Tang Museum evening to feature beatboxing and break dancing

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College will host a Beatboxing and Break Dancing Tournament from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in the museum?s Payne Presentation Room. Sponsored by the college?s Hip Hop Alliance student club, the tournament is the latest in the Tang?s series of cultural events offered on Thursday nights, when the museum stays open until 9. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 518-580-8080.

The floor will be open to anyone interested in beatboxing (the highly expressive vocal percussion that can conjure up drumbeats, turntable manipulation, musical instruments, vocals, and more) and break dancing, the hip hop form of street dance that combines athleticism and dance. Both art forms grew from, and helped shape the hip hop culture that sprang up among minority youth in New York City in the early 1970s and spread around the world.

To attend the tournament, ?You don?t have to be an expert in beatboxing or break dancing,? said event coordinator and Hip Hop Alliance officer Chantrice Ollie ?10. ?The emphasis will be on trying out beatboxing and break dancing, and exploring it with other people who are willing to explore it as a form of interactive learning.? Hip hop music from the 1980s to the present, ranging from Run-DMC to Kanye West, will be provided by Skidmore deejays Daniel Tejada and Michael Thomas, both in their senior years.

The Hip Hop Alliance sponsors concerts, lectures, discussions, and interactive cultural events designed to increase awareness of the positive and significant dimensions of hip hop culture.