Posted Apr 27, 2008 by Conor_C :: 10 comments

This beat is Tecktonik

In recent years the Parisian suburbs have been associated with a few prominent youth movements that have spread around the world and fortunately haven’t involved setting fire to metro stations and beating shit out of the local police force. Parkour was those sad failed-gymnasts hopping off of walls and railings in combats and high-tops, trying to make believe they’d invented a new urban sport that’s actually been around as long as alcohol and low-security building sites. And before that there was the whole short-lived French hip hop movement that, apart from MC Solaar, TTC and an immortal scene in La Haine where a DJ plays Edith Piaf over ‘Fuck the police’, nobody outside of France really cared about. But the latest Parisian youth movement looks like coming on strong and staying around for a while. It’s called Tecktonik and from a distance looks like nothing more than a bunch of nu-rave kids who’ve spent too much of their pocket money at American Apparel and H&M, but then they start dancing and that’s when the real difference kicks in. Dancing to electro beats they pull off these moves that are half girl band steps, half break dancing, and look so far beyond ridiculous, I guess, you have to admit it’s pretty damn cool.

Cyril Blanc runs a Tecktonik club night in an area called Metropolis in Paris.
"For seven years we’ve been organising nights called Tecktonik Killer where we play the harder sounds of northern Europe and the softer sounds of southern Europe. Little by little, the clubbers who came invented a choreography," he says. A few quick foot movements, a bit of organised arm waving and some shoulder popping later and Tecktonik was born. A million and one YouTube videos popped up within the next half a year teaching kids how to do the dance steps, so they wouldn’t look dumb when they came to the club. One guy called Jey-Jey has a clip on YouTube shot in his parent’s garage that’s been viewed nearly nine million times – that’s about the population of the greater Paris area.
"It can be kind of intimidating the first time you come here and see us all dancing these moves. Most people practise from the video clips online and then when they’ve got them down they come along to the club nights,” says Jo one of the Metropolis regulars. “That’s how we started.”

Everyday outside the Pompidou Building in the centre of Paris little gangs of kids meet up for dance offs. Amongst hundreds of tourists with their Christmas cameras, a few dozen dudes in berets trying to get them to pose for a ten euro sketch and a thousand dirty pigeons leaving their trail on everything else are these pockets of dancers, throwing shapes that haven’t been seen on dance floors since, well ever. It may be ridiculous but isn’t it about time we had a change from the supermarket stackers and the superglued to the dancefloor crew.