April 2006
Bill on Rolling in the Carolinas and "Top This"Bill Butler (BB) recently attended the annual Rolling in the Carolinas skate extravaganza in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mar. 24-25, and had a few comments to share about his experience and the skating
(BB) – This year was very nice. It was a big difference from what it has been and I hope more groups from various cities get to represent, that’s the way it should be done and it only can get better. They’re off to a good start. This is what we should be doing so we’re not looked at like we’re monkeys in a cage.
(RST) - Do you
remember what cities stood out to you?
If anything, each group should be an example for the next, almost like a one-up-manship but in a good way. In my book I talk about “Top This*,” it’s a form that energizes the next person to get better but it’s not to put that person down. I think Detroit needs a lesson with that, they need to get it together, do what they have to do and don’t stay on the floor like that. It’s overbearing - I guess they think they have to do that but they should only do that when it’s specifically allowed, then do it to death but not on somebody else’s time. When you’re supposed to get off the floor, you should get off the floor.
Other than that, everything was everything as far as I can see but I would like to see more [coordinated] skating from the various representing cities so that we can have something to feed off of, that’s what it should be. * From Bill's book, “Jammin – Bill Butler's Guide to Roller Disco” (1979), section “Top This, The Improvisation Game:”
“You can call jamming an art; you can call it a sport. But the most beautiful thing about it – to me, anyway – is the social angle. When you are disco-dancing, you stay mainly in one place with one person or your own crowd. When skating, you get to all corners of the rink. The whole place is your crowd. Roller disco brings people together. And there are no jamming Olympics. Nobody's trying to win a prize. When 2 people play “Top This,” it's to bring out the best in each other. I do one move. You try to top it. We chalk a small area and try to out-Grapevine each other. Or we get out on the floor. I do a scissors jump, land on a right outside edge, and slide 15 feet, evading all traffic, back-pedal into a left lean, hop-turn, and snake through the crowd, backward, watching you do a heel-toe stretch to the side, take a Detroit Stride forward, then a scissors jump, switching your feet and turning in the air, landing backward and heading clockwise through the crowd. We don't need judges, either. We know who won. (In this case, it was probably you, although I get points for great traffic-dodging.)
And this is the way you sharpen your improvisation instincts. The more you try and out skate another good skater, the more inventive you become. Improvisation does not merely mean composing new movements or putting the basic steps into flashy combinations. It could also mean skating patterns on the floor, unreal patterns all over the place. You could trace a seven, a half-moon, a Q, a question mark, whatever you want. And improvisation means making those split-second decisions about which way to go, and in what style, when the crowd's closing in on you. Sometimes you “go with the flow.” Sometimes you rebel. But you always keep that beat. Jamming is the urge to go where the music takes you. And where that is, now that you know the vocabulary of roller disco, is entirely up to you.”
- Posted 04/06/06 - |