A BEAUTIFUL QUEST FOR A BODY IMPOSSIBLE
A dancer called Storyboard P set out to create a whole new form of dance. Flex is an innovative form of street dance that calls for a dancer’s body to things we never knew a body could do.
Story, as the dancer is now called, aimed to create a new portfolio of movements that each individually astonished and collectively enchanted.
Combining earlier streetdance genres, including breakdancing, popping, voguing, and krump, Flex is lyrical, gestural, and, when performed by an artist like Story, magical. The New Yorker called his body the “impossible body” and called him “the Basquiat of street dancing.” Now he calls himself Story Basquiat.
"It all derived from African dance," he said in a recent interview with the Guardian, referring to the evolution of contemporary street dance, "that path of struggle. There's a resurgence now [of flex] and we're taking it and reshaping it, re-forming it with our visual lite."
Story’s body often moves in smooth elliptical motions interspersed with mechanical robot moves. As you watch him, it seems like you are seeing an oldtime animation, with frames flickering and glitching. The name “Storyboard” came from this style. The “P” was the first letter of his former avatar, “Professoar.”
Story is an improv artist. He doesn’t even want to hear the music he will be dancing to prior to his performances. He uses simple daily life moments, and turns them into a running animation telling whatever story he is inspired to tell at the moment.
Story was born as Saalim Thabit Muslim in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn. His was a tough childhood, challenged by poverty and rough family issues. But his grandmother saw the sparks of his talents and encouraged him to dance at family parties.
Story was born as Saalim Thabit Muslim in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn. His was a tough childhood, challenged by poverty and rough family issues. But his grandmother saw the sparks of his talents and encouraged him to dance at family parties.
Story got inspiration from watching Michael Jackson and listening to Whitney Houston. While he studied at the Harlem School of Arts, most of his dance education came from the street. He began competing in dance battles when he was 13. And he won many.
What’s Story’s next quest? He wants to help foster a new culture of "visual recording artists".
See more of Storyboard P’s amazing dancing in this video, this video, and this video.
Read more about Beautiful Quests, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including Beautiful Quests and Send Offs, Beautiful Progress for Scientific Quests, Better Food Better World, The Quest for Beautiful Data, and Incredibly Beautiful & Deep Quests
Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Quests in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 06.01.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competion, and enter!
