Elliot Ratzman’s first encounter with breakdancing was in the 1980s at his Cincinnati junior high school.
“Kids would dance in the hallway before class started, and — not understanding the mores of the school, which should have dissuaded me from participating — I joined them,” said Ratzman, a research fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and a new lecturer in LSA’s Department of Judaic Studies.
“Soon we had a group of students practicing in the gym at 7 o’clock in the morning. Somebody would bring a tape cassette they got from a cousin in, like, Chicago and we’d put it in a tape player and dance to the latest, hot stuff.”
To hone his dance moves, Ratzman said he used a videocassette recorder to record music videos on MTV and breakdancing-themed movies like “Beat Street” and “Breakin’” — then he’d rewatch the VHS tapes to teach himself the choreography.
Ratzman’s practice paid off when he won a boom box at a teen dance-off. He continued dancing in high school, though split his time with varsity wrestling after he was recruited by a coach who spotted Ratzman’s deft dance moves.
While Ratzman did dance occasionally as an undergraduate student at Ohio University — mostly at clubs and Black Student Union dances — it wasn’t until he got to Princeton, where he earned a Ph.D. in religion, that he joined an official dance group: Sympoh, Princeton’s student breakdancing crew.
“Sympoh raised the quality of student dance shows by integrating serious themes into our performances, and even putting on a production of ‘West Side Story’ with breakdancing,” he said.
Nowadays, Ratzman likes to conduct breakdancing workshops, as well as perform with student dance groups at the schools where he’s working, including, in the past, Swarthmore College, Lawrence University and Earlham College.
“I believe breakdancing is for everyone. Give me an hour and, no matter what body type or level of strength, I’ll make you the life of the party, wedding or bar mitzvah,” he said.
According to Ratzman, breakdancing success really comes down to two things: a basic six-step and showmanship. The “break” in breakdancing refers to a literal break in a song — when the music might switch to a percussion solo. It’s at that point that a breakdancer gets on the floor — and aims to grab an audience’s attention.
Ratzman’s breakdancing strategy: Use moves that surprise or even amuse those watching.
“I’ll throw in some salsa steps, belly-dancing or I’ll start vogueing,” he said. “At a performance at Earlham College, I did a few moves from a dance scene in the TV show ‘Wednesday,’ which the students in the audience instantly recognized.
“Choosing dance moves that are part of an audience’s pop culture vocabulary elevates the mood — they love it.”
Breakdancing’s wide and enduring appeal is likely tied to its range of cultural influences, Ratzman said.
“By incorporating a variety of dance vocabularies, including Brazilian Capoeira, Asian martial arts, Latin dance and African American dance moves, breakdancing has become a quintessential American dance style,” he said. “Rather than cultural appropriation, I like to think of breakdancing as cultural hybridity.”
Ratzman also draws a parallel between breakdancing and his current research role at the Wallenberg Institute.
“As an ethicist and religious studies scholar, I am curious about how individuals and small groups have worked effectively to reduce suffering and save lives, often through smart organizing, force of personality and religious organizations — campaigns, charisma, church,” he said.
Because Ratzman is still relatively new to the UM community — he arrived in Ann Arbor last summer and just began teaching this semester — he is still seeking his Ann Arbor breakdancing crew.
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In the meantime, he has found a physical outlet at Ann Arbor’s Tiny Buddha Yoga, where he’s been enrolled in teacher training.
“Thanks to Tiny Buddha Yoga, I’m now in the best shape of my life, so be looking for unexpected performances from me in the near future, as soon as old-man-Ratzman can figure out where the local breakdancers are,” he said.
Q&A
What about the workplace stands out?
Though I have only been at U-M for a few months, I went looking for colleagues and comrades doing good work and am finding extraordinary programs around campus being staffed by fantastic people, and I have only scratched the surface.
Name your favorite spot on campus.
Michigan is unfamiliar territory for this Ohio boy, but I’m more than delighted to be here. Ann Arbor is an endless sprawl of coffeehouses and vegan options. My favorite spot on campus is any doorway I can darken to meet someone new and have a great conversation.
What can’t you live without?
I usually travel with an “emotional support library” of books and tea, and I can’t live without making others laugh.
What inspires you?
If I have an inspiring angel, it is the late Paul Farmer, the infectious-disease doctor and medical anthropologist who started the global health equity group Partners in Health. He was a model of brilliance, good spirits, wit, academic rigor and activist passion who kept his focus on the patient in front of him while working to address larger systems of structural violence. I also keep near the famous photograph of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, a momento mori, to remind myself that I am never doing enough, never sacrificing enough, to relieve suffering.
What are you currently reading?
I’ve been plowing through the books of Alan Wald, a U-M emeritus English professor, as well as reading my colleague Miriam Mora’s “Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century.” At the moment, I am also reading portraits of ’60s experiments in non-violence, “Divine Disobedience: Profiles in Catholic Radicalism,”a memoir by U-M alum Bill Ayers, “Public Enemy: Confession of an American Dissident,”and a newly translated Israeli novel by Yishai Sarid, “The Third Temple.”
Who had the greatest influence on your career path?
The single biggest influence on me was Cornel West, who was my teacher at Harvard and Princeton. Cornel is the model for how I understand the role of an engaged scholar, a public speaker, and just a lovely human being. I can’t endorse his electoral political misadventures, but Cornel is the most small-d democratic soul I know.
