Dragon House - Illusion of Choice

November 25, 2012 9:01 PM

Illusion of Choice. A dubstep routine by the quartet Dragon House. Mind. Blown. [SLYT] [via]

Member Marquese Scott, previously (1, 2).

posted by gottabefunky (31 comments total)

Well.

I.

Uh.

Wub-wub?
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:12 PM on November 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Pretty cool stuff, there were bits a pieces where the smoothness of the dancing and synch with the audio made me feel like there was a bit of post production wizardry going on but overall it was really impressive.
posted by vuron at 9:12 PM on November 25, 2012

Watch his feet at 3:44. Just wow.

I've been more than impressed at what the main guy does, ever since that Foster the People dance. And now I know that there's three other guys who can do it too!
posted by ashbury at 9:15 PM on November 25, 2012

Marquese Scott is amazing. Also worth mentioning is this recent video in which he and pianist Lang Lang perform Chopin together--it's beautiful, and almost balletic at points. I wish that there'd been more to it, and maybe a split screen so that we could see more of what was happening, but it's still pretty incredible.
posted by MeghanC at 9:30 PM on November 25, 2012 [6 favorites]

I think this is the first time I've watched people dancing and thought it looked like Lotte Reiniger animation.
posted by Foosnark at 9:46 PM on November 25, 2012

turns out you can dance the charleston to daft punk
posted by phaedon at 10:09 PM on November 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Ever since I saw this Key & Peele sketch any seriousness in dubstep has been ruined for me.
posted by Anonymous at 10:28 PM on November 25, 2012

Meghan, that video's editing is bonkers! It felt like it never showed a full phrase of the dance. But the dancing was beautiful, yes.
posted by ocherdraco at 10:29 PM on November 25, 2012

Fantastic post. Best of the web.
posted by effugas at 10:53 PM on November 25, 2012

Damn! Now THAT'S body control!
posted by happyroach at 11:03 PM on November 25, 2012

fluidity of movement, astonishing grace, supremely impressive melding of dance and mime.
wild.
posted by TMezz at 11:07 PM on November 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ocherdraco, that's my complaint exactly, only worded better than I'd managed. The glimpses we get are beautiful and, I think, worth seeing even in their incompleteness, but I'd love to have been able to see the full progression of things.
posted by MeghanC at 11:34 PM on November 25, 2012

I think this one was probably posted here before. First time I saw these guys.
posted by orme at 11:34 PM on November 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Is this thread going to follow the other one where people claim that it's all editing trickery? It's not. Get out from behind your screens and go to a club spinning dubstep and watch LOTS of people moving with almost the same amount of control and grace. Might even do your ass some good to give it a shot yourself.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 12:00 AM on November 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

I think the dancing is pretty cool, but I also thought the stillness, I mean the absolute stillness, of the background was odd. I see leaves move as the dancers' feet step on them, but no branches or leaves or anything shift in the background. I was wondering if they might be dancing with a green screen about 10' behind them (but then I wondered "why would they do that?")
posted by zippy at 12:14 AM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

A dubstep routine

Dubstep, according to Wikipedia, is a genre of music. Is this type of 'dance' also called dubstep? Yeah according to the Marquese Scott article they are calling it "dubstep dance" but no one has written an article, virgin territory. And an orphan. Seems like Marquese Scott owns this style.
posted by stbalbach at 12:20 AM on November 26, 2012

Depends what you mean by 'owns'. It's natural progression from the stuff I used to see at raves in the late 90s.
posted by rifflesby at 12:42 AM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Last time on Metafilter there was debate, with some people insisting that Marquese's dancing was the result of special effects--people thought his shirt didn't move properly or something.

This is Marquese doing it live on Ellen.
posted by surenoproblem at 12:45 AM on November 26, 2012 [6 favorites]

(Not to make it sound like I'm downplaying these guys' skills -- Marquese and his crew are goddamn amazing. I just mean, they didn't invent this style out of whole cloth.)
posted by rifflesby at 1:03 AM on November 26, 2012

I usually hear members of the crew call their dance style Animation. They also got some nice exposure on the last season of SYTYCD with a member making it to the finals (Cyrus, not one featured in this video).
posted by mephisjo at 4:53 AM on November 26, 2012

That's what I call poppin'!
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 5:19 AM on November 26, 2012

It's natural progression from the stuff I used to see at raves in the late 90s.

Er... it's a natural progression of the stuff I used to see "breakdancers" do in the early 80s.
posted by slkinsey at 5:19 AM on November 26, 2012

hell yes.

thank you for this post.
posted by jammy at 5:32 AM on November 26, 2012

I've said it before and I'll say it again: breakdancing is the highest form of art achieved by humankind. I don't think I'm joking about that.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 5:59 AM on November 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Awesome stuff. I love watching the SYTYCD auditions because I get exposed to so many fantastic variations of dance I never knew existed. I also enjoyed the backstory of all these guys living together and sharing resources to pursue their dreams. Good luck and I hope they find great success and satisfaction in their lives.
posted by victoriab at 6:01 AM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

just offering another wikipedia link ... since i also remember the '80's (even the '70's, yo), in case you want a little history.
posted by buffalo at 6:24 AM on November 26, 2012

I'll just leave this here.
posted by Runes at 7:28 AM on November 26, 2012

this recent video in which he and pianist Lang Lang perform Chopin together

Oh man, that shows so many possibilities for the kind of dance I see at the American Dance Festival every summer - breaking out of the funk-free straightjacket of tradition (ballet & modern) that seems to limit so much dance.

But yeah, I'm with ocherdraco: what an idiotic way to edit that thing. So fractured you can't even follow a damn moment. It's like it was edited in exactly the best way to cover up the beauty of what it's showing. Ugh. What horrible editing choices.
posted by mediareport at 8:45 AM on November 26, 2012

I think the dancing is pretty cool, but I also thought the stillness, I mean the absolute stillness, of the background was odd. I see leaves move as the dancers' feet step on them, but no branches or leaves or anything shift in the background. I was wondering if they might be dancing with a green screen about 10' behind them (but then I wondered "why would they do that?")

I thought the same thing, but you can actually see the leaves in the center hanging from the tree moving slightly.
posted by lohmannn at 8:55 AM on November 26, 2012

Just offering another wikipedia link ... since i also remember the '80's (even the '70's, yo), in case you want a little history.

I remember the 70's too, but I think you have the wrong Wikipedia link. Try this one. :-)
posted by superelastic at 10:04 AM on November 26, 2012

i could do that foot spinny thing at 0:56 but i don't wanna
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:40 AM on November 27, 2012