ice-t is in the movie breakin'

i watched the movie breakin' this morning. there's some scenes at an underground street dancing club where dancers (or groups or dancers, what have you) vie for supremacy. who should be there providing musicial inspiration, but ice-t. i think this movie is from 1984.

i should've watched this movie a long time ago. first, it's somewhat entertaining. second, there has been a number of different comedies reference this movie. third, it provides a nice retrospective on some of the dance-inspired fashions on the 80s.

remember capezios? i think they still make these, actually, as i'm pretty sure they're just dance shoes. i had a pair of capezios in the 80s. i am not a dancer. my roommate in college studied dancing and she dancy clothes, so she stuck with the capezios way longer than i did. (i will say they are comfortable shoes) although, she didn't fully indulge in some of the things that were more trendy. i do think she wore her hair in a ponytail for our entire freshman year though (she wasn't my roommate yet, but we were dorm neighbors). haha anyway, no one cares about me and the wayback machine..

back to the movie... so this chick is waitressing at the type of place that seems only to exist in the movies... (imagine mel's diner california-style) and she's also taking a very exclusive dance class (cuz they tend to be economical). she is friends with this gay black guy and he is friends with some "street dancers". he takes her to watch his friends and, long story short, they make the dance group a trio rather than a duo and convince people of the legitmacy of the style.

given that type of dancing has pretty well taken over at this point (variations of it) on shows like america's best dance crew, so you think you can dance, and step it up and dance.... i suppose it makes a good point. one of the characters "turbo" does a dance with a broom that's pretty cool. the dance "crew" we're concerned with are known by real names and street names: tony/turbo, orlando/ozone, kelly/special k. INTERESTING NAME, kelly. haha

here's the weird thing about dance... it seems to be kind of a difficult way to make a living. if you study, say, ballet... this is a very competitive art and look at someone like mary carey. she studied from a very early age until her injury at 19 and now all of those years of ballet have done what for her? i suppose if she hadn't gone into porn she could have been a ballet teacher (i know they offered her such a job on the first sober house, but even in california i would think most parents would think twice before getting mary carey to teach their young children). for less formal types of dance, it seems some people do make a successful career about it.... but, i'm not sure of all the opportunities they may or may not have. there doesn't seem to be nearly enough jobs to warrant the HUGE numbers of people who go through dance classes, especially since some of the so-called dance classes are more interested in $$$ than in talent.

it seems like a lot of the people we see dancing (unless we seek out dance somehow) are in videos, so it's people like britney spears. is britney the best dancer ever? or is the whole package (looks, singing, figure, permissive parents who allowed her to be marketed as a sex symbol when she was underage, etc.) that makes her successful? (not taking away from whatever dancing talent she may have... i am just saying, it's not JUST her dancing).

speaking of dancing... bad segue... i have a showtime preview and TWILIGHT is coming on in half a hour. oh, you know i gots to see that. expect a rant. love shampoo