Lately our family has been getting the movies we watch from a local DVD store that sells new and used movies. We go through the used bins and buy crappy-looking movies for $3-$7. (One of my best finds: Soap Opera Weddings!)

We’re all dance fans and love to watch really great break dancers, poppers, lockers, etc. Mostly we watch them on youtube (there are some amazing breakdancers out there). So when we spotted this DVD, we grabbed it, thinking it’d be funny, if nothing else.

It’s about a bet and competition between two friends, Todd Bridges (Willis from Different Strokes) and Shabba Doo. Todd Bridges has discovered a new form of street dancing that he’s really impressed by called krumping. Shabba Doo is an old school breakdancer from way back in the day. So the bet is, they each put together a team of dancers, one doing breakdancing and one krumping, and hold a competition to see who wins. They bet $2500 between themselves, and offer $2500 to whichever team wins.

I went into this not knowing anything about krumping other than what I’d seen on So You Think You Can Dance—which seemed like a bunch of arm-flinging to me. I was sure the breakdancing would be what I’d want to see—I love breakdancing, I think it’s fantastic.

But krumping is really something else.

It’s really powerful. Really agressive. And rooted so much in emotion. The dancers all develop their own style based on their own emotions and characters they develop in their dance.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Here’s Tight Eyez during the actual competition:

I have a whole new appreciation for krumping now. I had to laugh a little bit, because it actually reminds me of hardcore dancing you see white kids doing at metal and hardcore shows (I’m not sure I’d want to tell krumpers that). Hardcore dancing really is just flailing your arms around (and occasionally tossing out a big spin-kick). But krumping isn’t.