![]() Manoel asked her to freestyle that day, but she didn’t meet the teacher’s expectations with only four moves under her belt. “It really caught my attention - all the lines, all the poses, all the expressions and the energy, the character,” Valenzuela says. Valenzuela knew the style from her time with the Mexican dance crew Funkdation and wanted to incorporate it in a dance battle she was competing in the next day. Two years later, he was teaching at Evolution Studios in North Hollywood when Lorena Valenzuela showed up to attend his popular punking class. In 2009, he returned to the scene, lamenting the mainstreaming of the style and determined to reclaim it for a new generation of dancers. The suave Breakin’ star Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quinones popularized whacking for straight leading men, while the Outrageous Waacking Dancers, an LA-based dance group, evolved the new name another step further away from punking’s gay origin story.įor Maneol, punking was lost in translation. While Manoel concentrated on his work as a professional dancer - performing with style icons Grace Jones and David Bowie, among others - whacking went wide (even as the name punking was largely retired over the term’s negative connotation among mainstream audiences).Įmerging from the clubs and after-hours parties in Hollywood with the artists and choreographers found there, whacking made its way into the culture in the 1980s on Soul Train, NBC’s Big Show, in the movie musical Breakin’, with singer and dancer Toni Basil and even in performances by Freddie “Rerun” Stubbs from the ABC sitcom What’s Happening!! Manoel recalled, “I felt uncomfortable being in a situation where everybody was dying and nobody wants to talk about it.” Tinker loved Bugs Bunny and channeled that hare-brained character in his moves.īut within just a few years, all of them were gone, as AIDS ravaged the gay community. Manoel recalls the roster: DJ Michael Angelo, Billy Star, China Doll/Kenny, Lonny, Tinker, Tommy, Faye Raye, Arthur and Andrew. Whacking added a movement that saw dancers folding their arms, swinging their hands over their heads, and popping their chests out. In 1978, Manoel’s crew decamped from Paradise to Gino’s II disco on Santa Monica and Vine, where punker Michael Angelo Harris DJ’d on Saturday nights and held contests for a $1,000 prize for punking, and for punking’s next evolution, whacking. ![]() The movements are sharp, fast and exaggerated, with lots of looks. The group drew on a variety of cultural influences, from Diaghilev at the Ballet Russes to ice skating and silent movies, the architecture of Art Deco, and ballet folklórico, a favorite of Manoel’s and his inspiration to dance like a deer, a typical representation found in Mexican folk art. “The expression from that oppression via movement is where this punking dance style came to fruition,” he says. Manoel and his friends created punking when they weren’t “allowed to express love,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “Punking is the theatrical, the character, the persona, the drama,” says Berry, “so you’re thinking of taking an image and bringing it to life, like a film.” You have a sharp mind and a natural ability with words.Similar in style to voguing, which was taking off at the same time in the ballrooms of New York, punking emphasized theatricality, set among sped-up dance tracks. You have more curiosity than the proverbial cat. You are extremely flexible and adaptable. Variety is more than mere spice of life - you thrive on it. You love change, new experiences, meeting new people, adventure and travel. “Freedom is essential for your happiness. ![]() You are not the type to embark on any trip without a map.” Inner analysis of Shabba Doo by heart number 5 You enjoy management systems, and can carry out your well laid plans. You possess a highly developed sense of structure. ![]() Your approach to life and to problems is methodical and systematic. “You are the bedrock of society, the foundation of any enterprise. Talent analysis of Shabba Doo by expression number 4 Shabba Doo name personality by numerology Numerology (Expression Number)
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