LaChapelle’s Documentary Rize Chronicles Dance Movement in L.A.

The documentary film Rize(currently playing in limited release) tells the entertaining and at times heart breaking story of young African Americans trying to break out of their difficult lives on the streets of South Central Los Angeles.

Using dance as a means of expression and as a way to flee the omnipresent street gangs, the featured dancers move their bodies to an internal beat borne from their African ancestors. David LaChapelle, a world renowned celebrity photographer, captures the growth of the explosive dance forms known as “clowning” and “krumping”.

The viewer first meets the king of L.A. clowning, a heroic teacher named Tommy Johnson a/k/a Tommy the Clown. As a means of expressing his anger over the Rodney King riots, Tommy took moves emanating from African tribal rituals, added clown make-up and athleticism and built a movement with some fifty clown groups in existence in L.A. Instead of joining the Crips or the Bloods (two gangs), these young people dream of becoming part of a clown group and entertaining at birthday parties and street fairs.

As with any movement, members subsequently took the elements of clowning and developed their own successive style known as ‘krumping’. LaChapelle takes us into the world of the krumps and we are witness to the unique rivalry between competing krumpers. In small homes and apartments across South Central, young people dance at high speeds, moving their bodies in incomprehensible ways while expressing their sadness and rage.

For these young people, krumping and clowning has become their life, who they truly are and who they dream of becoming. As one feature performer states, “Krumping is our ghetto ballet. It is implanted in us.” The unique nature of the dance form is highlighted in the yearly “Battle Zone” where clowns and krumps battle it out on stage in front of thousands – a choreographed fight to the finish.

A feeling of discomfort comes on when you watch Miss Prissy and rival La Nina engage one another in the “strippers” dance while the audience screams for their favorite – do these girls want to hurt one another? The feeling dissipates when, after Miss Prissy wins hands down, the girls reach out and hug one another. It is a moment when the power of creativity to change swords into plows is realized.

LaChapelle does not judge those he documents but rather bears witness to their lives. Rizeis not simply a documentary about an art form; it is a social statement on the lives of young African Americans in the inner cities of America. These dancers must wake up each day and fend off the violence around them to “rize” above through dance. Fervent in their desire to be seen as positive role models, these dancers are warriors on the front lines in their communities. The film allows us to see that even in the worst of circumstances art can help change the world in which we live.