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How one dancer broke out of his shell

BERKELEY, Calif.— Gizmo responds to his opponent with a series of sharp hand movements to a fast-paced beat. He incorporates contractions and twists of different limbs to articulate his intention. 

Tariq “Gizmo” Witherspoon, 23, is the cofounder of The Aspects, the only street-style dance group in Berkeley. The group draws from various styles, including flex and turf dancing, which creates a unique mode of expression.

Their style is a fusion of dance styles from both the East and West. Flex dancing is a dance style sometimes called bone breaking because of its rhythmic contortionist movement and incorporation of waving, tutting, floor moves and gliding. It has origins in Braco, Jamaica,and took off in Brooklyn, New York. Turf dancing is an American style of street dance that originated in Oakland, California, in the late 1990s. Witherspoon describes the dancing as more of a “feeling.”

A Berkeley dance group, The Aspects. Witherspoon on the far left. (Photo by Algerion Bryant)

It started with the friendship between Witherspoon and his best friend, James Palmer. Witherspoon would often watch his friend’s dance performances.

“I just thought it was really cool,” he said.

When he was 17, he tried it himself.

“I was a pretty shy and reserved person,” he said. “And I literally sat in my room and watched these videos and practiced for a whole year.”

Dancing has created an outlet for him to express himself, allowing him to open up in a way that would have been difficult to do without it.

“It’s really therapeutic, to be honest,” he said.

Witherspoon works full-time at Urban Outfitters in Berkeley and finds time afterwards everyday to practice.

“If I hadn’t become a professional dancer, I probably would have been a lot more shy,” he said. “And it definitely helped me come out of my shell.”

In the last year, The Aspects have gained recognition performing at Mission in the Mix at the San Francisco Dance Mission Theater.

The group is  working on new choreography for the International Hip Hop Dance Fest, which will take place this year from Nov. 16-18.

“They fly people in from all over the world,” he said, “and do a couple days of shows. It’s one of the biggest venues in the area. I did it in another group called TURFinc. This is the first year we’re going to be by ourselves.”

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Hands of Glass

 


Drawing in those who enter Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral is the complex artistry of 215 prominent stained glass windows, emblazoned by the daylight.

The Cathedral includes more than 40 colorfully articulated windows with biblical accounts and Episcopal symbols created by the late stained glass artist, Rowan Lecompte.

Located in the nave of the church resides the Rose Window, alternatively referred to as “Creation.” Implemented in 1976, it is considered to be one of the cathedral’s most sought-out windows due to its complex artistry in the portrayal of the four Greek elements of earth, air, fire and water, according to the National Cathedral website.

   Lecompte’s work has also included a juxtaposition of space and religion, the “Space Window.” The cathedral window enshrines a seven-gram moon sample, delivered personally by the Apollo 11 astronauts, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. The window was created in 1974.

The artistry of stained glass windows extends throughout the country, including Diane Cairns, owner of Virginia Stained Glass Company in Springfield, Virginia. Cairns’ 24-year-old business has created windows for religious congregations, organizations and homes.

“As far as the National Cathedral is concerned, they are beautiful and large windows, [and] have been there for a long time,” Cairns’ said about the National Cathedral’s windows. “I was disappointed when they removed the Civil War windows, as the reason why stained glass was invented [was] to teach stories of the Bible and history that people did not read or understand. Replacing history is not a good thing so we do not repeat our mistakes.”

The two Civil War windows that were taken down in fall 2017 were of  Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson due to their honoring of Confederate soldiers, according to NPR.

The art of stained glass has not only made a lasting impression on artists, but the volunteers of the National Cathedral as well. Docent Bob Faltynek has been at the cathedral for the last seven years.

“The thing that you can’t miss seeing is the stained glass,” Faltynek said. “I think it’s fair to say that this is one of the best collections of contemporary and modern stained glass anyplace in this country. The overwhelming color affects without even thinking of the stories or the backgrounds.”

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Artist makes statement with busts

There were many pieces of artwork at the Washington National Cathedral as part of the “By The People” entertainment festival that opened on Thursday, but sculptures by artist Stephen Hayes were among the displays that were most impactful.

The array consisted of eight busts of various African-American men, each of whom had the voice of an African-American teenager. According to Hayes, the busts along with the voices represent his belief that life for the teenagers has not changed significantly from when the adults were teenagers. Hayes said both the voices and the heads are of real people who live in Washington, D.C..

 

“I talked to both young and old black men in D.C. about what they are going through in their life and how they are judged,” Hayes said.

Born in North Carolina, Hayes received his Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts in Visual Communication from North Carolina Central University in 2006 and his Masters Degree of Fine Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design in 2010. Hayes received national attention early in his career for a piece of artwork called ‘Cash Crop’ that explored the slave trade in an extremely powerful and graphic way. The display consisted of 15 statues of people of various ages, each statue representing one million slaves. The statues were modeled on friends and family of Hayes.

There are plenty of opportunities for artwork that revolve around black culture, Hayes said, but he wanted to focus on something current for the festival project.

“I wanted to talk about the legacy of what it means to be black,” Hayes said. “The struggle they are going through is the same struggle I went through when I was a kid.”

While his work may be impressive and powerful, Hayes said the main goal of the project is to both give pride to black men and let others know of how things like crime and poverty affect their lives.

“The aim of this project is to create a platform for African-American males,” Hayes said. “I want to create awareness about what black people go through daily in American society.”

The message of Hayes’s project also seemed to resonate with attendees. Libby Lye, a spectator at the event, said the point of the art had an impact on her.

“I think the busts being done in similar casts and style really shows the unification through the society and they all kind of have this shared experience,” Lye said.

Despite putting heavy emphasis on what his goal with the project was, Hayes said there is not one main thing he wants people to take away from his work, which took over three months to complete.

“It’s all up to the people to decide to themselves what they want to take away from my work,” Hayes said.