Infusing urban hip hop with a traditional Chinese meditative exercise, French company Domyos collaborates with Fred & Farid Shanghai to promote a new genre of fitness discipline called Tai-Chip-Hop. As its name suggests, Tai-Chip-Hop consists of the best of both worlds; slower streamlined movements of Tai-Chi are mixed with sharper, upbeat gestures of hip-hop. This provides a unique bodily experience and makes for an artistic form of expression.
This movement is interesting because it brings together two contradicting styles of exercise. While Tai-Chi is a martial art based on tradition, hip-hop is a dance and lifestyle focusing on modernity and looking forward. Tai-Chip-Hop strives to “be the most beautiful bridge between two civilizations”—uniting the East and West. Domyos states that Tai-Chip-Hop is already going viral in China.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Tai-chip-hop
- The fusion of traditional Tai-Chi and urban hip-hop creates opportunity for new genre of fitness that promotes artistic form of expression.
- East-west Unity
- The combination of Tai-Chi and hip-hop brings together two contradicting styles of exercise and presents an opportunity for new ways of cross-cultural exchange and unity.
- Alternative Fitness
- Tai-Chip-Hop presents an alternative form of fitness that offers a unique and fun bodily experience for individuals who are looking for something different from traditional gym workouts.
Where This Applies
- Fitness
- Tai-Chip-Hop creates space for innovation and new genre of fitness that moves beyond the traditional gym workouts and offers an artistic form of expression.
- Entertainment
- The combination of two contradicting styles of exercise opens up opportunities for new performance styles and entertainment concepts that merge the old and the new, tradition and modernity.
- Tourism
- Tai-Chip-Hop could become a unique form of tourism and cultural exchange, particularly for individuals who are interested in exploring cultures and traditions beyond the typical tourist activities.
