The word "hiplet" has rapidly begun spreading throughout the viral world since its video debut. What people are referring to as “hiplet” is a new form of dance, combining the two polar opposites of dance forms: hip-hop and ballet. It's an unlikely combo that's now taking hold of the world's attention.
What started as a short clip of dancers practicing "hiplet" in their class, soon became a viral video. Even going so far as to make its way through BuzzFeed's page. The video now has over six million views and is continuously growing. The new style is emerging from the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center, home of dance instructor and inventor of the new dance style, Homer Hans Bryant.
The new fusion takes the fundamentals and technique of ballet while mixing it with the upbeat movement of hip-hop style. Now if you’re thinking that this new form of dance should be easy enough, try again -- it’s just as challenging as learning any other dance form, if not more demanding of its dancers. These dancers are performing hip-hop movements while being on pointe. Maintaining balance on their toes with their only form of support being a small block of wood all the while being able to dance around with the music is no simple task for these girls to perform. A skill hard enough to master on its own just by walking on one's toes is now being combined with demanding, continuous, full-body movement. “A lot of the girls in the video have been training with us since they were three years old,” said CMDC school administrator, Cheryl Taylor, adding that the dancers in the video are between 12 and 16 years old.
People’s reactions to this new dance style are ranging from absolute praise to uncertainty for how it will affect the individual dance forms it combines. In its praise, people have claimed that these girls are “breaking the ballerina stereotype.” However, I believe they’re going about it in all the wrong way: each individual dance style is incomparable to the other. This new style isn’t about breaking free of ideals of a classical dance form, it’s about bringing together the strongest parts of two vastly different art forms and turning it into something never before seen. We’re in the 21st century, where people don’t think twice about having an African-American president, cars can park themselves and YouTube vloggers have become bigger than celebrities. The emergence of a new dance form is simply a stepping stone on the path of our ever-increasing creative and technological advances.
