So who exactly is embracing these dances? Haynes-Cardwell thinks there's no age limit. When Stajez performed at the Blackstone this summer, she noticed that everyone did the dances: kids, grandmothers, and mothers.
But Stajez member Oumaru Fofana, 17, has different ideas. His grandmother often asks him to show her the dances he's learning at practice. He'll happily demonstrate modern and ballet moves.
But when she presses him to show the hip-hop steps, he says, "I was like, all right, I gotta go, girl." He couldn't bring himself to do it. Gender also plays a role in who does these dances.
The 2 Step is a laid-back move men over a certain age do, says Jake Paine, East Coast editor at hiphopdx.com . "You kind of rock back and forth, move your arms, but you're almost too proud to dance.
. . .
There's a generation break right around 21 or 22. If you're older than that and not trying to completely make a clown of yourself, you're not really doing it. You might like the song and bob your head and know the dance at the back of your mind, but it's a thing of the young people.
" For teens, the dances have become a part of life. Members of Stajez say they do them in their school hallways, after school, and during breaks in their dance practice. "You'll be in the middle of a ballet class and they're doing the 'Superman,' " says Haynes-Cardwell.
Teens learn new moves in a variety of ways. When Briana Brown, 16, wanted to add one of the most popular new dances, the "Superman," to her repertoire she looked to fellow Stajez members Jasmine Dyer, 14, and Charae Hemingway, 14. First, Brown watched them do the dance several times.
Then she got behind them and began doing it herself. "There's always one person who knows all that stuff," says Williams. "You can learn it from your friends.
" Or a myriad of other resources. Brown also went online to learn the "Superman" - Soulja Boy helpfully uploaded an instructional video on how to do the dance. Hemingway learns new dances by watching the MTV show "Dances From Tha Hood.
" Or she discovers new ones when she and her family visit out-of-state relatives. Even with the Internet helping to spread trends faster, the teens say Boston woefully trails behind on the dance front. The dances often originate in the South, usually Atlanta, or New York City.
Although Fofana knew the "Aunt Jackie," some of his fellow Stajez members had never heard of it. "It gets old" in other places, says Fofana, "and then it comes here and gets hot.
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