JHN Inside Look: Part 1

Jacob L. Hollingsworth has been dancing for over 20 years, but what does that particular say about him as a dancer? We’re diving deeper into the dance stylings of Jacob L. Hollingsworth and his objectives and vision for the future of dance.

Inspirations

Jacob started dancing at the age of 10. Idolizing the likes of Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake and Usher. In the years of 2004-05, these artists were the primary resource to seeing outstanding performances and dances as male artists. He then learned more about James Brown and all of these artists combined inspired Jacob to dance with soul just like the Godfather himself.

Popping and locking was at the forefront along with slides and glides. In 2005, Krump stole the popular eye with the movie RIZE, and Jacob took to this inspiration as well.

Emulating as many great performances as possible was all that Jacob could envision. From 2005-2010, Jacob studied rigorously on the history of Hip-Hop Dance to the point that it was all he wanted to do. In 2007, the dance show America’s Best Dance Crew introduced the world to Hip-Hop dance at a level that was never seen before. This influx of interest caused the expansion of dance to grow at an astronomical rate. Jacob was a part of that wave of dancers heavily enthralled by the stylings of the Jabbawockeez.

What set him apart was his in depth focus on knowledge and understanding beyond what he saw on the screen. At school he would study up on the history of dance online and learn as much as he could during free periods. He’d go home and practice for hours in the basement. This helped him hone his style and skillset, but there was one big problem.

Struggles and Tribulations

Whilst watching dance growing up on the big screen there was a realization Jacob had to come to grips with: most of his inspiration came from many dancers that danced a West Coast style. He recognized that each region had their own dynamics of culture. The West Coast had Popping, Locking, Hyphy, Buck and Bounce styles. While St. Louis took more to Grooving, Slides n’ Glides and Waving. A very southern flow. Jacob had the sliding and gliding down and learned Housing, but he was completely out of the loop with Grooving and Waving. So he had to make some adjustments and implement the St. Louis flavor into his style to be allowed to display his skill on the dance floors.

Predecessors

After a couple of years of being back home in STL, Jacob had grown comfortable with his skillset as a dancer, but he had run into the likes of a dancer named Marquis Cooper, a former Long Middle School Graduate the year before he entered high school at Central Visual Performing Arts High School (CVPA). He recognized his skill level was far beyond what he had gathered in his 4 years of dancing. He then found out this dancer attended CVPA where he had honed and increased his skillset with the dance program there. This is not the particular reason Jacob attended CVPA, but it did play a part in his decision not to follow his older brother into Soldan International Studies High School. He attended a field trip to a showing of Aladdin by CVPA before he graduated 8th grade that sealed the deal for him. He would get into CVPA and pursue the arts.

He was ready to perform out the gate, stealing the show for his class at a school guest showcase from the “Bamboo Shoots” band and getting engaged with the dancers in the dance program right away. Jacob already knew he wanted to be a great dancer, but what it took was deep engagement not only from a screen, but from the amazing talent around him. This ego-check came to existence when he lost his first ever “dance battle” during Spirit Week his Freshman Year of High School to the likes of Marquis Cooper, “Spanky” and Dajuan “Big Foot” Johnson to Chris Brown’s 'I Can Transform Ya’. “I’ll never forget it. We got killed.” What he always says about that day. Losing a dance battle was something he never thought would come. It did, but it inspired him to try to keep up with his elder classmen even more.

He learned from watching Marquis Cooper and DaJuan Johnson that their styles were pitted in their confidence and control over their bodies, sound, but even more so, their audience. “I remember I had a class with Spanky and Marquis. Sometimes they pitched things to us for dance, and I remember we were working on finger tutting at our desks, and [Spanky] was like, ‘Yeah you got it, you just movin’ too fast. Slow down a lil’ bit.” Jacob shares.

Influences

The direct correlation between influence and inspiration can get entangled. Jacob’s inspirations encouraged him to dance, while his influences subconsciously or consciously manipulated his identity into what it is. His favorite superheroes were The Flash (Wally West) and Spider-Man (Peter Parker). Their boyish, off-the-wall, spasmatic tendencies found their way into Jacob’s style with the number of speeds he would use and gear into. He would transition with lightning quickness and precision. But it would be hard for audiences to pick up quickly what he was doing. So he took what Spanky said and always kept it with him. He would use this information to not completely change the way he danced, but it would add another gear he could tap into and serenade the audience.

Jacob also grew up in a music orientated family. Each of his 4 other siblings have either, or all: played piano, rapped, produced, mixed and engineered, or sang. Jacob himself played the harmonica and trumpet growing up and learned a few songs on the piano himself. His mom was a singer and avid artistic decorator, while his father, a pianist and singer who led church choirs. He additionally spent half of his childhood with his maternal grandparents in church.

All of these things engraved a musicality within Jacob that can often be overlooked by the general audience if you are not paying close attention to the details within his movements. Especially when Jacob starts to use his concept heavy identity to create visuals that play on words within the music.

Jacob remembers his dance instructor, Raymond Parks pulling him during a class to ask, “You play an instrument, don’t you?... You are very musical. You hear things.” At this moment, Jacob knew where his powers lay as a dancer.

I Remember Back in High School…

The CVPA dance program did not have any focus on Hip-Hop Dance. The program consisted of ballet, jazz and tap. Jacob’s heart was hard set on Hip-Hop through Freshman and Sophomore year to the point he joined a Hip-Hop dance crew at the end of his freshman year started by Keyjana Lewis who was heavily inspired by what he witnessed at Spirit Week. Keyjana, along with his good friend, Jason Reed, enticed Jacob to be a part of the future team to become a dance crew allowing Jacob to lead the group with his skillset and experience in dance. Learn more about the Futuristic KiidZ when the article releases at a later date.

This led to Jacob being required to learn how to be a choreographer who could incorporate all of the styles he had learned whilst leading his dance crews and all of the various styles that came together for the dance crew.  At this time, Jacob was 16 years old and began to expand his dance style beyond Popping, Locking, Isolating, Waving, Robotics, Sliding and Gliding, Housing and many more Hip-Hop styles. It was becoming too much to control. So he had to build a foundation style that incorporated each of the styles of the Futuristic KiidZ and a style B.N.I members could pick up quickly and efficiently. This is also where he took Spanky’s words earnestly and used that to help improve his crew.

He turned to world class choreography crews that received raving respect from the dance community like SoReal Cru. Along with watching Adam G. Sevani, better known as “Moose”, who had a style that emulated many different personas with smoothness and class. Also Christopher Scott who was a Popper that increased his skillset as Jacob did, and so did Harry Shum Jr. who each had styles that were very adaptive at this time. Mos Wanted Crew came to their peak around this time also, and Jacob studied them as well to improve his choreography, leadership and foundation skills which allowed him flexibility with any choreo or freestyle challenge he was faced with.

Admiration and Thereafter.

With all the knowledge and skills Jacob had picked up in this time, he had very little time to focus on anything outside of his crews and did not focus on battling as a dancer anymore. His vision had improved beyond what he initially thought. From his junior year in high school and beyond when he rejoined the dance program at CVPA to learn ballet, tap and jazz, he gained a new appreciation for these styles of dance and his style began to incorporate a lot of jazz steps. He became good friends with dancers Henry Trinh and admired Ta'Shayla Montgomery who both did Contemporary styles, while Tashayla was more focused on Modern styles, Jacob admired both classmates into their senior year.

At the end of the school year, someone had to win ‘Best Dancer’ for the class, and it certainly wasn’t Jacob. Jacob felt slighted by this but understood if the award went to another dancer as dance can often be seen as a “popularity contest”. This was additional fuel for Jacob to take his craft to an even higher level. But it also allowed Jacob to realize that no matter what he did artistically, he had to stand true to who he was. Popularity does not make the talent more or less, but it can amplify talent.

In March of 2014, Jacob crafted his very first dance film produced, directed and filmed by Chitwood Media. Just 2 years later, Jacob began to work on a dance album called ‘The Comeback Arch’. Learn more about this project with this article about the upcoming dance album JHN Exclusive: RED.

So What Exactly Is Jacob’s Style?

Jacob often changes the description of his style and is more focused on crafting “art”. You can say it’s Jazz, Lyrical Hip-Hop, Urban, Hip-Hop. Although he’s worried that many dancers are not aware of outside influences and incorporations in their dance styles that have crafted their very

existence. Whether it’s Popping, Locking, Waving, Krumping, Housing, Wacking, etc… These styles all stem from Hip-Hop culture at their cores. There is a frustration that Jacob feels most don’t understand this as they try to pull one from the other, but in the end, it was all seeded from an African American and Hispanic identity that brought these groups together from the late 60s and into the 70s and allowed them to express themselves together to rise above the pain and struggles they faced. As the Housing style developed, it became a crucial piece to electro, techno music and now EDM. Boy Bands, whether it’s *NSYNC or B2K, these groups did Hip-Hop dance.

“You cannot separate the DJ from Hip-Hop, and you cannot take any of these styles from Hip-Hop. It’s still all Hip-Hop.” - Jacob implores.

What’s Next for Jacob? / The Vision

Jacob hopes to raise up a generation of dancers in which he touches these cornerstones and brings them all together for the growth of Hip-Hop dance. “Why are we still dancing on the streets and battling!?” Says Jacob. This is a pain point for him. He hopes the culture of Hip-Hop dance can be respected as its own entity distant from other dances and other forms of art, rather than being relegated as background dancers for your favorite rapper, singer or pop star.

He feels TikTok is playing a big part in Hip-Hop culture today but doesn’t feel the integrity of Hip-Hop dance can be completely stripped by the platform. He feels it’s still possible to create authentic full-length pieces since the public continues to engage with Hip-Hop culture and dance. The problem is Dancers still need to take initiative to expand and grow the art form. It’s time for more full-length Hip-Hop dance productions as you see for ballet or musicals. In order for this to happen, the fundamentals need to be instilled and engraved in the minds of future dancers, and dancers would need to recognize that they are worth more than cardboard and battles against one another to deplete all the progress and knowledge that’s been gathered through the years.

The audiences are fascinated by the simpletons of the unexplainable. So many dancers take the time to learn “cool tricks” and b-boy power moves and hard-hitting manipulations that can only be used once or twice before it appears to be repetitive. This is the part where it’s important to master many forms of Hip-Hop dance, and Jacob feels it’s his responsibility to provide an avenue for these dancers to expand.

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