Do you know the Crip Walk dance has a Black disabled history? Before the dance became a cultural phenomenon showcased in music videos and even Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show, it had an unexpected origin.
Did you watch Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show? It was legendary for so many reasons: the celebration of Black culture, the political symbolism, SZA's performance, celebrity cameos like Samuel L. Jackson and Serena Williams and much more.
One of the most legendary parts of the show was a dance called the Crip Walk. Serena Williams performed the move and it attracted a lot of media attention, due to its association with gang culture. But that isn’t the truth. The dance originally had nothing to do with gangs, and only gained that association later during the ‘70s. The Crip Walk has a far more interesting history than what the mainstream media has reported.
The dance was created by and named after Henry "Crip" Heard, a Black double amputee. He was a dancer who lost his right arm and leg in an accident as a teenager, and he learned to dance again as he was unwilling to “be the object of curiosity and pity,” as he put it.
Heard boldly turned a derogatory term, “crip,” into his stage name and therefore showed pride in his body’s unique abilities. By using his upper body strength and tap-dancing expertise, he developed a footwork-based dance that demonstrated his skill and difference.
Heard became a popular act in the 1940s and ’50s and danced in clubs in the USA and Canada, performed on television and in film, thrilling audiences with his exceptional talent, balance and speed. He was considered a celebrity in the Black press at a time when film, television and music provided limited opportunities to Black entertainers, and even less opportunities to Black disabled entertainers. His dancing upended society’s assumptions and expectations about Black and disabled people.
Like many other Black and disabled people throughout history, Heard’s contributions to our culture have been overshadowed, rewritten and appropriated.
Now more than ever, we need to uplift the stories and listen to the voices of Black disabled people, like Henry “Crip” Heard.
Sources:
Cherese Jackson, The Crip Walk: A Dance Rooted in Black Disabled History, https://blacklistedsaint.substack.com/p/the-crip-walk-a-dance-rooted-in-black
Meisha Rosenberg, Overlooked No More: Henry Heard, Tap Dancer and Advocate for People with Disabilities, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/obituaries/henry-heard-overlooked.html