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"When you do it, when you krump, you feel like the spirit in you, you feel different." - Nohnee Purvis, 16.
I read about this Krump. It is Dance. Praise. Release.
It is a frentic dance born on the West Coast, combining modern dance, break-dancing, tribal-like dance, hip-hop, 'pop-lock' steps and free-form motion, often at blurring speed. There is a group called Kreative Mindz, in Chesapeake, where I live. It is a 2 year old group that is aimed for keeping kids off the streets and in with the church. A boy named Demetreus and his friends say some krumpers have a nearly religious passion for the dance, but he and his friends say it's all about God. "When you going the fastest, that's when you unleash, that's when God takes over", he says. Another boy, Jaren Goodbridge says, "When we're throwing a jab, that's praise right there", "and when we read the Bible and spread the Word of God, that's praise." Danyasius Leslie, 29, founder of the group describes krump as "It's the power of God that moves." For Leslie KRUMP stands for Kingdom Radicals Uplifting Mighty Praise. The youth in the program have to go to church to stay in the dance group and they also have to keep up with their schoolwork. To end this Nohnee says at first he just krumped for fun, but soon "the whole spiritual thing just hit me in the chest." He also says, "Sundays, I'd just sit in the house, sleep, talk on the phone. Now I get up and go to church. My whole mind has changed. We got Christ up!"
Now I just felt compelled to share this story of a group of local teenagers, for me anyways, that saw a call on their lives to dance as a form of praise to God and also to minister and keep kids off the streets, out of gangs, and in the church of Christ. Step by step, literally, they are bringing more of God and less of them.
I read about this Krump. It is Dance. Praise. Release.
It is a frentic dance born on the West Coast, combining modern dance, break-dancing, tribal-like dance, hip-hop, 'pop-lock' steps and free-form motion, often at blurring speed. There is a group called Kreative Mindz, in Chesapeake, where I live. It is a 2 year old group that is aimed for keeping kids off the streets and in with the church. A boy named Demetreus and his friends say some krumpers have a nearly religious passion for the dance, but he and his friends say it's all about God. "When you going the fastest, that's when you unleash, that's when God takes over", he says. Another boy, Jaren Goodbridge says, "When we're throwing a jab, that's praise right there", "and when we read the Bible and spread the Word of God, that's praise." Danyasius Leslie, 29, founder of the group describes krump as "It's the power of God that moves." For Leslie KRUMP stands for Kingdom Radicals Uplifting Mighty Praise. The youth in the program have to go to church to stay in the dance group and they also have to keep up with their schoolwork. To end this Nohnee says at first he just krumped for fun, but soon "the whole spiritual thing just hit me in the chest." He also says, "Sundays, I'd just sit in the house, sleep, talk on the phone. Now I get up and go to church. My whole mind has changed. We got Christ up!"
Now I just felt compelled to share this story of a group of local teenagers, for me anyways, that saw a call on their lives to dance as a form of praise to God and also to minister and keep kids off the streets, out of gangs, and in the church of Christ. Step by step, literally, they are bringing more of God and less of them.
