BRS ARTS ALLIANCE: NorCal Bay Area Dance Groups

In today’s music and entertainment industry, the commercial world of Hip-Hop entertainment has yet to recognize the Northern California Bay Area dance art forms known as “Boog-a-loo”, “Robottin’” and “Struttin’” (B.R.S.). From the cities of Oakland to Richmond to San Francisco, CA USA, the underground “Funk” scene has influenced many areas of “Hip-Hop” dance. Although world re-known entertainer MC Hammer held the world’s attention as a reigning dance mogul representing the city of Oakland at the height of his music and recording career for the Hip-Hop community, the pure B.R.S. – styles of the Bay Area have yet to be accredited as their own dance art forms, and surface as components that have helped shape today’s Hip-Hop dance styles like those of “Breaking” and “Locking”. Today, the music and entertainment industries utilize many elements of the Hip-Hop genre by paying millions of dollars for its use in commercial marketing.
BOOG-A-LOO, ROBOTTIN’, STRUTTIN’ (B.R.S) – Bay Area Dance Pioneers, begins with an examination of the unique Bay Area dance art form. The B.R.S. dance movement began with dancers creating soulful “hit” movement to live bands performing classic R&B, soul and funk music. The influential tree of dancers is tremendous. Individual dance influences range from James Brown, Marcel Marceau, Shields & Yarnell to others; Group dance influences range from The Temptations, The Dramatics, The Four Tops to others. The Bay Area communities watched their own local youth, as they developed B.R.S. dance groups to compete in local area talent shows or showcase their B.R.S. talents in other events. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area holds historical figures in having the highest concentration of B.R.S. style dance groups from the late 1960’s to date in California’s history.
The dance art form classified in the dance community as “Locking” has long claimed its own space in the commercial world. Moreso, the East Coast dance art forms classified as “Breaking” and "B-Boying" both have enabled to distinguish itself also. Even today, commercial media writers continue to commonly make the mistake of classifying the dance art forms together into one classification consistently. This has been a key suppressor of the Bay Area B.R.S. dance art form. And despite the accomplishments of B.R.S. dance pioneers for both individual and group dancing, B.R.S. dancers very rarely received the distinguished recognition as a result..
B.R.S. groups learned and maintained a sense of unification, discipline and organization. Communities in Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco (including Berkeley, Vallejo, San Jose and other parts of the Bay Area) always supported their youth’s involvement in this organized dance art form. This eventually helped aspiring artists of the areas to elevate in musicianship and performance, and excel during the birth and development of the Hip-Hop genre.
BOOG-A-LOO, ROBOTTIN’, STRUTTIN’ (B.R.S) – Bay Area Dance Pioneers takes the viewer through this artistic growth over the years. With location footage from Bay Area programming (Evening Magazine, TV20 Dance Party – now TheWB) to the City of Los Angeles (The Gong Show, B-Boy Summit), we watch the movement of the B.R.S. dance styles and the influential ties it has on Hip-Hop today. BOOG-A-LOO, ROBOTTIN’, STRUTTIN’ (B.R.S.): Bay Area Pioneers follows individual and group journey’s, from dancing at local talent shows and community events to its accomplishments on national television. To date, members of the B.R.S define the art form’s legacy with dialogue on issues important to the dance industry component and the Hip-Hop community.
BOOG-A-LOO, ROBOTTIN’, STRUTTIN’ (B.R.S) – Bay Area Dance Pioneers takes you beyond the fascination of audiences from various showcases with all-new interviews with celebrities, collaborators and scholars. And featuring exclusive, never-before-seen behind the scenes footage and interviews, BOOG-A-LOO, ROBOTTIN’, STRUTTIN’ (B.R.S) – Bay Area Dance Pioneers’ pallet is as rich and complex as the texture of its unique and authentic dance styles.
B.R.S. TREATMENT
Written by Ralph "Doctor PLIK PLOK" Montejo (Criminons - Richmond, CA USA)
B.R.S. PRE-CURSOR TRAILER
B.R.S. TRAILER (www.BRSAA.com)
THE ELECTRICIANS (San Francisco, CA USA)
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FUNKIEST KIND (San Francisco, CA USA)
AUDIONAUTS (San Francisco-Oakland-Richmond CA USA)
MACHINE GONE FUNK (San Francisco-San Jose-South Bay CA USA)