Breaking the stereotype

The Tangled Roots don’t want you to get it twisted. There’s a big difference between hip-hop and rap.

Rap is the music, one of the four essential elements of hip-hop culture; the other three are deejaying, graffiti, and breakdancing.

All of them have had negative connotations in the media, and The Tangled Roots crew is looking to show hip-hop in a positive light, especially through dance.

The Spokane break dance alliance and dance studio is putting on the Four Elements National Breakdancng Championship Finals, bringing top dancers from around the country to compete onstage Saturday night at the INB Performing Arts Center.

The event features big names in breaking, who will go head-to-headspinning head in a series of bracketed four-on-four battles and one-on-one duels.

The Tangled Roots started as a dance crew in 1999 and opened a dance studio and mobile deejay business about two years ago.

“It started with me and a couple of friends breaking. Then we went to battles and started going to all these events, then we started teaching kids and now we’re three generations deep,” said founding member Shanner Escalanti who runs the Tangled Roots dance studio at 3515 N. Division St..

Tangled Roots has shown up at various rap shows and exhibitions around town, and began throwing major events centered around dance this year.

“We’re providing that connection to the outside world instead of going to see these people, we’re bringing them to the general public,” Escalanti said. “We want those kids and their parents that come to the studio to be able to meet the same people we’ve met – some of best dancers in the world.”

The crews coming to the show are mainly from the West Coast, with a few East Coast and international appearances.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Killafornia – one of two California crews represented at Four Elements – have footworked with Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Missy Elliot, and Black Eyed Peas.

The other Cali crew, San Francisco’s Rock Force Crew, features the Bionic Man, who competed with Supreme Soul on TV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.”

With members from Orlando, Fla., and Newark, N.J., Mind 180 took the B-Boy Unit World Championship in 2007.

Based out of the Bronx and now operating in Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada, Rock Steady Crew will have dancers from it’s Las Vegas leg at Four Elements.

Some of the crews from the region could prove to be the strongest competitors, Escalanti said, pointing to Portland’s Moon Patrol, which has placed in several competitions and made appearances in television commercials.

The solo battles are highlighted by Morris, the UK B-Boy Championship World Finalist that won the Rock Steady 31st Anniversary battle this year, along with Rock Force Crew battle champion Kareem and the only local competitor at the event, Tangled Roots’ acrobat Tucker.

“All the guys in the solo battles are power heads,” Escalanti said.

One of the biggest names in the breakin’ world at the events is one of the celebrity judges, Crumbs, who can be seen in dance movie “You Got Served,” and “Step Up 1” and even got a couple of speaking lines in “Step Up 2.” He’s also dance in videos next to Eminem, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, J-Lo and Missy Elliot.

The event will also feature graffiti murals, spoken word artists, and deejays flanking both sides of the stage.

Escalanti said holding a breakdance competition of this scale at the former Opera House sends a message about hip-hop’s reach and its roots from inner-city neighborhoods in New York to city centers in Spokane.

“We have a b-boy studio,” Escalanti said. “This isn’t jazz, or tap, or ballet. This is an art form we want to express and we’re sending a call for all people wanting to do it and we want to make sure it doesn’t look thuggish and that it‘s a positive experience. Breakin’ is looked down on in Spokane and we’re trying to change that.”