As one of the pioneers of Boogaloo Style - the foundational style of Popping - Skeeter Rabbit was a master of one of the most subtle and refined forms of hip-hop dance.
I know most people don’t associate subtlety and refinement with hip-hop, but that’s precisely why it’s important to remember his contribution. As Skeeter Rabbit’s friend and disciple Fabel taught me, Boogaloo Style uses sharp, rhythmic muscle contractions to punctuate large, sweeping, circular motions. The beauty is in the interplay between these two almost contradictory kinds of movement, which is emphasized in a variety of ways, from its choreography to the clothes the dancers wear (loosely draped, the better to show off both aspects, the sharp and the flowing).
We mourn Skeeter Rabbit as a great dancer, a great pioneer, and – by all accounts – a great person, but we also celebrate the aspects of hip-hop he represented, aspects which are too often forced to the background: subtlety, refinement, creativity, discipline, making a better life than the one you were handed, respect for one’s teachers and peers, and respect for one’s students
