If you’re here, you probably are a tutter or someone interested in tutting or maybe wanna know about tutting. But do you know where and how it all began? Well, it all started in 1977, as we discussed in the previous two articles (Part 1 & Part 2 of Origin of Tutting). If you haven’t read them, give them a read here:
Mark Benson aka King Boogaloo Tut is regarded as the founder of Tutting. Let us learn a little bit more about Mark Benson.
Mark Benson was born on July 11, 1962, in Long Beach CA. Mark started dancing during 74/75 while he was still a kid (12/13 years old). He started off with Boogaloo then learnt popping, after meeting Boogaloo Sam.
The name he chose for himself was King Boogaloo Tut. How he came up with the name is interesting. Mark wrote this himself in the book Memoirs of Boogaloo, Past, Present and Futureby Andre Johnson and I quote:
“by the ’70s, black people were coming into their own as a people. I was torn between being a Black Panther and a Muslim. All I knew is that they both were saying the same thing, how we were kings and queens in Africa and how we were brought here to the United States of America against our will. So the way I was thinking at that time as a little boy, is that I was always a king. So when it came time to pick a name for myself. In my mind, I was already a boy king so King Tut was easy to pick.”
Mark started off with Boogaloo. In the year ’75, he once saw a guy surrounded by a huge crowd at Mac Arthur Park in Long Beach, dancing very impressively but according to Mark was doing the whole dance wrong. He was stopping in between movements. The guy was Boogaloo Sam, the innovator of Popping. Sam explained what he was doing was known as popping. He (Mark) then started working on this new style he discovered. Mark was a big fan of Sam’s dancing. He says that he came up with the king tut style of popping to impress Sam.
I want you all to note this point that for a moment, he was doing something that nobody else in the world was doing. And the fact that he was only 15 years old when he created Tutting is amazing. Leave a small and kind message and I will, personally, share that with Mark.
By 1978, Mark was already famous because of his unique style of dancing. He could get into clubs for free. By ’79 he was already choreographing. In the year 1979, he choreographed The Street Scape. By the early 80s he was touring the world and sharing his knowledge. His journey then continued to Soul Train. He even has choreographed routines the famous dance based TV show So You Think You Can Dance. He has been a part of ABDC (America’s Best Dance Crew) and also America’s Got Talent.
Check out an amazing routine choreographed by the creator of tutting himself:
Besides being a creator, a superb choreographer, Mark is also a good mentor. Many legends including Boogaloo Shrimp aka Turbo, Poppin Taco, Poppin Dave have learnt under him.
Mark may not very famous but his contribution to the world is incomparable and the deserves fame. He gave us Tutting. He gave us Boogaloo Shrimp (also Poppin Taco, Poppin Dave).
Boogaloo Shrimp inspired the legend Michael Jackson and has worked with him and helped Michael in choreographing his dance performances. This blog about Mark is my small gesture of appreciation. I heartily thank you for giving us Tutting. We truly respect you.
Spread the truth with the world. Credit where it’s due.
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