New York City is home to all different kinds of art forms. These art-forms usually make their home in galleries, museums, and theaters. New York is special though, in the sense that it often brings the art to you. These street acrobatics that I witnessed in the streets of Manhattan were proof of that. With a drummer and a four piece drum-set, four dancers on Broadway Avenue attracted quite a large crowd. If graffiti is the modern equivalent of a painting, then these street acrobatics are the equivalent of a modern ballet. Regardless of what your taste in art is, there’s no denying that these street performers are bringing dancing and many other forms of art to a public that would not otherwise view them. Whether they are getting in your way in a subway station, or spray painting the sides of buildings on your drive home, these “street artists” are bridging the gap between the public and art, more than ever before. These acrobats are certainly skilled, and could rival the skill of the ballet dancers that we saw at “Fall for Dance”. Their style of dancing, which is a blend of break-dancing, acrobatics, and hip-hop dancing, is becoming more and more popular in society. Shows like So You Think You Can Dance? are becoming all too commonplace on television. Just walk into the Macaulay Lounge on any given day and you find a bunch of students practicing similar techniques. I think this best represents the changing taste in art in recent times, which people of every class, “classy” or not, can witness and participate in artistic activities without conventional means.Their antics involved feats of strength, flexibility, and even eating cigarettes! All of these for now charge at all, although the dancers certainly recommended a donation. I’ve attached a video that I took of these quite entertaining acrobats: Street Dancers
The Arts in NYC, Professor Smaldone, Fall 2011
Queens College
In your post, you say that there is a change occurring in people’s tastes in art. I don’t necessarily agree. There are obviously many new types of art forms emerging and the places in which people can find them is also changing, but the shift from museums and opera houses to the streets and subway station walls is not entire. There are still people attending the Metropolitan Opera and there isn’t a day when the Metropolitan Museum of Art isn’t crowded. And it’s important, even though artists like the breakdancers and the graffiti painters are appearing in more and more places and are holding the spotlight more often than their more traditional colleagues, that the older, more traditional styles of art are also preserved. In fact, I think that the “more accessible” styles of art like breakdancing and graffiti can help to preserve appreciation for more classic art. People who express an interest in graffiti may do some research and discover the works of modern artists like de Kooning and this may prompt a visit to the Museum of Modern Art, which may then prompt another discovery, so that an entire world of not only modern art but more traditional art is revealed as well. In the same way, someone may investigate breakdancing further and discover its roots in more traditional styles of dancing (or they may investigate the music associated with breakdancing and discover its origins).