So our journey to learn and exchange with Westcoast Poppers didn't slow down at all. We even took a trip down to San Diego to see one of the dopest popper of the West. Yes, Jr Boogaloo of Motion Sickness and Machine Gone Funk.
We decided to go because one of my BF (if you want to know why I call him that, just ask me lol), Carlo Manabat, A.K.A C-lo told me how great of a teacher he was. Also, Jr Boogaloo was the only MGF that replied to us really quickly allowing us to plan quick within a limited time we had here in LA lol.
Ok so I actually took a vid. So instead of reading my terribly written blog, enjoy my horrible english accent LMAO
oh and Mr. Ugly as F that makes you ILL!!! lol
The train ride was chill and relaxing because of the space and the beautiful view from out of the window. Open space to infinity. Man California is huge.
Once we got to the station, we met with Jr Boogaloo and drove to his relatives house. On the way to the house, we just kept questioning him about popping nonstop (I tend to do that all the time lol).
He told us how he got his name Jr Boogaloo, and how popping was in the Westcoast back when he was a teenager.
This interview is close to what we heard
What stood out the most in the talk we had was how a popper called Charley from Heckle and Jackel (I think that was either the nickname or their group name) influenced Jr Boogaloo. He told us how he admired his clean but hard pop which till this day is the best quality pop he had ever seen in his life.
Another one was a funny story. As Jr Boogaloo was gaining his reputation as a popper at his neighborhood and school, he came across a name, Poppin Taco. People from different school would tell him how amazing Taco was, therefore, Jr decides to go to the skating link that Taco used to get down often.
Now this is back in the days, Jr didn't know whether Taco would show up or not. It not like nowadays where he will post a FB status letting people know that he will be there. Fortunately, Taco showed up. His friend hyped him up and he was ready.......But the next moment Taco went POP!
yea that infamous hit from Taco told Jr that he was way out of reach......
Soooooo
well how can he not? I'll do the same if I was in his situation to avoid getting the worlds hardest beat down you'll ever get in your life lol
As the conversation was heating up, we got to the practice spot.
We went to the back yard and got ready to get down.
No studio
No mirrors
Just a beautiful sunshine and a clean tropical breeze.
Man we were relaxed....so chill. In my mind I was thinking "this is what it feels like to practice at someones spot in California eh? this is amazing!"
We had roughly an hour and a half of class and after that we just chilled and talked about popping.
Getting down and learning from him was amazing. I haven't clearly figured out nor put enough time to fully understand his methods of popping in my dance yet, however, the way he thinks about popping was DEEP. Also this was the beginning of how we realized the reason behind why Westcoast Poppers have high quality popping standard in general.
To roughly summarize (not going to break down popping technique and all because I think its something that you can only understand by actually seeing and doing it in real life) Popping is more than a dance style to them. Since it is a style of dance that originated in the West, its part of their lifestyle. It isn't a style of dance that they went to a class to learn. It was always there at a casual party, talent show, street show, even in regular family parties and among public community like school.
For this reason, when they work on popping, it is based on concepts and ideas more than just drilling what we so call "basic popping movements".
Don't get me wrong, understanding the fundamentals are essential, and these guys do drill the basics. But they really think outside of the box. Most of the things we learned were something that we never heard of or things that we never thought about.
Because they perfect that idea by patient practice and exchange, it becomes a lethal weapon that smokes dancers in any given cyphers.
After the class, we had to catch a train. He drove us back and we said bye. It was definitely worth taking a train trip to San Diego.
Jr, thank you for your hospitality and class. Your knowledge and the teaching through a get down will forever be remember. Till we see each other again, peace, respect, love and god bless!
After arriving back to LA, I had another great reunion with Kaistar.We met each other through my crew mate Karlo, few years ago and we kept in touch.
He took us to an Japanese restaurant and we (including underaged Ilya lol) got to drink and eat.
Reunion is always great. But it was even better because Kaistar has been visiting Japan constantly and I could talk to him about home from the same perspective. What I mean by this is that I'm Japanese, but half of my life I've been living abroad. Thus, there are times I look at Japan from a third person perspective. Of course most of my Japanese friend won't understand my point of view because they've only lived in Japan. But Kaistar was raised here and was visiting Japan long enough to see what Japan and how it's culture is really like.
We had a great talk till the restaurant was almost closed. Than luckily Kaistar contacted Frantick and asked him whether it is possible for us to do a private with him the next day! AWESOME!!!
Thank you Kaister. We will definitely reunite once again soon. I know you'll be successful in DJing and make your dream come true :)
After food, we walked couple minutes and waited to meet our friend Crazy Sun to meet Tabo.......
Continues.....
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