Dance

Martial arts mixed with street dancing sounds like the latest thing when it's called Wu Tang on Page 3 of the People Paper. But Ron Wood of the Zen One Dance Collective asserts that this is an idea that reappears whenever conditions are ripe.

"People say breakdance was influenced by capoeira, but my theory is that didn't happen until the '90s," he says. Still, Wood feels the origins are the same. "There were common circumstances: same environment, the machismo, the flashiness, the larger-than-life movement, the oppressed people creating something beautiful from nothing."

He continues, "In NYC there were no after-school programs. Breaking is what they created. In its original form, the thugs did it. A lot of the old cats say that it was a gang. Certain styles, like uprocking, show what you would do to them outside the jam." A mock knife, a bow and arrow, a machete—these were among the moves that might be insinuated in the dance.

In Brazil it is a bit more stylized, says Wood. There's the same circle of people gathered, with people singing and playing drums and the main instrument, the berimbau. "Two people go out [in the circle] and play—which is really a fight/dance," he says. "There are different rhythms, a beautiful rhythm or fast one. You listen and they might sing something about you. The song and [the rhythm] dictate how you dance, just like breaking." Wood points out that he has to teach students used to regular dance classes to "pay attention, someone is trying to kick you! This isn't '5-6-7-8!'"

So encourage those street-corner dancers: Get them to a Zen One performance. Let them see where their art can take them.

Zen One Dance Collective, Fri., Jan. 6, 5:45-8:15 p.m., free after museum admission ($8-$12), Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and the Parkway, 215-763-8100, www.philamuseum.org.