Electro Soul Satisfaction Part 2: Battle

Part 2

It was about 40 minutes away from the opening of the Jam. However, surprisingly, they were still preparing for the jam.
From my past experience, Carlo and Gwo has always been very precise on moving the event according to schedule.

The event started an hour or so late. By that time people were inside the studio stretching or dancing to warm up.


The place looked awesome. It was like a club. Dark with many different projected lights.  In addition, the DJ WAS AWESOME! He had very versatile and great selection of music. It's always a plus to have a DJ that can hype the dancers from the beginning of the jam. Big props to DJ TOXSICK. I wanted to say this through face to face  conversation but I forgot... I'm sorry:(


The jam had three categories. All styles, Locking, and popping.

Each style had approximately 30-40 competitors.

I signed up for popping and all styles because Sun and Senchi convinced me lol.
Fayzah did not sign up for the battles, Ilya signed up for popping, and Jazzy was the judge.

My all styles prelim was HORRIBLE,,,,,,period lol so lets forget about that lol

On the popping preliminary, I went before Ilya.

Super Dope Funk Explosion II was the previous jam I've entered and I felt that I was in a great condition.
That day I was fully energized and was able to dance with out fear, pressure, and nervousness.
I wanted to recreate that condition.
Therefore, I intentionally spend my day with similar schedule, meaning I ate on set time, set amount, and danced, warmed up on set routine..

I was confident that I conditioned myself well.

I was ready.

As I stepped in front of the judges for a preliminary round, I danced in a way that I don't create any regret after leaving the dance floor.

As a result, I passed the prelim. I was happy to hear from Bionic that I looked strong (i interpreted that i had solid get down lol).

Ilya unfortunately could not follow the same path. He wasn't mentally prepared. He did a much better get down right after his prelim, which I know that it could've got him through the preliminary. But that didn't happen that night.

I was sad that this had happened. Because I know how much he had pushed himself to train during the past month with me.

As I posted my thoughts on tumblr, my excitement towards the event settled down. But now that I think about it, it may have helped me to preserve some energy for the upcoming battle.


Top 16 Poppers were selected from each category.

My first battle opponent was someone I knew well. His name is Tboy.
He came to NY at the beginning of this year and I have been practicing with him occasionally. He is a good groovy dancer who has a funky boog style with strong foundation. The only thing that I knew I can do better was to pop more solidly with angles mix some animation influenced movements in my dance.
 
So I tried. Compared to the last jam, I felt that I was thinking too much.
I felt like I didn't do a strong get down. However, luckily I won.
I  was happy that I got to exchange with Tboy. Thank you bro, I hope you have a safe trip home :)

Next opponent I had was Naoko san from Japan.
I didn't really know her dance so I moved the way I feel. But it wasn't a good round either. 

By this time I realized that I was being too stiff and was focused too much on "thinking" about my popping. Ilya told me that I was becoming plain and repetitive. Furthermore, he could tell that I was thinking too much. This was all true. Since we lived and trained together everyday throughout the summer, he knew about my dance well.
I'm fortunate to have person like him that knows and analyze my dance well.
I took in his advise to groove more so I can dance and be free.

I won against Naoko san. I was lucky because while she was getting down, it felt like the music suddenly slowed down. I felt like this messed Naoko san's rhythm up. Thank you Naoko san, I hope you had a safe trip home as well.

I knew the next opponent was going to be a tough.
It was time to battle SUN once again.
When I first saw her at Step Ya Game up two years ago, I was terrified. Because I never saw a female popper with such body control and a strong pop!!!
Fortunately, recently we became good friends :)
She is super funny and kind. She is one of the popper I respect.

We battled previously at a jam that was held at Shoaling Temple in new york few month ago. Therefore, SUN was yelling "revenge! revenge!" at me with a big smile but a serious stare lol

Although she looked like she was fooling around, I knew she was coming full out to smoke me. So I calmed myself down to focus on relaxing. I knew that when I relax, I tend to listen to music more carefully, allowing me to dance deeper and use technique when I feel like it.

There were 2 rounds from the semi-final.
The first song was a song by Slick Dogg.

SUN came out HAAAARRRRRRD.


Her get down got me hyped in a good way. But as I ended my first round, I knew that I'll loose the battle if I kept the same approach. So I told Ilya "watch" and declared that I will switched my mode as he advised me before.

I don't really remember what I did. But I was having fun. I didn't care about the people around me or the judges watching me. I just concentrated on dancing together with the music and having a conversation with SUN. This is the best feeling I recently found while battling a good popper (in my humble opinion). I don't really remember moves I did. It's probably because I'm not thinking. But I know the feeling. The feeling is always amazing. And it only happens during the battle where two individuals are focused on getting lost in the music and enjoy the conversation through body expression.

After a good battle, I always expect to have another round. This is because
1. I don't remember what I did so I feel like I have to do more and
2. because I want it to never end.

Luckily, I managed to win against SUN.
Battling her is always a good and fun challenge. I enjoyed the exchange once again :)
Thank you SUN oniee, let's practice animation together!!! Lol

By this time,
I was waiting to battle for the championship against A.K.A Kin.......

Honestly, I did not imagine that I could go this far.
I knew so many amazing poppers that entered the battle including some that I battled before and lost. Yet I somehow manage to survive and here I was, facing one of my idol and a hero of popping.

I was so excited. My heart was rushing that I couldn't stand still. I shook his hand and bowed, got a back slap from Ilya, and watched the bottle spin.

The moment the DJ played the song, I immediately felt its electronic feel.
I knew that I'm no match against A.K.A Kin to battle in boogaloo. Therefore, I started my get down by bottling. After that, I just kept dancing full out.

All I remember was how amazing A.K.A Kin was. LOL
I mean c'mon man, he is DOPE.
I enjoyed his movements, musicality, and the energy that he projected. The battle/exchange simply felt awesome.

After two rounds, he waved his hands towards me and gave me a hug. The crowd gave us a round of applause. I was honored.

When Carlo asked for the decision to the judges, I saw all the judges hand pointing at A.K.A Kin. 
Yes I got SMOKED like a TOAST LMAO.

But that was obvious. I was just hyper of the fact that I actually experienced an one to one exchange with one of the world's top popper. To me, that was already the greatest prize I can have from the jam.

Many people came and gave me a compliment. Even the judges gave me a positive comment about my dancing. Except Jazzy, who added a comment "don't cheer for the opponent when you are battling!"

Its true, I shouldn't be doing that. But he was so amazing man lol couldn't help it lol
Overall, I couldn't be happier about the experience I had on this jam. I will treasure it forever.

Me and A.K.A Kin

Thank you Studio G, LifeXHip Hop, and DC Dance Collective for making this happen.
Your hard work paid off in a very inspiring and positive way for MANY dancers. I highly respect your efforts and sacrifices you've made to make this happen.
God Bless you all.

After the event, I was tired and hungry as hell. I needed fooooood lol

So James took us to this Chinese fast food store that had good ice tea and an enormously packed combo meal! Forget the diet menu man, I ate that sh*t like a pig lol

After we ate and changed and all, we headed to club aqua. We went there late, but it was empty. But DJ TOXSICK was there spinning his records already. So we just took the dance floor and started to mess around. After about 30min, the floor began to fill up.
After about an hour and half, the place was packed!!!
I had a great time with everyone. But at the same time, I was exhausted.

Don't know how this happened.... lol

Ilya, Dickson, Me, Bionic

Once again, as I went to James's house I passed out. But, this time, I slept on my side of the bed so Ilya can sleep lol


It was my first AWESOME day of the summer.
I was truly glad that I trained and practiced for this event.

We slept around 4am again and set our alarm to 9am so we can be on time for the workshops.
Continues........