Meet the KC dancer krumping his way to Kauffman for massive dance battle

When one imagines the type of dance performed at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, you usually expect traditional styles, such as ballet, or tap, or maybe even jazz.

This ain’t that.

When the Red Bull Dance Your Style competition holds its Midwest Regional in Kansas City on Saturday, April 25, the moves performed will feature more headspins and b-boy stances than the typical performances inside one of KC’s iconic landmarks. The annual competition brings together the top street style dancers across the Midwest to compete for a chance to advance in the contest and compete in the World Final, this year taking place in Switzerland.

And there will be at least one Kansas City dancer vying for the chance to represent the city in the finals.

Tyrell Griffin, aka “KonWork,” hopes to be the chosen one.

Krumping culture in KC

A KC native, Griffin is excited for the chance to bring a different style of dance to Kauffman, one he has helped cultivate in the city over decades of practice and “battling.”

Griffin’s preferred style is called krumping, a brash, unpredictable form of dance that was born in California’s Bay Area. Think breakdancing meets praise dancing, but with an aggressive, battle-rap edge to it. Krump is an acronym — “Kingdom Radically Uplifted Might Praise,” according to Griffin — which references the dance’s original faith-based beginnings.

The dance style became popular in the early 2000s with founders Ceasare “Tight Eyez” Willis and Jo’Artis “Big Mijo” Ratti creating the style in south-central Los Angeles, California. The dance began as a way for individuals to release and express anger and emotions in a safe, non-violent way. Small-budget, straight-to-DVD and YouTube films such as “RIZE” documented the early movement in striking visuals that held a spot in pop culture during the early YouTube era.

Like a lot of Black culture in Kansas City, the regional form of dance eventually made its way from California to KC, complete with lingo such as “buck,” or “Believers Uplifting Christ Kingdom” — meaning impressive/high energy skills; “Get-off” — meaning to end a dance with a grand finale; and “Tutting” — meaning to move one’s arms in sharp geometric shapes and movements.

Griffin got a taste of the culture in 2008 as a self-described “fat kid with a saxophone,” and was instantly hooked. “I saw a video of another big dude dancing, and he must’ve done a move, and I was like, “Yo! What is this we watching?!” Griffin said recently.

Griffin immediately threw himself into the culture, attending “sessions” — a loose dance environment where dancers meet to try out new moves — to get started and hone his skills. But he wasn’t allowed to dance right away.

“It’s very territorial, they didn’t just allow me to dance,” Griffin said. “We’re a small town and people have built this from the mud. Anybody can’t just show up and dance.”

Because krump was born from the inner city and has roots in gang culture, there is a hierarchy that comes with it. You have your elders, aka “Big homies,” and those that follow in their footsteps, aka “little homies.” Together, these groups are called “families,” and carry all the seriousness of the term. Every family has its own style.

In addition to the style of dance in all its gyrating glory, krump has its own genre of music, which lands somewhere between hip-hop, techno and heavy metal, and a style of dress that is in tune with hip-hop street style sprinkled with a touch of the Juggalo culture. But its moves can easily be translated into different music styles, too.

As Griffin worked his way up the ranks in KC’s krumping community, he became recognizable in the culture by being aggressive and consistently winning battles with his unique, rowdy style with a Kansas City flair.

Saturday’s competition will mark Griffin’s fourth time being a part of the Red Bull Dance Your Style contest in some fashion.

His goal? To put the city on the map and show that krump is alive and well in the town. So far, he is the only krumper on the bill for the competition, a challenge he is more than willing to take on.

“Popping (and locking), people have seen this,” said Griffin as he demonstrates a move. “But krump is still very new.

“People know it, but we still got work to do to put on for krump,”

This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 3:54 PM.