I want to dedicate this post to two of the sickest popper that has been representing the US popping scene for over a decade.
Jrock and Popula of the Animated Beat Mechanics.
I first saw found out about them from seeing this video.
Gucchon vs Popula 2005 Best of the Best.
When I found this video, I was in the situation where I couldn't get out of the house nor dance (personal, family issues). Thus, I was browsing the web for dance clip to entertain myself.
I was a big fan of OBA, popper that my best friend Tim introduced to me. Through the battle against OBA and Acky, I got to this video.
Later, I found a website for poppers called "Westcoast Popping". As I browsed through the website, I came across this clip. This was how I discovered Jrock and knew that Popula and Jrock was in a crew called Animated Beat Mechanics.
Boy was I hooked to this vid. This is still one of my favorites.
Its clean, its deep, it has great mixture of popping styles, full of funk, and the way his dance creates the atmosphere in that environment using the music is just perfect.
I don't know if you remember Jrock, but Master Flex is my all time favorite move because I took your class on the summer of 2009 at NYU.
It was the first time I learned how to do a Master Flex with full breakdown. I loved it and I still used it all the time.
Speaking of my favorites vids, my all time favorite of Popula's vid would be this
I got hooked on this one with ilya lol
We spoke and discussed about this clip for a while.
How energetic it was, how fluid but animated his movements were, how he rides and executes the music, how he looks like he doesn't give a F, but looks hard and legit.
Couple month later, we accidentally met with Popula at one of the battle in Boston. He didn't battle, but I remember Monsta Pop and him going at each other most of the time. It was like two giants going against each other lol
Those two were my idol.
But when those two came to NYC to do the show iLuminate, they showed us young NY poppers love and guidance.
and I'm honored that I was one of the popper who got their blessings.
From late November 2012 to early January 2013, they did the show and came down to sessions to practice with us.
Even on days when they did three consecutive shows, wearing 30lb suit, they got down harder than anyone in the practice sessions.
They must had been exhausted. I saw the show (hour long non stop dancing show!!!) and I can tell that it was tough. They dance nonstop with the suits AND they carry each other to create an effect that the dancers were flying. Doing that three times a day and coming down to a 2 hour session?
All I can say was that they were full of "Dedication and Passion".
Not only that, they gave us tips on what to improve and showed us examples by getting down with us. There were times when they even invited us to their crib to do a session til midnight.
I don't need to remind you, but Jrock and Popula are internationally known, star status dancers. I assumed that such dancers would separate themselves from the rest.
But not these two. They didn't hesitate to share knowledge and guidance to young dancers at all.
I can surely say that not only myself but many that had the chance to get to know them and danced with them were grateful to get down with them and are now full of respect and gratitude towards the two.
I was lucky to have many occasions where I was able to practice with them.
Thank you Popula and Jrock for all your contribution to the NYC popping community. We miss you guys a lot already.
In addition, I sincerely thank you two for believing in me and spending your time to train me. You guys were an huge inspiration to me for the past couple months. I'm sure that you will keep inspiring more as you keep evolving.
However, I believe that saying thank you and blogging about it isn't enough compare to what you guys did for me. Therefore, I would carry on what you guys taught me. To train hard, share that passion and knowledge to the community and help it grow stronger.
Also, I don't know how long this will take, but I will give the ultimate form of thank you by SMOKING you guys!!! lol
Before reading,,,,, My objective here is to write my personal thoughts about this internationally recognized event. I'm stating what I honestly thought, however, I don't have any intention to disrespect anyone. Therefore, I sincerely apologize if there are any statements that offends anyone. All comments that is directed towards my thoughts are welcomed. PLEASE DO NOT POST COMMENT TO DISRESPECT DANCERS/ORGANIZERS.
Juste Debout (JD) is no doubt one of the most recognized and credited Street Dance Competition in the world. The event attract dancers from across the world by hosting regional events across several countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. There are five categories, Hip Hop, House, Locking, Popping, and Toprock. The battle is done in 2 on 2 and the winner of each categories will earn the opportunity to attend the main event in Paris, France.
Since 2011, JD's regional event began to take place in the U.S and Canada. In 2011 it took place in Brooklyn, NY, and in 2012, Montreal, Canada.
This was my third regional JD. Compare to the past two events, JD New York 2013 had a totally different feeling.
Lets compare.
Location
In both 2011, 12, the location was huge. The past events were hosted at a warehouse and a gymnasium. I personally didn't like the warehouse in Brooklyn due to its location and the condition of the warehouse. The floor and the bathroom was just a mess.
The gymnasium was great. It was clean and there were a lot of room for dancers to rest, eat, and have cyphers.
It also had raise up benches on the side so that people can sit and enjoy the battle.
Compare to the past two, this year's location, Santos Party House, had the best atmosphere.
The Lighting, Sound System, Beverage, Food, DJ, and the people were great!
BUT
1. It was too small....
It was so crowded that I felt like I was riding a morning rush hour subway to the city :(
That, was a total turn off.
And this even effected the competitors. The floor that dancers had to dance in was so small. I mean look at the pictures and compare the size of the floor space.
The club environment was great. But it was way too small. People had hard time dancing and watching the battles. They did have a projector that lived the battle on the big screen, but WHO WANTS TO SEE THAT WHEN THE ACTUAL BATTLE IS HAPPENING IN FRONT OF THEM???
2. Locking us in
WAS NOT COOL
Until the last couple hours of the event, the dancers were locked inside the venue. You can get out, but to get back in, you have to pay $40, which was the price of the ticket for the event.
This was ridiculous.
I mean the place was packed with people and it was hot. Of course people will get exhausted and will need food and beverages. But no. They offered food inside the venue and for it to be sold out (I assume), they cut our access to stores around the venue. Good for them. But think about the us.
For this reason, although the location had a the best atmosphere, it sure made us have a bad experience.
People/Dancers
Ok, on this section, I will focus on POPPINGONLY because that is the style that I know best for now.
The dancers/poppers that attended the event were great.
On 2011, most of the poppers were from the east coast U.S or Canada. The only crew to attend the battle from the west was Machine Gone Funk.
On 2012, most of the poppers were from Canada. I can surely say that about 80% were from Canada.
This year, we saw people from various locations. Let me name some recognizable poppers who attended the event.
Monsta Pop & Venom (Symbiotic Monsters), Canada
Jrock & Popula (Animated Beat Mechanics), LA and Indiana
Breeze Lee & Ms. Funk (Versa Style), LA
Jon Boogs & Jonh Doe (Soulbotiks Crew and Control Freakz), Texas and Miami
Dnoi & Soul (Soulbotiks Crew and Ill Minded Stylez), ? and Detroit
On top of those names, we had large attendance from the east coast and Canada popping community as well, making Popping categorie to have the most competitors on this event.
Therefore, the quality of the dancers were great :)
I personally enjoyed meeting new dancers and reuniting with many of my friends. Having many friends at an event is awesome :) Everywhere I went, I saw faces that I recognized or haven seen in a while.
Now HAVING SUCH ATTENDEES SURELY WOULD MAKE A GREAT BATTLE! Yes, it does, but there is one more fact that you can not miss out. The Judges.
Judges/Battles
Judges play a HUGE ROLE in making an event awesome.
JD have four judges from each category (Hip Hop, House, Locking, Popping) to Judge the competition. Toprock is the only category that has a single judge for it's style of dance.
Some people have mixed feeling about this Juge system because not all the judges practice all these four styles. In fact, most of them don't. Therefore, it may not be as accurate than it should be.
But for the past two event, they had a epic battle that typed the crowd like crazy!
In 2011, the Popping final battle had Machine Gone Funk against Assassins. You can see from the crowd reaction that it was amazing. And yes, I enjoyed this battle a lot.
In 2012, the Semi-Final had Symbiotic Monsters against Namco & Boombeast. Watch it and you'll know how hyped we were lol
This year, by the looks of the name that appeared on the event, I assumed that it would have epic battles of the night like the above that I can still picture in my head how awesome it was.
However, this year was different. I don't have any battle that I can recall as epic as the two above.
The battle that gives you chill and make you think "damn how the f did they get to this point? like how do they dance so awesome???" didn't happen.
Why?
I think because this was the year that the politics in the game revealed itself the most.
This doesn't mean that I disagree with the winner of the event. Symbiotic Monsters definitely deserves to go to Paris to represent the U.S. They were on the next level.
However, the selection of Top 8 and couple battles that occurred that night was questionable.
Reason 1:
I think the winner should have been Jrock & Popula.
Now some of you know that I've been hanging out with Jrock & Popula, and they've been really good to me. But that does nothing to do with my opinion.
I've fought against Breeze Lee before and got toasted really hard and learned a valuable lesson. I havent met him since than but I have huge respect for the guy.
So there is no dislike on which sides. With that in mind, let me break my opinion down.
1. Synchronisation
When I see 2 on 2 battles, I see them as ONE CREW and not two individual. Thus, having a synchronized vibe, feeling, get down is vital in battling 2 on 2. If you see the footage above, I see ABM vibing off each other really well. They are battling as a crew. In contrast, Versa Style goes out to the floor individually while the other wait rooting when he/she does a cool move. From this perspective, I think ABM has advantage over Versa Style.
2. Level of the rounds
Synchronisation IS important. But the level of individual round needs to be taking in account as well. This is because their rounds sums up the average level of rounds of a crew. This means that when battling 2 on 2, a partner shouldn't outshine the partner, but vibe off with an equal level of dance to have a balance that shows how the two is connected as a crew during the battle.
There are cases where the one of the opponent comes out really hard and you have to out match that. But on this battle, I think that Breeze Lee had an awesome round that was on the next level compared to Ms. Funk.
In contrast, Jrock and Popula both had a solid high quality rounds without showing much of a skill difference between the two.
For these reasons, I think ABM won. But they did not.
Another battle that I thought similarly was a battle between ATN & C-Pop VS John Lock & Katalyst. ATN & C-Pop are two top poppers in Canada. They are young but very fierce and hungry, and surely proved their skill on the cyphers.
But on the battle, C-Pop didn't have a solid round. Instead, John Lock & Katalyst showed a equally high quality rounds.
There is not footage of them yet, but I thought that was a questionable judgment as well.
Last but not least, on Top 8, Dnoi & Soul was not selected.
From my perspective, the two have higher skill level than most of the poppers that was selected. Honestly, this was a wrong choies.
For these reasons, I think the crowd lacked in getting hyped compare to the past two events. Given such atmosphere, they were missing out on the opportunities for us to be hyped.
I mean lets assumed that ABM won, and Soul & Dnoi were selected.
We could've potentially saw Symbiotic Monsters VS Soul & Dnoi on Top 8 and ABM VS Symbiotic Monsters (I WAS VERY LOOKING FORWARD FOR THIS SCENARIO) or ABM VS Soul & Dnoi!!!
Now that, would've been a battle of the night :))))
In conclusion, the event was ok over all. Given the fact that it is one of the most recognized international Street Dance Competition? It should've been much better.
But I had fun that night :)
And I thank the people who is TAKING ACTION to make this HAPPEN. I'm just stating this but doing nothing. But they actually DO IT. Now thats a BIG DIFFERENCE. Huge props and respect to the organizers.
And to all the winners of JD NY 2013, GOOD LUCK AND REPRESENT US HAAAAAAARRRRRDDD!!!!!!
You guys either STEP UP OR GET SMOKED!!!
Sincere thank you for people who read it all the way through.
Peace and God Bless.
P.S This is my prelim with ilya :) there is also Jon Boogs, John Doe, and our good friend David Castro! Check it out!
LA welcomed us with the brightest weather on the second day.
This was the first time I saw LA in bright day light. I realized how HUGE this place was and surprisingly the atmosphere and the environment surrounding us felt warmer compare to NY which is dark and dim lol
Our day started by going to UMAMI Barger for brunch.
Umami "旨味" is Japanese. It means delicious taste so I knew I'm gonna have great food to start the day off!
The wall was full of interesting Japanese poem that insisted how you can find a great new dish. As I was reading it, the waiter approached me. He looked part Asian so I assumed he knew the meaning of the poem.....
Waiter "You know what that saids?"
Me "Yea, its pretty unique and interesting"
Waiter "oh yea? What does it say?"
-____________-
Come on man. I thought you guys put that up because it means something special for you to work there lol
So I translated the poem for him and he was happy, saying that thats what Umami Barger is (well yea I can guess thats why its on the wall....)
Hungry dogg.....lol
UMAMI Barger
The burger was in fact "うまい(delicious)". It had a great combination of crunchy and juicy mixed inside a soft bun. Hmmmm making me hungry right now LMAO
After brunch, we went to Hollywood Boulevard! Saw this many times on movies so I was excited :)
Street Robot was better than the East....lol
YEAAA FINALLY HERE!!!
Michael's hands and feet were smaller than I thought.
King Of Pop
Master of Martial Art
YEAAA KICK HIS ASS!!! lol
Hollywood Blvd was a lot like Time Square in NYC with full of movie star memorial. It was great :) It was especially great to get to Michael Jackson and Bruce Lee's memorial stars (?). Also I was really surprised to find out how small Michael's hands and feet were. It was about my size exactly. But he can do that dynamic and explosive dance movements. Amazing. Purely respect him as a dancer and entertainer.
After having fun at Hollywood Blvd, we went to Homeland!!!
YES HOMELAND!!! I've been waiting to go here for many years!!!
We drove from down town LA and it was about a half hour drive.
Kid Boogie told us that he will be there so I was excited! It's been almost two years since I last saw him. I wanted to show how I improved training the technique he had shown me.
Here is what I was like when I got to Homeland lol
So I was SOOOOOOO excited like a little kid! lol
BUT
Kid, Slim, Keumsae, nor tabo showed up.....
Because of this, and from the exhaustion from the previous session, by the last hour of the session, I was done.....
Anyway, Homeland was Dope!
A lot of positive energy was there, and people liked sharing that energy with others. This is what I liked about it the most.
In a sense, it was like Popshop in NYC. But at Popshop, we don't all make a cypher to get down. I feel like we are a little more separated. But here, they were all making a huge cypher. I thought this was a great way for younger/beginner generation to interact with the older ones.
Although it would've definitely turned out better if the people I was expecting showed up, I enjoyed Homeland. I hope to visit there soon.
After staying in Japan for a week and saying goodbye to Nonoko while we both shed tears (Don't say nothing....You don't know how tough it is to do this for 5.5 years.....) I arrived in LA.
Now from what I remembered, Ilya, told me that he would have his friend come over to the airport to pick me up.
But NOOOOOOOOOO -______-
He tells me to take a shuttle to get there....
sigh.....what a start lol Me Japanese, no english, scared, understand??? lol
I took the shuttle and arrived in front of this crazy looking modern building. Here, I met Liz and Denom.
They are friends of Ilya from Boston and generously welcomed us to stay with them for a week! Not only that, they drove us around LA (which I'll get to later on) but they were soooooo nice :) I'm really glad that I got to meet and hang out with them.
After I settled down and unpacked my stuff, we went out to eat at Honey Pigs.
Pic
While eating, I got to know about Liz and Denom a little. Also Ilya and I kinda talked about what we did for the past week and a half.
Seeing him felt like ages ago since we lived together for a moth before coming to LA (WOW what a bf gf sentence this is.......SUPER GAY lol).
Than Ilya told me that he was talking to Slim Boogie earlier that day. So we decided to contact him because Ilya thought it'll be dope and a dream come true if we can go to the practice spot that he films his dance clip that is posted on youtube.
So he contacts him.
No response.
I've shared contact with Jr Boogaloo and Bionic Man a month before at Electric Soul Satisfaction, so I started to text them.
Jr Boogaloo was very helpful.
He gave us the numbers of this crew mates and told us to contact them as soon as possible to plan our week.
Bionic Man responded quickly. And welcomed us to come to his place when it is convenient for us.
Unfortunately, he lived 40 min away by driving. So we couldn't go that night.
It was around mid night and we still couldn't get a solid answer.
We didn't want to waste our time just waiting so I decided to text Slim Boogie.
A call back from Slim LMAO!!!
I still can't forget the face Ilya made when I said "oh he is calling me" lol
and what was even awesome was that the spot he practices was only a few blocks away!!!
So on the FIRST NIGHT IN LA, I mean literally few hours after landing, we get to practice with Slim Boogie.
We also planned to go to Homeland to see Kid Boogie the next day and go to San Diego for Jr. Boogaloo's 2 hour private lesson the day after tomorrow.
AWESOME
This trip could not turn out to be better than this.
So we walked and met up with Slim and Keumsae!
We both met slim couple times through MGF workshop tour (link) and SDFX 2 in Boston (link).
I've also met Keumsae before when C-lo hosted an event (link) in D.C couple years ago and she came as one of the judges.
A reunion is always great. I was glad to see them again, but this time in LA.
We exchanged for roughly 4 or 5 hours.
Seeing their get down was amazing. The level of foundation and advanced technique they had was unbelievable. We not only saw, but felt the level gap between the East coast popping compared to the West.
Please don't take this in a wrong way. I'm not trying to look down on the East. I feel that because they are taught by poppers with proper historic background the students had better understanding of how to execute the dance better.
Of course Popping is a dance movement that originated from the West. Thus, the resources to its roots can be easily traced back. Unlike us (the East) or the world, who dig the internet for information, they can go straight to the creditable source.
Some dancers I've met in the past told me that they don't really care about the past. Whats done is done and they want to focus on "THEM" because its their "GENERATION". But I think history is important. Knowledge is Power. Sense of community is crucial to the Hip Hop and Street Dance community. This is why I feel strongly about the need of popping education on the East Coast.
Anyway, I'll discuss that some other time. Back to the trip.
We didn't take any dance footage because I was too focused on observing the Slim and Keumsae lol
I think you can tell by how we were right after the session.
After the session, we were DONE lol In the vid I was wide awake, but I literally fell a sleep as soon as I got to the bed.
The Monster drink we had before going to the session was all used up and our body was collapsing.
I fell a sleep as soon as I got to the bed.
Thank You once again Slim and Keumsae. This would not have been the best day to start off without you two.
OK BACK FROM WHERE I LEFT OFF MONTH AGO!!! lol
I wrote it way back but forgot to post it.......
DAY 2 in JAPAN
This was yet another awesome day for me.
I got to see Nonoko (my girlfriend)'s dance performance for the first time in 5 years (wow....lol) and I got to battle on 1vs1 and on crew vs crew with TKO to represent What The Funk?! Crew!!!
So this is the first vid I took on the way to the studio where Nonoko was rehearsing for her performance.
***Be warned that I'm a little hyper because I'm excited lol***
Weeeeellll.....not all that is true SUGALOO lol
Because this event didn't allow any audiences to record the battle -_-
Why? BUSINESS.
They were selling the footage. figures eh?
It is a good strategie, not going to lie.
But to me, for this event, it was a little too much man.
I mean the event wasn't that big, full of dope dancers and etc.
Sure they had a Showcase, 1vs1, crew vs crew categories, but the level of the dancers weren't high enough to be in the DVD to be sold to people.
Yet there were a large number of Kid dancers with their mother.
I guess the organizers make money off of those parents that are obsessed with their kid's dancing.......
So unfortunately, there is not a single vid of the event, BOOOOOOOOOO (self booing lol)
Sucks, I know. I bet the crew would've love the way we represented the crew.....but thats history. We'll all go to Japan one day and do it again :D
The event was called "Run Up".
I was hyped, ready to dance with my girl, my bro, and his friends! I was ready to sweat and dance till I can't no more!!!
But the first impression I felt when I arrived at the event was "intimidation"
Why? Well there are couple reasons why I felt this way.
Reasons:
A. People were too damn serious
B. People are practicing alone, listening to their ipod on their headphone FOREVER!
C. Parents yelling at Kids to stretch and be ready for their performance
D. They were all wearing similar outfit that characterizes the dance style they do.
Let me give you and visual example.
All the poppers dressed like this
All the Hip Hop dancers dressed like this
and all the Kids dancers dressed like this
Yuuup........ that's how it was lol
Other thing that freaked me out was that
THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY DJ TIME!!!!!!!!!!
They did battles, break(kick us out), battle, break, battle to the final.
Man I was tired......
Because usually in the event, I battle, than I dance during DJ time to keep my body warm. Couldn't do that this time.
They weren't playing music during the break time. So I just sat on the chair and ate food.
Because of this, I couldn't dance with my bro, their friends and my girlfriend in the cyphers.......
This just was not cool.....
Later I found out that this event was for beginners and upcoming dancers in Japan. My brother from another mother in Japan, Tim, told me that the main focus of the event was to give the young generations and people who struggle passing the preliminaries in the major competition events to perform and/or battle.
Looking back at it now, it does make sense. They danced well but dance just like their teachers. I didn't feel the energy of them going "OH I WANNA CYPHER!". They were more like mentally preparing for the time for them to perform.
So its unfair to judge how Japanese Jams are like by looking at this event. I hope to go to one of my brother's event to really experience Jams in Japan.
The good news was that TKO and myself did a pretty good job!
On 1vs1, I went to the semi-finals
and on crew vs crew, we also made it to the semi-finals!!!
I need a big applause from my crewmates man lol We represented the crew to the fullest!! lol
I mean we gave all we had and actually had to miss Nonoko's performance!!! (well we saw it a head when they were rehearsing) lol
Anyway,
The thing that made me happy was the fact that we won without any routines.
Even though we are brothers, 2 years had passed since TKO and I danced together.
Yet we managed to reunite as a real good team and defeated some crews that had been practicing together longer than us.
Personally, I felt it was a result from executing our crew vision.
We, What The Funk?! Crew are true to ourselves. We embrace our individualism and uniqueness. By evolving our uniqueness with solid popping foundation, our goal is to make people say "What The F?!" as an reaction to our dance.
That's our goal.
It has always been our goal since 2009.
This event was only a tiny step, but making a step is a HUGE difference compare to not making any.
Great job dancing your ass off TKO. I know its tough to be out there alone to represent us. But WE NEVER LEFT YOU. Stay strong and stay original my brotha. You made me proud that day to have you as a crew mate once again.
Here are some pics from the event
With Hide, This dude is FUNKY! (Champ)
What The Funk?! Brothers!
kids crew we battled named "Sora-Ringo"
Nonoko & SUGALOO
After this day I had a lot of personal time with Nonoko and friends and that's private lol
First of all, HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YOU ALL!!!
WISHING NOTHING BUT THE BEST FOR ALL OF YOU! STAY STORNG AND BE MERRY!
Now, most call this year the Year of 2013, but in Chinese Zodiac which is common to most Asian countries, it is also known as the Year of the Snake.
Chinese Zodiac is a scheme, and a systematic plan of future action, that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to 12-year cycle.
In Japan, when your birth year comes back after 12 years, you gain a temporarily title called
"年男／年女, Man/Female of the year".
Most of us usually use this title to encourage ourselves to strive for success.
And I want declare that today because THIS IS MY YEAR!!!
Time to cut the crap and get things rolling.
Since this is a blog about my dance life, I'll post my resolution related to dance.
1. Cultivating my body.
I've been doing this for a while now but I really want to be consistent.
It has helped me in many ways. Strength, balance, speed, endurance, and looks.
But its not enough. Right now it is in the process of a change and I'm unstable. I need to change that and get to a point where I feel comfortable to dance and make my moves and poses look the way I imagine.
2. Raising the level of consistency.
This is one of the advice that I received from my dancing god father and master, Jazzy J, few years ago.
It is also something that I've been working on for a while, but this year, I need to raise it up higher. In order to do that, I need to retrain on things that I've learned through out the past years and perfect it as much as possible. Only than will my dance consistency can see a signifiant improvement.
By having a higher standard, I will gain more control over my get down at cyphers and battles.
3. Battling
To tell you the truth, I've been afraid to battle against someone that I don't know for a while now. I just don't feel comfortable because I'm throwing my energy towards something that I don't know. Also, recently I've been meeting and battling famous dancers across the world. Most I lost but some I've won. By loosing against someone, I felt that I was going to ruin their reputation or disappoint the teachers and dancers that took time to teach me new knowledge of the dance.
But with out the challenge, you will not grow as a street dancer. Battling, to me, shows you the moment of truth. It is when you get tested by the dance floor. It is when all your effort reveals its self. It does not lie. It is the ultimate test that teaches you what you need to work on in order to get better.
I need to release myself from the fear of loosing the battle.
4. Learning different dance styles.
I have some experience in other styles of dance, but I haven't really taken a class to learn it seriously. I've decided to make this my New Year Resolution after being enlightened from watching a cartoon series called "The Last Airbender". The main character is an Air Bender who is chosen to be the Avatar. The Avatar is the only person that can bend the four elements, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. By learning all the elements, the Avatar possesses the power to outmatch any other benders and maintain balance in the world. Just like the Avatar, if I embrace different styles of dancing, I believe I will grow more as a dancer with unique energy, flavor, and characteristics.
Furthermore, to do this, I need to select my mentor carefully.
This does not mean that I'll through away the mentality of "every dancer is my teacher". However, having a strong basic is essential for my learning process. Thus, the teacher must have the flavor, energy of the dance I can relate and have an similar understanding/vision towards the dance that he/she does.
This leads to my final goal.
5. Understand the ORIGINAL=Myself.
I believe the term "Be Original" does not indicate someone to do new things, but be yourself.
As much as I loved learning from various teachers through this past couple years, I've gain knowledge but lost who I am as a dancer. Therefore, there are constant questions that comes in my mind when I practice or session. The toughest question is "What dance defines you as SUGALOO?" What dance, flavor, energy, looks, characteristic, moves, technique....etc make people recognize you as SUGALOO? I can not answer that question with 100% confidence at this moment. This is the reason why I have to face this question and figure out an answer this year.
I'm not sure how much of this I can accomplish since I have many private things that I need to accomplish this year. But my gut is craving for change and improvement. I need to take on many challenges this year. I gotta fight it!!!
