|
 How
Funk Created a Monster
By Heather Wisner
Andy Funk’s vision for the future of hip-hop spawned a
groundbreaking convention
“I
am in no way an expert in this field, and certainly not a
visionary,” says Monsters of Hip-Hop founder Andy Funk. “I
just happen to be a businessperson who, along with my wife and
sister-in-law, saw a need and took a chance.”
Taking that chance has paid off for the dance world, or at
least a growing part of it. Monsters of Hip-Hop, founded in
2002, is a nationally touring convention exclusively dedicated
to hip-hop. It aims to give hip-hoppers greater professional
exposure and opportunities, and to that end, it offers
workshops and seminars with professional choreographers and
agents and auditions dancers for the cast of its annual
performance showcase, held in Los Angeles at the convention’s
end. Its freestyle battle, Club Stylz, a benefit for the
American Cancer Society, has earned more than $8,000 for the
agency and provided prizes for, and technical assessments of,
its participants. By Funk’s estimation, thousands of dancers
have passed through MOHH since its inception, and many have
since landed gigs in movies, TV shows, and concert tours.
It’s a remarkable accomplishment for a guy who didn’t know
what he was getting himself into. MOHH germinated with Andy’s
wife, Becky, and her sister Angie Worley, who grew up on the
dance competition circuit and performed with the Towson
University dance team. Becky got her degree in health
education but wanted to return to her first love: hip-hop. So
she and Andy founded Baltimore’s B. Funk Dance Company studio.
Andy wasn’t a dancer—his closest brush with the arts was
playing drums—but he did have a business and PR background and
some event-planning experience, so he became the studio’s
business manager. As the studio grew, he decided to quit his
job and devote himself to running the business.
But he needed something more. He, Becky, and Angie began
talking about starting a convention—not a competition, because
there were already plenty of those—specializing in hip-hop and
staffed with the best instructors they could find. “I asked my
wife and her sister to name the top 10 hip-hop choreographers
working at the moment,” he says. “They laughed at me, but we
got a lot of them the first year,” including Brian Friedman,
Jermaine Browne, and Fatima Robinson.
Not that it was easy. “Quitting my job and starting Monsters
was basically a huge leap of faith,” Funk admits. “We trusted
that because our event was so unique and we were bringing 10
of the top choreographers in the world together, dancers and
their teachers would try us out.” A big part of Monsters’
success was—and still is—attracting working dancemakers who,
in turn, may hire dancers. “It’s exciting and rewarding
teaching hip-hop to hip-hop dancers—they can challenge the
dancers and the dancers can handle it,” Funk says. “This isn’t
to put down other conventions, but when you’re working with
different types of dancers, the energy is different; if you’re
teaching hip-hop to a ballet dancer, they’re going to struggle
with that.”
Third-year faculty member Chonique Sneed agrees. “At some
conventions I’ve been the only hip-hop teacher, and I can’t
get through my entire routine. At Monsters I don’t have to
water down my choreography. There’s no convention like it,
because it’s all hip-hop.” Sneed, whose clients have included
Missy Elliott and Britney Spears, joins a roster featuring
former Electric Boogaloos Poppin’ Pete and Mr. Wiggles, Gil
Duldualao (Janet Jackson’s choreographer), and Tabitha Dumo
(who has worked with Christina Aguilera).
Collectively, they teach hip-hop, popping, locking, street
jazz/jazz funk, and break-dancing, although they also
encourage dancers
to train in multiple genres. “Versatility and adaptability are
extremely important, especially in auditions,
and it goes both ways,” Funk says. “So many dancers, even at
our event, have little to no concept of freestyle. That’s the
true test—when you can hear any kind of music and be able to
just dance, not relying on a checklist of choreographed
moves.”
This year the convention will hit 11 cities; it has traveled
to Canada in the past, and Funk eventually hopes to bring it
to Europe and Japan. It offers two days of classes for juniors
(ages 7–10), intermediate (11–14), advanced (pre-professional,
ages 15 and up), and teacher levels.
Along the convention route, faculty
members scout for performance showcase dancers. From seeing
people in the workshops, Funk
says the faculty “can tell if they’re passionate and
hardworking.” They need
to be: Rehearsals generally run from 9:00 A.M. to 11:30 P.M.
for 10 days straight.
The convention has also established a relationship with Ailey
Extension, which offers classes for the general public. Ailey
Extension hip-hop teacher Robin Dunn and director Yvette
Campbell worked out a deal that allows MOHH to hold master
classes at Ailey. The first time around, 150 people signed up
for the MOHH class in just three weeks. “When Yvette and her
staff saw how many people they could have coming through their
beautiful space, they expressed interest in holding more
master classes,” Funk says.
Campbell believes it’s a good match. “We felt that they are
one of the best hip-hop groups around and that we’re one of
the best contemporary groups,” she says. “We want to offer
something [dancers] can use, and dancers from Monsters are
getting hired in their field.”
Along with jobs, Monsters offers scholarships to Ailey
Extension and the L.A.-based Debbie Reynolds Studio and
Millennium Dance Complex. In each convention city, talent
agents observe the audition and deliver a “business of dance”
seminar that informs the dancers, parents, and teachers about
auditioning, headshots, and union issues. Some MOHH dancers
have signed with participating agencies, including Bloc.
“We’ve got a lot of success stories,” Funk said. “I want to
reinforce that, because hip-hop has a lot of negative
connotations.” Hotels have been leery of booking the
convention because they’re afraid of gang violence; Funk has
had to reassure them that MOHH is a family-friendly event,
with edited lyrics and adult supervision. Having relationships
with Ailey and with Disney, who has sent scouts to
performances, has helped legitimize the event, he says.
So has the list of successful alumni. When Janet Jackson was
scouting, MOHH dancers got their own audition, and four of
them are now performing with the singer. MOHH alum Laura
Edwards landed dance gigs in Step Up and the movie
version of Hairspray. Bryan Tanaka toured with
Salt’n’Pepa and Destiny’s Child. Tucker Barkley has done music
videos and worked on the upcoming film Naked with MOHH
choreographer Dave Scott. MOHH: The Show cast member
Nick DeMoura assisted choreographer Mickey Minden on
Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll
(Season 1), danced in the film Walk Hard, performed in
a Las Vegas industrial, and worked with Dave Scott in Prom
Night. Perhaps the most visibly successfully MOHH alum are
Cedric Gardner and Lauren Gottlieb, who appeared on So You
Think You Can Dance this year.
Twenty-four-year-old Tanaka, whose first big job was
performing with the Seattle Supersonics dance team, found
Monsters in 2002, when the convention came to Washington.
There was no show yet, but he auditioned for—and won—a
scholarship to Millennium Dance and was scouted by the MSA
talent agency. Shortly after he arrived in L.A., he signed
with MSA and started getting dance jobs a few weeks later. He
ca lls
Funk an instrumental part of that process, and says Monsters
is “a great step forward into the industry. The teachers are
unbelievable—it’s all hip-hop, all styles. If you can’t come
to L.A. yet, they bring L.A. to you.”
The widespread popularity of hip-hop bodes well for his studio
and for Monsters, Funk says, and should dispel the lingering
idea that the dance is merely a fad. “It’s been around over 20
years—that’s pretty long to be a fad,” he says. “Just look at
MTV, commercials, TV programs like So You Think You Can
Dance. It’s everywhere. When a staggering number of dance
teachers tell us they have added hip-hop to their curriculum
just to stay competitive, that tells me it has a future.” It’s
also attracting more boys to dance. “I have been told that we
have more male dancers than most other conventions,” he says.
“It’s unfortunate, but I think most boys are more comfortable
saying they’re going to a breaking class than going to ballet
class.”
So Funk is focusing on the future, working on new ideas like
the MOHH Next Generation tour, which will spotlight the work
of young, emerging choreographers. But he’s also mindful of
the past: “When we decided to act on our idea back in 2002, we
had no idea that our convention would grow to the extent that
it has,” he says. “With all of our anticipated expenses, we
needed to attract over 250 dancers to just break even. We had
almost 300 dancers from 15 different states attend our
inaugural event with little to no advertising, no sponsors,
and basically no promotional support.
“We started as a family business and still rely largely on
family to help us maintain our operation. We are basically
running year-round at this point and we are continually
working forward.”
Photo captions (from top to bottom):
Senior (first image) and Junior (second image) Freestyle
Battles let kids show off their moves for a good cause. The
events benefit the American Cancer Society.
Scholarship winners get free training at MOHH events,
Millennium Dance Complex, or Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio.
All photos by Ken Dworken
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