When students first arrive at college, there’s an expectation of boring lecture halls and heaps of homework. While that may normally be the case, Janalyn Phillips has taken a different approach to teaching her First-Year Seminar History of Hip Hop, bringing students out of the classroom and onto the dance floor.
“In designing this class, with all the creative expression I thought that it would be a really great opportunity to get the students out of class and give them an experience associated with what we’re learning,” Phillips said.
As an adjunct Pharmacy and Health Sciences instructor who usually teaches a 50 minute lecture and a one hour and 50 minute lab each week, Phillips isn’t accustomed to teaching a class like History of Hip Hop
“Initially, I didn’t follow any type of a book,” Phillips said. “I did my own research and kind of made a big sketch and a big timeline for myself. I am a hip-hop fan, but I also listen to a lot of different types of music as well. Through my research, I pieced a timeline together and introduced a lot of different pillars of hip-hop and artists and creators and highlighted their creative activity.”
The FYS typically meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in Meredith Hall but on the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 27, they were not in their normal classroom. Instead, the class headed to the Bell Center for an introductory class in Chicago Footwork with Kelli Foreman, a member of the Creation Global Crew, a global dance crew specializing in Chicago Footwork, and a live DJ.
This is the third year in a row Phillips has brought in Foreman for this kind of introductory class.
“My process of coming from contemporary ballet, Los Angeles, New York, professional career, commercial career, into street dance, into Chicago Footwork, it has been a journey,” Foreman said. “I shared the foundation today in a very open, loving, caring, not too fiery way; we only battled at the end. I want people to know that they can do it, and they did.”
Foreman discovered Chicago Footwork while living in New York, where she met her teacher, King Charles, through a master class. Soon after, Foreman found herself in Los Angeles, then Chicago, learning the craft.
“Chicago Footwork is the dance style that we [at Creation Global] focus on,” Foreman said. “It’s a very fast dance style that’s 40-plus years old, from the lineage of house music into ghetto house music, into juke, and then into Chicago Footwork. And it’s from mainly the African-American community in Chicago.”
Aside from dance, Phillips also brings the students out of the classroom to experience other facets of the history and culture they’re learning about in the classroom.
“We do a graffiti unit, in which we learn about the history of graffiti, different styles of graffiti and different techniques of graffiti, and then we have an experience outside on the Drake campus,” Philips said. “The students come in and create their masterpieces. We have huge pieces of cardboard. We have a lot of different spray paints and colors, so they can do some designs and play around making as many projects as they want.”
The students within the FYS share the same enthusiasm as Philips for the hands-on nature of the course.
“I think it’s a good class, it’s engaging, which is good for a first-year seminar,” said Lexi Remy, a first-year in the class. “She has us do a lot of hands-on work, which I also appreciate.”
For now, students in History of Hip Hop will keep groovin’ on.
