I'm shocked..

[The Amazing Beaumanz]

That no one commented on the accident during that breakdance show in the subway. It made me look at the possibilities that could happen at any point during probably any one of our shows.

As the Coordinator of a nightly festival, it made me sit with ALL performers and discuss this event and some of the possibilities of what went wrong. I don't feel that it was 100% the parents fault.

[gav]

huh

what are you talking about ?

[The Amazing Beaumanz]

this has been all over the news

[The Amazing Beaumanz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMHmBTNiC-A

[Stephon]

Just curious. . .do you feel it was the performer's fault or that of the venue coordinator (if there even was one)?

[Hunter]

Does anyone know if the performers had some way of continuously forming the crowd line?

I'd think that with any sort of continuous performance that has a continuously changing crowd you'd have to have some sort of system in place.

That said; it would be hard to hold any show up to the test of 'safe for a toddler to dash into the middle of at any given point'.

[gav]

I constantly warn parents to keep their liitle kids out of the performance area because it could be dangerous.
Parents constantly ignore me.
It's a parents responsibilty to safe guard there child when in the vicinity of any hazard. That inlcudes breakdancers and fire jugglers, a guy digging a hole in the ground, and electricians installing high voltage wires.

I hope that kid is ok, looked like quite an impact.

Didn't make it to the news in Europe Beaumanz.

[Lee Nelson]

I would like to see the next minute of footage.

It is the parents responsibility to hang on to the child I feel. Like Gav, I constantly warn and am constantly ignored and thankfully have never had this happen to me.

I imagine if it did happen to me though I would act in a the most responsible way I could after the fact. I want to know if these guys stopped the show, called an ambulance and used their crowd control skills to get a doctor on the scene. Or did they run??

That would speak more about the professionalism of the performers than anything else.

Damn unlucky though. For everyone. I feel unlucky even having to watch it. Imagine being a witness to that and then having to continue with your day.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

WOW!

[Steven Ragatz]

FOL - it is the performer's responsibility to keep the audience safe. However, in spite of the best intentions, accidents clearly do happen. Yes, the parents should keep hold of their toddler. Yes, there were very clear signs of what was going on in the show. Yes, any reasonable person would see that it was an innocent accident. Yes, I think the poor performers are responsible.

Steven Ragatz

[Stephon]

Steven, if you were the performer in this situation, what would you have done to prevent this accident?

Other than putting up physical barriers between the audience and the performance space, I can't think of what would/might have prevented it.

[Jim]

I think this is just one more reason breakdancing should be outlawed. It's only a matter of time before these breakdancers kill again.

Originally posted by The Amazing Beaumanz
this has been all over the news

I just googled for a few minutes and found no mention of this in the "news". Do you have a link to a story?

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

There are even many physical barriers that would not have prevented it; caution tape, red rope, ect.

Even given that, I hate to say it, but I'm with Steven on this one: the fault drops right onto the feet of the dancer. And the rest of the cast, for failing to monitor the crowd. And since we're assigning blame, you've got to fault the mom. And the toddler. And the oppressive white culture that forces such dancing. And the bozo subway designer who favored narrow walkways. And more than all the above, I blame every misinformed idiot who thinks toddlers running into our circles is cute.

[Rachel Peters]

Have we forgotten the great, old thread where it was clearly established that all blame should fall on Martin?
To quote Taxi, "I blame my smarting heart on Mart".
It really has been too long since someone blamed him for their misfortune.

...but seriously -- that was a very scary, very unfortunate incident.
What happened to the child?

[Steven Ragatz]

Originally posted by Stephon
Steven, if you were the performer in this situation, what would you have done to prevent this accident?

Other than putting up physical barriers between the audience and the performance space, I can't think of what would/might have prevented it.

Physical barriers would clearly kill the hat, and apart from having assigned spotters (the other dancers to closely guard the crowd) I don't think that there is anything that can be done. This appears to be an accident that is inherent to the danger and liability of street performing's fundamental premise. I don't think that the word "blame" is appropriate in this situation, rather I would lean towards the word "accountability".

You could also chalk this up to Darwin's natural selection. Both the break dancer, and the audience member who wishes to view the break dancer, get eliminated. After all, there was probably a perfectly good juggling act with a tall unicycle going on just down the street that they all should have been watching instead.

Steven Ragatz