Street dance: form of expressing identity in adolescents and youth ...

Timişoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation n JournalIntroductionAs a distinct stage in life, adolescence marks thetransition from childhood to adulthood,characterised through coming-of-age and socialintegration, through more complex social andprofessional requirements and responsibilities.During this stage, familial and scholasticguardianship, which is very strong when it comes toa child, knows a form of change. Furthermore, alllevels of personality face significant development,which could be perceived as a dominant element ofthe whole period. The adolescents, characterised bytheir continuous struggle to “be themselves”, toaffirm individual personality but also to be the sameas their friends and their age group, are in endlesssearch of new forms through which the “self” can bebrought forward. Hip-hop is such a medium, in whichthe adolescent can find new values, in accordanceto the age needs: “The search of an equilibriumthrough new identifications, through the discovery ofa new identity – in the conditions of not being surewhat the adolescent really is in reality – are not easyand can lead not only to difficulties of integration,but also to manifestations of nonconformity” [1].Hip-hop is a concept that encompasses streetdance, besides rap music, graffiti, Djing, Mcing,beatboxing. There are many practised forms ofstreet dance: breakdance, popping, krumping,locking, grinding, stomking, crip walk, snap dance,etc. In Romania, hip-hop appeared in 1990 and hassignificantly developed due to mass media andespecially television. After seeing Western styles ofdance practised on television, young people wouldcopy them without having a guide in the form of adance teacher or instructor, without being part of adance school and without practising it in theconfinements of a gym, culture centre, etc. As a formof opposing and changing their social background,filled with conformism and limits. The freedom ofmanifestation gained through practising streetdance is the form of opposing the dominant cultureof the social background: “dance is neitherlanguage nor politics, it is clarified and qualifiedthrough these means” [2].One of the major problems of adolescence isbuilding a personal identity, developing selfconsciousness, understanding one’s own person asa distinct entity from the others, but at the sametime coherent during various life situations: “Identityis the clear conscience of a person’s individuality,formed through the integration of a unique constructof self perception and the perception of the others’expectancy towards one’s self-esteem” [3].As in other places, street dance has become awidespread phenomenon with adolescents inRomania, marking an evolution from the famous„battle of the year” between dance groups for thehigh school cup to competitions on a local ornational level. The fact that breakdance has enteredschools proves its popularity with the young peoplein search of their own identity, of freedom from theconstraints imposed by their family, of new forms ofcorporal practice and physical activity, but at thesame time of new ways of socialising. If duringpuberty the process of personality development andbiological changes are impetuous and sinusoidal,during adolescence the development of personalityevolves towards the need of identifying personalresources (aptitudes, abilities, wishes, aspirationsand ideals) for the realisation of an identity and ofan own interior world, to the detachment from thefamily’s guardianship and to the increase ofautonomy and independence, which are graduallyobtained. All these elements can be labelled as “asecond birth” as J.J. Rousseau called it, as streetdance offers adolescents the opportunity to testthese personal resources and to build and conquertheir autonomy.8Volume 3 ♦Issue 6 ♦2011