABOVE: a worn crutch tip. sourced from an automotive supply store its a greenline brand high pressure coolant hose

 

cipher session  House Dance Conference 2004  New York City