Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jerwaun Suddun. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jerwaun, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
So this is a deep one. I genuinely feel and know that God put krump in my heart at the young age of 14 & 15, 16 to save me. Then years later I asked for clarity on what my calling was and now I’m doing all kinds of things with krump and in krump. So I really didn’t actually know if I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally, I just knew I loved the dance art form and the higher power lead the way.
Jerwaun, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Jerwaun Suddun, I am known in the dance world as Renegade, the leader of the Michigan krump movement known as DirtyGloveBvck. I am 31 years old and have been traveling for krump since 2014, building and leading the krump movement in Michigan since 2016. I got into the art form first seeing Breaking vs Krump on TV when I was 14 years old then I saw the documentary Rize when I was 15 or 16. I was captivated by the body movement the people were displaying and the stories behind them. Now creating & leading a movement, teaching this dance to all different kinds of people from all sorts of different walks & beliefs in life, different ages and identities, helping them within the art form the way it helped me and in ways I also did not have coming up in the Culture. What sets me apart is that I am one of very very few people within the Culture to have the accomplishments, accolades, success & skill without ever having what we call a “Big Homie”. A big homie is someone that teaches you in and out of the Culture. More than likely someone that had already been in it for longer and has more knowledge & experience and you hold their name as a “lil homie”. I have never been anyone’s lil homie and I’m doing what a lot of the Bigs are doing without that help or push. The closest thing I have to that is my mentor Standing Ovation but she is not a krumper but still a very phenomenal dancer with a crazy amount of achievements.
Something Im most proud of is the fact that I’ve created a safe space for all of these different people to come together and express, have fun, be vulnerable, learn, be respected & find themselves. I myself did not have any of that growing up and definitely didn’t have it coming up in the dance because there was no krump movement here. That’s another thing im absolutely proud of, I created something here that was not here before. Yeah there were people krump dancing here and there within the city but there was no unification, the groups of people didn’t know each other and most of them no longer dance at all anymore. I really brought people together and most of these people come from a different dance style/art form or weren’t dancers at all. To have Pioneered something so major is a huge achievement for me.
Main things I want potential followers/fans to know about my work are that I am very big on respecting & understanding different cultures & histories. I feel like those 2 aspects would help a lot of things in dance in general be handled correctly or just not even have the room to come up. Also that I teach with intention & its not cookie cutter. Krump is about how you feel so I will tell you how I feel when I do certain movements with my body but I will not put my feeling onto you. I will help you find yours & direct you when something looks good or bad and it’s always all out of love and wanting to see your growth for yourself.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think non-creatives will struggle to understand krump as a whole. Ive been watching krump for almost 18 years now while actually being in the culture for 9 years and I’ve been hearing the same thing from non-creatives for all of those years. So I know there’s a misunderstanding of what we do and why. People often believe that krump is angry, its not. Some people may dance while angry but every dance style will do that because we’re human. Krump is passion, power, even pain for SOME but not all. I know many krumpers that are really really happy when they dance but because the dance calls for so much effort we make crazy faces and may look angry. If you lift a 100 pound dumbbell you are not going to smile and be pretty. That’s the effort it takes for krump. People also seem to think we’re just doing anything and that’s not true. There are basics to our dance form just like there are basics to dances like break dancing, popping, Memphis jooking, Detroit Jit and more. Our basics help us say what we’re trying to say within our dance round and then we add characters on said basics to create our storylines, session rounds, battle rounds and more. The difference with krump is that it says “here are the basics, now say what you want to say” versus “these are the basics you have to say it like this”. Which is why we say krump is the rawest dance art form there is.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I feel society can support artist and creatives by REALLY showing up and supporting. Too often I see friends and family not really showing up when we have events and such. Not reposting their friends or families art. You may not understand it all the time but support still helps us be seen and visible. I myself have had so many things and nobody that I know from before I was a creative show up. Understand that can be a bit discouraging for a lot of people and lack of support is why a lot of people give up. I also feel like the American government should support the arts the way the governments overseas do. I know about krump events in places like Germany, Paris, Japan, Russia and more and these places governments not only support the arts but also FUND THEM. If we had more funding to do more here? Who knows what kind of positive changes could happen to the landscape of PEOPLE here, not just us creatives.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instagram.com/dirtyglovebvck?igsh=YjM4czQyYjNvNXRp
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jt_vs_renegade?igsh=MTJraW9sendsYTBuag==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrillionaireJT?mibextid=ZbWKwL