“Shine the light of God in the darkness,” said the pastor.
This may seem like an odd thing to hear at a dance performance, but it was the running theme of the Krump Kings show at the University on Saturday night. The audience watched a good amount of dancing, albeit with Christian undertones woven throughout.
This came as no surprise to fans of the Krump Kings.
Krumping, a form of street dancing characterized by free, expressive and highly energetic moves, is not just a dance style. It is also a belief system.
KRUMP, which stands for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise, focuses heavily on spreading the gospel. And the Krump Kings spent most of the night uplifting God’s praise.
The acronym may seem unwieldy, but the blending of faith and dance was not. The performance was equally split between evangelism and dance, though the dance moves adopted moral and religious qualities. One number discussed how faith in the Lord could help someone fight against peer pressure. Another mimicked a modern retelling of the biblical book of Job, in which Job has everything taken away from him, yet still worships God. The dance version is a little less intense – he doesn’t lose his whole family – he only loses his job at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Krumping itself remains a relative mystery to most. Many associate the expressive dance with an episode of Tyra Banks’ “America’s Next Top Model” that aired last year, though it was technically ‘clowning,’ not krumping. Krumping typically consists of a single dancer who shakes uncontrollably and is surrounded by other dancers who cheer him or her on.
Before Saturday night’s performance the Krump Kings held a workshop where roughly 50 participants learned the krump technique.
It showed; while the dancers wowed the crowd, the audience rose from their seats to start dancing in the aisles.
This infectious excitement reached a fever pitch during the intermission, while two rappers performed, and the crowd devolved into a dance party.
By the end, it was difficult to say what kind of event had just occurred. Was it a dance performance? A sermon? Whatever it was, the message was sent and the dancing was incredible. And most importantly, the crowd loved it.