Miranda accepted the 2016 Tony Award for best musical and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama for his hip-hop musical Hamilton 8
BUSTA IN DA HOUSE advance even as tickets sold for hundreds of dollars each For a production intended to make America’s story accessible to everyone it sure was hard to get inside the theater The production worked with the Rockefeller Foundation which donated more than 7 million so thousands of students from New York City and other cities across the country could see the show 1 As part of that privilege students spent time on lessons about history theater and hip-hop They created their own scenes songs and raps about parts of early American history that spoke to them Lin-Manuel Miranda says the scariest performance of Hamilton for him was in the first few weeks when star rapper Busta Rhymes was in the front row Miranda a lifelong fan of hip-hop really wanted the hip-hop community to embrace Hamilton because it’s such a love letter to them 2 Since then President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama Vice President Joe Biden Beyoncé and Jay Z and a host of other celebrities have seen the show But according to Miranda it was all easy after Busta Hip-Hop Is Art Some people have been critical of bringing hip-hop into the classroom as an educational tool Some critics claim it doesn’t seem old enough to be a real art form The attitude ways of speaking and posture of hip-hop have 9
First Lady Michelle Obama invited the cast of Hamilton to perform in the East Room of the White House on March 14 2016 sometimes been viewed as informal and unworthy of study For years this mind-set considered rappers gangsters and thugs and it kept hip-hop dance moves on the streets or in clubs Often these dances were appropriated and marketed to mainstream culture rather than honored as their own forms of art But these misconceptions have changed As the hip-hop fans and practitioners of the late 1970s 1980s and certainly 1990s such as Miranda grew up the dance 10
moves they knew so well made their way into more widespread settings Boys and girls brought their dance styles to studios classrooms and stages In the process they made changes and created New School hip-hop Dance has always been changing and this evolution is just another part of the art’s development Hip-hop dance is now viewed as a serious art form and is studied as such Hip-Hop Dance as Art Hamilton uses the language and movement of hip-hop as well as a multiracial cast to present sights and sounds people recognize as conversational Because of this the audience sees familiar names from American history not as white marble as often seen in school textbooks but as relatable human beings Thomas Jefferson who sports a glorious Afro is a lively character not an antique painting This relatability helps connect the actions of American history to the present and to our lives today The ensemble uses a variety of dance styles from ballet and jitterbug to tap and of course hip-hop’s many forms The dancers even incorporate furniture including a sizable writing desk It’s a story about America then told by what America looks like now 3 Lin-Manuel Miranda 11
