- The New Forbidden Dance
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- Crip Walking - or "C-Walking" - is the latest
dance trend to achieve outlaw status, after several Los Angeles high schools
banned it for its gang connotations.
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- "We have a talent show tonight; obviously there's
no Crip Walking at our talent show," said Debora Schneider, assistant
principal at Manual Arts High School, which has banned the dance on campus
and at school events.
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- "It's all in the name of safety," she said.
"The Crip Walk does have gang signs affiliated with it."
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- No one disputes that the dance originated with the Crips,
a violent street gang that appeared in Los Angeles in the early 1970s.
The C-Walk's jittery stutter-step combination of foot pivots and shuffles
were on display at gang celebrations more than 20 years ago, experts say.
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- But in recent years, the Crip Walk has exploded in popularity,
worrying school officials in gang-ridden areas.
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- Manual Arts High School, in South-Central Los Angeles,
has long had to contend with gang problems. For years, the school has forbidden
gang colors ó blue for the Crips and red for the Bloods.
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- "If you go to a spot where the Bloods are and you
do the Crip walk, you are going to get shot," said Abdul Rahman, a
student at Crenshaw High School, which also banned the dance.
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- 'No Gang Clothes, No Gang Moves'
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- Officials feel it is crucial to keep the school free
of gang symbols ó whether on a T-shirt or on the dance floor.
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- "We don't allow any kind of gang stuff," said
Manual Arts' principal, Ed Robillard. "In terms of dress codes at
school, we don't allow red or blue shoelaces Ö We ban ball caps."
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- Several other area schools, including Crenshaw and Washington
Prep, have taken similar measures.
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- Not everyone is convinced the Crip Walk is a serious
threat.
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- "It is like a clown thing that they do nowadays
so I don't see what's wrong with doing the C-Walk or whatever you all want
to call it," said Deandre Turner, a Crenshaw student.
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- "It's a little bit of hysteria, it's a little bit
of paranoia," said Alejandro Alonso, a doctoral candidate at the University
of Southern California who studies gangs.
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- "If it was called the boogie-woogie walk, nobody
would care."
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- He compares it to other gang customs, like wearing low-riding
baggy pants, that became mainstream teen fashions.
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- Alonso believes someone performing the Crip Walk would
be in little danger from gang members ó despite dire anonymous warnings
circulating on the Internet.
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- "If he's not a member, people in today's climate
will understand it," he said.
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- Warnings and Complaints About Rising Popularity
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- On some message boards, readers are warned "u don't
do [it] unless u bang or represent the crips," or "if your doin
tha cwalk or bwalk on tha streets and some reaaal crips or blooodz sees
you doin it you eitha gonna get clowned on or get shot."
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- Most messages about the Crip Walk complain about its
growing popularity.
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- "Guys are C-walkin it up in Seattle catholic schools
now. its losin its purpose," one message board user laments.
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- "The C-walk is a trendy dance for college kids and
posers," another chimes in.
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- The dance's growth in popularity came after a rapper
named WC performed it in a music video several years ago. Recently it has
appeared in other popular videos and in the lyrics of rap songs by Snoop
Dogg, a former Crips member, and Xzibit.
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- C-Walking competitions have sprung up in hip-hop dance
clubs scattered around the country.
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- Besides the dance's lurid origins, the difficulty of
the Crip Walk and the potential to add original moves to it may have added
to its broad appeal.
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- "I think it's also kind of a challenge ó
it looks cool whether you're part of a gang or not," admitted Schneider,
the assistant principal at Manual Arts High. "It's a complicated dance."
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- The dance's basic move is simple, however. It alternates
between touching heels, with your toes apart, and touching your toes together,
with your heels spread apart. From there, dancers add a series of spins
and pivots on the balls of their feet.
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- Related dances, such as the Harlem Shake and heel-to-toe,
have sprung up in other parts of the country.
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- The Crip Walk is hardly the first controversial dance
to confront school officials and parents. The tango first appeared in the
seedy underworld of late-1800s Argentina before becoming a popular mainstream
dance. Some historians say the polka and the waltz were originally considered
scandalous because couples danced too close together.
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- In the 1980s, "dirty dancing" and the Lambada
ó a Brazilian dance ó were deemed too risquÈ for many.
And today many schools are banning "freaking" or "grinding"
ó dance moves with overt sexual connotations.
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- Crenshaw High School's principal, Isaac Hammond, said
the Crip Walk is ultimately too dangerous to permit at the school.
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- "We will let them know that if they are caught doing
that then they are going to be suspended from school, because it is for
their own safety."
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