Lil C

Christopher Toler, known professionally as Lil C, grew up in Los Angeles and became a foundational figure in the city's early krump community alongside practitioners including Tight Eyez, Big Mijo, and Miss Prissy. He brought the form into international view through David LaChapelle's 2005 documentary *Rize*, which presented Los Angeles krump as a community practice rooted in battles, expression, and an alternative to violence. His appearance in the film made krump visible to audiences through the perspectives of its practitioners rather than as an anonymous visual effect.

Beginning in 2006, Lil C worked on *So You Think You Can Dance* as a choreographer, performer, and guest judge. In a 2011 interview, he described judging through authenticity, individuality, musical connection, and "essence"—language that elevated street-dance vocabulary into television's critical vocabulary. His detailed critiques made intention and technique central to the program's discussion of dance.

Lil C was also featured in David Michalek's 2007 installation *Slow Dancing*, filmed using high-speed cameras that stretched seconds of movement into extended portraits, exposing details of acceleration, suspension, and muscular articulation invisible at real-time speed. He appeared in the web series *The LXD* (2010) and contributed to commercial choreography and film work that expanded the contexts where krump-derived movement appeared.

In 2012–2013, Lil C collaborated with Miss Prissy on The Underground, a concert company built around Los Angeles street-dance forms including krump. His approach during this period, which he called "subtle bucc," worked in slower, demonstrative language—placing freestyle, sessions, and unison choreography in conversation without treating the concert stage as a replacement for the community spaces where krump develops.