Why are you a bboy?

[koncept]

Stopped by MTA for a quick minute and saw a lot of old faces.. it really made me miss the dance, the culture, and everything in between. It got me thinking...

What made you want to start breaking? What was your first experience with it...?



-For me.. back in 1998 I went to Golden Harvest for the first time. That was the first time i ever saw michigan bboying.. or bboys in general for that matter. I saw Uturn, Strings, Shopao, Steadyflow.. among others. Seeing Uturn break at that time was the coolest fuckin thing on earth. I didn't know shit about breakin or hip hop, but I knew I wanted to find out. After that party I started to mess around a bit....

-then later that year I started going to raves in detroit.. 1 rave in particular.. Family Ties 2... with DJ Qbert (at the time i didn't even know who he was). Saw some black dood busting sick ass footwork, never been so impressed in my life ( I was not sober tho haha). Turned out to be Blackout / calvin. After that i really felt a drive to begin training.. but didn't really have anywhere to start..

-till i met khaos cru in 99'. thunder, psycho, bko, looney.. first group of asians i saw break.. and they were unbelievable. be-friended them.. and shortly after met Relay from chicago and NSA... and finally became a bboy.


I've been to every single MTA.. the dance and the scene has come a long way. so many new faces, and so many faces gone.. for a split second, i thought about gettin back into it and start dancing again.. haha but that was just for a second. whats your story?!?!

[Lunchbox Jams]

Do you mind me asking why you stopped?

I started for the same terrible reasons most people start. To look cool doing windmills. Haha.

I still do it because I can't resist rockin out whenever a dope jam is played. I keep learning more about myself through this form of artistic expression. And it's a priceless tool in helping young people build upon skills like confidence, musicality, and communal unity.

Basically, there are too many reasons to keep dancing and staying involved with the scene. And I've been provided so much because of bboys and bboying that I doubt I'll ever truly pay off my debt.

[koncept]

Mar 21, 2010 10:47:43 GMT -5 Lunchbox Jams said:

Do you mind me asking why you stopped?

I started for the same terrible reasons most people start. To look cool doing windmills. Haha.

I still do it because I can't resist rockin out whenever a dope jam is played. I keep learning more about myself through this form of artistic expression. And it's a priceless tool in helping young people build upon skills like confidence, musicality, and communal unity.

Basically, there are too many reasons to keep dancing and staying involved with the scene. And I've been provided so much because of bboys and bboying that I doubt I'll ever truly pay off my debt.

really good question..

even when I was really into bboying I still didn't devote as much time as i wanted to into it. i spread myself thin by not practicing much.. choosing basketball or lifting weights instead. it interfered a lot with my breaking cuz when i was sore from bball or lifting, trying to break wasn't easy. as much as i love bboying.. i love basketball more, and even now i still ball 3 times a week. i suppose that's not a very good excuse, but for me.. i don't have the ability to multitask my efforts very well and still get the results i want.

other people are different. some people can do all the elements, still play other sports, and still be really good at each thing. for me though i wasn't able to do that.. so yeah, basically i chose basketball over breaking, and didn't feel i could do both.

[reazon]

in high school, i used to watch random people get down in basements at pilipino parties, namely jeremy barrios and phil vista. i wanted to try it out, but i didn't know where or how to start. there was this game for the playstation called "bust-a-groove," and a few of the characters did moves that looked like bboying to me, so i started trying to copy them. i took one of their sets (forward handspring to swipe) and ended up doing it at APAC show. the next party i went to, my friends pushed me out into my first cypher. afterward, this dude named kim was gracious enough to show me how to six-step. i learned how to freeze through an animated gif on some website (this is back when streaming video was almost unheard of), and practiced in my basement by myself for a year.

in my junior year of high school, i took up capoeira. the ginga taught me how to toprock and i learned how to flip. i started busting at cultural shows, usually during hip-hop dances where the choreographers needed "RJ filler." after international dinner in 2000 (celebration of diversity to you young bloods), i cyphered with shiopow at the after party, and he hooked me up with practices where i met hardcore detroit, greg, tom (krazy v), and chucky.

during my freshman year welcome week at michigan state, i got recruited to perform with NSA at the APA welcome reception. i did a bunch of shows with them, and practices at im east really helped me grow. i don't really recall when i officially became a part of NSA, but after a battle at farmington hills (i think it was in a VW hall or something), koncept named me.

i started dancing because of capoeira -- my old teacher used to tell me that it was all about "looking sweet," and i just wanted to look sweet. i kept dancing because i love the dance. when i moved out to cali, i couldn't really find the scene out there, so i quit training and did a lot of kung fu. now that i'm back, i'm really amazed to see how far the scene has come in the past four years. i'm also painfully surprised to see how far i've fallen behind.

but i'm still dancing. brian, get back to practicing. we are repping at red cedar ransom. you can enter us as no-thai.

[excel]

My reason for starting sounds so lame compared to everyone elses. LOL

I started playing Dance Dance Revolution back in middle school through my early high school years. And there was this website called DDRfreak.com which had videos of people "freestyling" where people did whatever, just as long as they hit the arrows.(An example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCW_KAuAn4s ). The game made me obsessed with dancing to music and making sure i hit the beats. Now all the people I use to watch DDR freestyle are part of this locking group in California called DS players.

But back in 2003 or 2004 before Youtube was even out. I stumbled on a clip of Expression vs. Vagabonds at BOTY 2002. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Of course the tricks Wow'd me, but I loved the fact they did these tricks to the music. I remember trying to mimic Hong 10's set to "Wild Safari". After a while I read about the other aspects of the dance, and I fell in love with toprocks. Then I went to watch my first jam in 2006 at Battle of Ann Arbor 2. Seeing it all in person was even more enjoyable than watching it on a TV or computer.

Even though I've been following the scene for about 6 years now. I'm just now starting to really practice. I still enjoy doing toprocks the most. But I'm trying to learn how to improve my footwork or different freezes, despite not having a strong upper body.

Even though I'm more educated about the culture now. I still don't consider myself a "bboy" since I'm still learning and the fact I've never even been in a battle yet. I guess I would be better off as a Locker or a Popper. But there's just something about Bboying that makes it more enjoyable for me.

[Tom]

hahahahaha. the first time i saw breakin was at this korean adoptee summer camp i used to go to when i was like 13. brian happened to be the guy i saw. he had a class he taught during the week we were at camp and taught me like 6, cc's, swipes, baby freeze, etc. Then what happened? oh yah, YOU QUIT. lol.

i went to ODG1 and watched and was fucking amazed, but i didnt try to dance again til the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of hs when i was 15 after i got a hold of some old BOTY tapes. that really relit the fire. i lived in an apartment at the time though and had no space to dance in, so me and my friends bought a piece of linol and used to lay it out in my parking lot and session. and by session i mean try a few things, hurt ourselves, repeat. we had fun though and i was starting to love it more and more, and soon found myself taking it way more serious and 'practicing' way more than any of my friends. youtube didnt exist yet though, so all i had to go on were BOTY tapes (I think '01 was the tape I had? a korean crew called visual shock battled havikoro for 3rd place and i thought it was fucking nuts) and a "how to breakdance tape" i bought from breakdance.com hahaha.

that was until about october or november of '05 when Lara Prodigy, another girl I had met at that Korean Camp a few years ago found me on myspace and told me about these guys dancing down at U of M called Element 1, right after BOAA1, saying i should go down and check out a session. so i did, and the rest is history. i met my future crew Robotops, lbj, canton clan when they were still free soul tribe, and a few chi-tribe people. i stuck with it, and they all helped me grow. and now i love it too much to quit. i cant listen to music and not wanna rock u know? ill never view bboying as a career etc, but id definitely consider it something more than a hobby. and as long as my body permits i dont see myself stopping. nothing else gives u this opportunity to travel, meet so many different people, and do something u love so freely. thats why i dance

[Tom]

Mar 21, 2010 16:21:12 GMT -5 reazon said:

now that i'm back, i'm really amazed to see how far the scene has come in the past four years. i'm also painfully surprised to see how far i've fallen behind.

i just turned 20, and in the 4 almost 5 years now that ive been breaking ive watched michigan go from a stomping ground for other cities to a major competitor throughout all the midwest if not abroad after mta and bashville. i dont think anyone who was at MTA can deny that kids like the phils, chan, angelo, etc are going to be better (if theyre not alrdy) than anyone from here has been in a long time. and theyve all been breakin what, 3-4 years tops? the next few years are going to be nasty

[cryzko]

i started in the 80's just doing footwork and trying to do a windmill.... fast forward to 1993 when i was a senior in highschool, we used to hit up the teen clubs and get our jit/grinding on.... in 1994 i was 18 and asked my cousin what clubs to hit up... he mentioned to go to st andrews hall aka the shelter... i hit that up and talk about a vibe... 3 floors of music..house/hip hop/rock... it was a good vibe and everyone vibed out..... i tried to bboy again but in 1992, i blew out my right knee a few times, so any floorwork would just twist my knee out of place... i started to house instead then got into poppin....i would still bust some handplants here and there.... but that ended soon also...

there was a really small detroit dance community at the time... practically all the heads would be at st andrews on fridays and just gig.....cyphers were open and all styles were embraced.... there was no battles really, just heads getting down to the music.....it was a good time.... a lot of detroit talent in the building also...

one of the major turns (i would believe) in the detroit dance scene, was small events that the car club i was in would host....in the mid to late 90's i was in a car club called 'dreams to reality' and we decided to start hosting bboy battles to raise money for the club and get the youth involved.... the battles were in southwest detroit and were mainly bboy battles, but luckily more poppers started to come out....it was a good time and good to see the young heads back then still dancing to this day...

as for myself, i'm sort of phasing out my role in the dance scene.... i've decided to stop judging and helping in organizing....

it seems to me that the 'real' scene is slowly dying out, while the 'organized' side is taking it's place.... as for 'real' i mean that hip hop is a culture and it's funny that i don't see any dancers at these clubs/places/etc.....only see them at events and thats it....

in the day, it was about hitting up the clubs and spots and getting down..... but now, it's about events and prize money.....sure we used to have events in the day, but those same dancers you would see out and about at other clubs/etc and we all would still get down.......

for me, it just seems that the 'culture' is slowly being removed....

other than that, i'm sort of leaning more towards house these days... it's a different vibe and not really about 'battlin' and being the 'best' etc.....it's just about grooving....

[Tom]

Mar 22, 2010 13:23:09 GMT -5 cryzko said:

it seems to me that the 'real' scene is slowly dying out, while the 'organized' side is taking it's place.... as for 'real' i mean that hip hop is a culture and it's funny that i don't see any dancers at these clubs/places/etc.....only see them at events and thats it....

in the day, it was about hitting up the clubs and spots and getting down..... but now, it's about events and prize money.....sure we used to have events in the day, but those same dancers you would see out and about at other clubs/etc and we all would still get down.......

for me, it just seems that the 'culture' is slowly being removed....

i disagree. i think that maybe those "places/spots" have just changed over the years. i see and vibe with people all over ann arbor, east lansing, grand rapids, fort wayne, windsor/toronto, etc a lot for stuff aside from competition. grand rapids has blues on the mall, east lansing and ann arbor have spots all over (now thats its warm again) that u can see people dancing. ive danced at different events in fort wayne, and partied with other cats in canada too much... haha.

as far as the club scene or whatever you want to call it, a lot of us are still too young to even get into those places haha. idk. i obviously wasnt around x years ago, but i would be really hard pressed to say the culture's "being removed."

[Kevin]

lol

if we weren't around to experience the specific culture that he's talking about, then how can us youngins be hard pressed to accept that it's being removed? Especially when it seems his definition of vibe and your definition of vibe is different.

I always find the discussions between the older generation and the newer generation to be the most insightful. A lot of knowledge can be gained. Who's to say what's right and wrong? Things change overtime. And in that regard I must agree with Tom. I can't say shit about the 90's culture though. I was watching "Pete and Pete" and "Rocko's Modern Life". Shit, Nickelodeon in general back during its glory years haha

[cryzko]

sure, decades have come and gone.... the dance grew, but the 'culture' is fading away..... the underground scene is always alive, but not many seemed to look into it...... bboy'n and popp'n have cross into other areas.....

i'm curious on how many folks would come to an event in the D opposed to one in the burbs..... a hip hop spot in the D or a top 40 club in the burbs.....

[Lunchbox Jams]

Oh man, dope topic. Total sidetrack but dope.

I see where Cryzko is coming from. I'm not old school but I started in a time where I got to experience some of what he's referring to. And from an old schooler's perspective I think it's completely legit to feel and express that the culture is being lost. At the very least, the culture that someone like Cryzko knows and defines as bboying/hip hop culture is being lost. Maybe youngins would define it as transcending or simply changing, but in doing that you'll have to naturally lose some aspects or lose emphasis on some aspects.

I imagine it would feel like a culture being up rooted. So as the art form becomes popularized, taken away from it's origins, and spread across many different cultures you risk losing the original essence. Just trying to think old school: bboying is a result. It's what happened due to living in an oppressive environment, with little opportunity, poor living conditions, violence, etc. The art form was born from that essence. A grundgy, St. Andrews all dark and smellin like BO out of every corner, loud ass beats with mostly black people as dark as the night, hahahah.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with where the culture is evolving towards, but look at it through the eyes of someone who grew up in Detroit. They look at you acting tough, raised in your 2,000 sq. foot home, with your xbox 360, college education, and brand new car... battling using moves you got from youtube in a practice facility that is fancier than anything they've imagined. I include myself in that description FYI, so I'm not specifically saying "you" as in you and not me, haha. Ok, so take on that perspective and honestly try to say that their culture hasn't been tainted and ruined by an arrogant, selfish, and ungrateful youth.

You guys get what I'm saying? Maybe the culture isn't lost, but it sure has changed enough to make an old schooler feel that way. And I think it's legit.

Poe One did a recent interview with Strife where he touches on some of these topics. As a younger generation of bboys we bite moves like crazy with no consideration for other people's creativity and no feeling of guilt for doing so. We see bboys getting in each other's faces and talking crazy shit all the time, but maybe 98% of those bboys have probably never been in a fight. So if it came down to it all that shit talking is just hot air and childish front. It's fake as hell.

I think there was a time and I think old school heads remember a time when bboys acted tough because they actually were tough. They dressed a certain way because they grew up rockin that shit. They went to certain clubs and supported certain jams because it supported the communities they actually grew up in. Have we lost some of that in a sense? I would think... absolutely, yes.

That's why we need old crotchety farts like Cryzko to remind us of the times when people used to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow 365 days a year... hahaha. I'm messin, but you know what I'm gettin at. And I think I'm only like a year younger than Cryzko, hahaha.

But let's be honest, if we didn't have old heads checkin us and reminding us of our roots and what we should be in touch with, we'd walk all over that shit and ruin the culture in a heartbeat.

[Mav-One (MCRz)]

before i spend the evening re-reading all the other posts ill give my reason...

same reason as any one else to get pussy!!!.

lol nah I bboy now because Ive found a way to give back to my community in the best way I can. I started MCRz in the beginning becuase i seen that Southwest used to have some ILL ass talent but now(then 2006) wasnt worth dick. I wanted to put us back up there. but as time passed i noticed a lotta neighborhood kids fucking up the same way I was before. and i had a medium to reach and teach them. So I made the crews # mission to be a positive influence in our community. So half of the B-boy in me wants to make sure im around to give back the other half fell in love with the actual culture of it. all the underlying tones that it has. without getting to "ya i grew up in the hood nigga what!!!!" the crew(gang) mentality. rockin shirts(colors) gettin mad attention when everyone just looked at u like a fuck up/worthless. that shit caught my attention @ 13. once i started seeing how battling was just like a scrap i was in.
I keep b-boyin now becuase i know i can give back to this community also. Its basically been 10 years since i started(well u know first got into the shit).

...Im not a b-boy. I just b-boy.

to sum up what u said Anthony Alien ness said" theres 2 type of dancers: actors and reenactors ."

just me man some of the shit I see makes me lmao then it just gets sad.....

epic is gay!

[Cast]

Now I'm a bboy because I love dancing and expressing myself through the dance and all that other good stuff.

But my reason for starting is kinda wack. I went to this summer camp 5 years ago, and this kid in my cabin could do the 6-step, and I learned it and thought it was fun and looked cool. So once I got home, I bought a "how to breakdance" DVD and learned the turtle, hurricanes, and the shittiest swipes on the face of this earth in about 2 weeks. Then I stopped. I would break at parties and dances, but I would just do the same set over and over again, and I wasn't dancing, I was flailing.
Then, once I got to high school, I did crew (rowing). I did it for 3 seasons and then decided I hated it, so I quit. I then had a ton of free time to fill and I was a lot stronger than when I was in middle school. SO I decided to give breaking another try. I fell, had awful form, and didn't know what toprocking was, but I was having fun. 6 months later I found out about element-1, and starting learning the right way, and fell in love with the dance and the people. I've been breaking ever since (1 year 4 months).
I may be new to the scene, but eventually I'll leave my mark on it and give back to the community that has given me confidence, fun, and a way of life.

Peace

[reazon]

Mar 23, 2010 17:05:48 GMT -5 Mav-One (MCRz) said:

epic is gay!

haha what the hell?