I'm in Japan for a vacation now and finally got back to my computer. Luckily, all the battle clips from the ESS 4 is up. Thus, I want to post it here!!!
Most recent showcase by What The Funk?! Crew.
Featuring
Ilya "iLL" Leyzerov
Edmund "E.T" Tan II
Shinjiro Ray Tanaka.
And myself.
It was difficult to complete this piece because
1. I don't lock. I suck at it lol
2. iLL was in Boston finishing up his semester. He came to the rehearsal 3 times in total.
3. We realized that we forgot to bring the bag LMAO.
So over all, we were REALLY nervous.
But as you'll notice watching the clip, the crowd loved it. There are many mistakes made in this piece. But I just love the fact that we were able to make everyone exited and happy.
Thank you sincerely to my brothas, iLL, E.T, and Shin.
This is my awesome good friend, Gwo. To explain this video shortly, I'm borrowing his video description. "Back in 2004 I was introduced to popping by my good friend and roommate at the time Phil Thorne. He went by the name Frequency in dance circles. I hadn't been doing any dancing really at that point but I was fairly vested in the martial arts for most of my 35 years at that time. I had no idea how much I'd enjoy popping and how it would shape my life over the next 10 years.I've met so many talented and cool people. It's good to have a goals...and even in my mid 40s I hope to have another 10 years of practice and progression."
What amazes me is that not only did he get into a new hip culture called "Street Dance" at the age of 35, he has been progressing every year. I know this from personal cypher exchange with Gwo.
This totally breaks the general norm of "you have to be young to learn to dance".
As you grow old, of course you gradually lose control of your body.
But Gwo here, shows us that its Never too old to start something new, Never too old to improve, Never too old perfect an art form.
Gwo is fit and doesn't look his age AT ALL. When I first heard his age, I was blown away. Because he doesn't look, act, and of course, dance old.
Huge respect, love, and god blessing to you my friend/brotha. Thank you sincerely for your inspiration.
Dope music, atmosphere, and of course the get down........
I love Monsta Pop's dance because it is very clean. But he makes it stand out by dancing raw, like hard core raw, within his get down.
Also, this guy makes his movements seem really really easy. But he is REALLY TALL. I know many people who injure their knee because of their hight. But he must be taking care of his body well.
Definitely one of the best on the planet right now. Huge respect.
First of all, whoever came up with the name is a genius lol
Japan+Animation=Japanimation. AWESOME lol
But thats not the reason why I'm writing this on here. I want to give my thoughts on this amazing show.
Now why am I not saying "This amazing dance showcase"? Because I felt that this is stepping outside of dance category a little.
It is obvious that Japanimation is using dance technique that falls under the style of Street Dance called "Popping/Animation". They use popping, bopping, dimestop, speed control, isolation, etc. Most technique that are commonly used by poppers or animation dancers.
However, in my personal opinion, Japanimation is simply utilizing the Street Dance technique, and not DANCING. They are not dancing to the rhythm from beginning to the end. What they do is something we call "Beat Freaking", where you emphasize the sound in the music with emphasized movements to make the sound and the movement to stand out. This is a very popular technique used by many choreography dancers.
Therefore, this show feels like an entertainment show more than a dance performance/showcase. I mean it looks like PS 4's Samurai Game commercial in real life. lol Therefore, I'm not sure if this is a good representation of Street Dance.
Furthermore, the mission of this TV show is really vague as well. It states that it aims to create a "Hero" from the Japanese Dance community to introduce it to the world.
BUT FOR WHAT???
YOU BECOME A HERO AND THEN WHAT???
I see many performances that uses street dance style, so are you trying to advertise Street Dance to the masses??? But again for what???
Don't get me wrong, I do like what I see. I actually LOVED IT. This piece is perfected to the maximum level. The detail, atmosphere, technique, outfit and all are excellent. In addition, I love the fact that they brought their cultural heritage. This is definitely a showcase that can be done by Japanese because Samurai us one of the core element in our culture. It lives in our DNA. Thus, using that this way is great.
Its just that I don't think it is a good way to inspire dance to the young generation. This will only lead them to misunderstand the dance. These types of showcase is very mechanic. DANCE SHOULD BE ORGANIC. FREEDOM should be the main feeling that you get while you dance. But showcases like this makes me feel only about "Systematic movements".
In my humble opinion, the show shouldn't be called DANCE@HERO. Should be like TALENT@HERO or something.
I appreciate any feedback that you have!
Thanks for reading.
The Moon Runners.
They are one of the upcoming and active Popping Crew in Canada/U.S.
Dope concepts and sick execution. I believe any tut, wave, botting, animating poppers will love their style.
So I met these Alien like poppers at Juste Debout in 2011 in Canada.
My friend Kai who lives in Queens used to live in Portland and knew Icon, who introduced me to Icy, Snapp, and Shawn.
I was in the phase of exploring waving, tutting, strobbing, and animating. Meeting them was a mind blowing experience. I still carry the knowledge they shared with me there. The exchange I had was awesome.
I knew on my way back home to NY that this crew will be the next crew to watch out. And I think my guess was on point. The world won't be able to ignore them soon. Trust me.
I don't know this popper, J.G, but damn he is Funked up lol
Definitely has a flavor influenced by my teacher.....don't know if they have any connection but his feeling and the boogaloo footwork reminds me of Jazzy J.
Kyo was clean as usual, but I would give the win to J.G on this one.
Comments anyone?
By the way, FUNKY MANSION IS BACK ON TONIGHT!!!
Its at a new location at 4 W 43rd Street between 5,6 Avenue.
One of the two favorite animated poppers on the planet. Their creativity and skills are beyond our control. Not many of new generation poppers know of Mr. Steen. But I think he is gradually been spot lighted once again by the masses. Not sure exactly why but I believe the connection between the Assassins may have huge influences. Well, at least I got to know Mr. Steen through Rashaard and/or Future's post on Facebook.
Anyway, I'm definitely glad that he is getting the spot light. Old school dancers like him who still are maintaining amazing skills should be welcomed by various communities and share the knowledge. It'll definitely help the popping community.
And Boogie Frantick. I think all poppers in US knows who he is. I think he should get more international recognition though. He is a BEAST, period. I have to go back to LA to learn under him soon......
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!
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
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........
Ok its been almost 2 month since this happened, but it was a hell of an experience so I'm going to write about it now LIKE A BOSS!!! OSU!!! lol
Let's go back in time……
Jazzy J, Fayzah Fire, and me
On Friday, July 27th, after I finished, work, I went to NJ using PATH with Fayzah Fire and Jazzy J to meet up with my crew mate, Ilya.
From NJ, ilya drove for 4.5 hours to get us down to D.C (Thanks brother).
It was a smooth ride and we were able to arrive a little earlier than we expected.
Ilya driving seriously lol
Our first stop was DC Dance Collective.
Every Friday, at DC Dance Collective, theres a dance session. On that night, Jr Boogaloo, Bionic Man, Dickson, A.K.A Kin, A.K.A Ra, 1G and other amazing dancers were practicing.
We were hoping to get down with them a little, and ask Gwo whether he can find a spot for Fayzah to stay over the weekend.
Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late. We didn't get to session. But Fayzah got a place to stay and that was great :D
Photo Credit to Gwoping Young
So we missed the chance get down. But instead, we went to a Korean restaurant called Honey Pigs with everyone. There were probably group of about 25 people!
We ate, drank, and had a good pre-party+Jr Boogaloo's Happy Birthday dinner until 3am!!! LOL
After that we went to stayed with my friend (BF Crewmate, if u wanna know what this is? Just ask me to write about it lol) James Wu's house. When we got home, it was 4am. We were exhausted except Jazzy, who was hyper from his drink. He was talking nonstop but I was done.......
I changed and passed out on bed immediately lol
Unfortunately, this was a nightmare for Ilya, who shared a bed with me. Because I took most of the space on the bed AND I moved a lot while I slept. He couldn't sleep well. I'm sorry brother, I was tired lol
The jam was scheduled to open from 12pm. In order to get breakfast, get ready and be on time for the jam, we woke up at 9am.
I slept well for 5 hours, which was perfect for me because i've been on the training schedule that gives me 5 hour sleep at maximum for a month. Also because I took most of the bed space.... :P
For breakfast, James took us to a diner called Silver Diner.
It was old 80's kinda dinner where they still have the Jukebox on the table. The food was delicious! But not enough for me so I took ilya's fries and James's pancakes lol
We still had time before the jam. Luckily, there was something we can do to kill time.
On the parking lot, the diner was holding a residence classic car show. They had couple cool looking classic cars and so we decided to take a look.
They were encouraging audiences to vote for the car they liked so that they can decide which car should be awarded as the best classic car. We voted for this car.
I'm not crazy about cars. But I liked this one because of its color and the body design. But I would never want to drive this car though......the body parts were LITERARY touching the ground lol I don't know how people can drive that car man....lol
We were full and had some entertainment. It was time to head to the Jam.
As I posted "On my way to challenge eating some poppers.... Delicious meal on the dance floor today!!! Can't wait, can't wait....." in side the car, I was mentally ready to battle.
My mind was calm. But my soul was on fire.
My body was waiting to unleash the power that I gained through months of training towards stronger and good poppers.
I don't know if the training I planned and worked on was the best way possible.
I may be just overconfident.......
But I know that I've been consistent.
At that point I stopped thinking and realized that I wasn't expecting a good result.
All I was aiming for was to get down the way I wanted so that I won't regret afterwards and I know it would feel AWESOME regardless of the result.
Since 7/3/2012, ilya moved into my new house and we began our summer training.
The idea was simple.
We just wanted to be a bad ass popper and a great popping partners/crewmates just like the ones we look up to like Jsmooth and Kid Boogie, Crazy Kyo and Popping J, Gucchon and Kei, Mosta Pop and Venom, Rasshard and Future.
I had a glass and got knocked out lol
Those guys are dope as an individual popper.
But when they go on the stage together, chemical reaction happens and destroys the floor.
We wanted to know how they do it.
And from a shallow resource, we just assumed that they train together often and in some cases live together.
We just put that into action.
Our goal was to strengthen our body and get the basics solid.
This is because we are going to LA from 8/19-25th and we wanted to be ready to learn and absorb as much technique as possible when we get there.
Therefore, we focused on working out, diet, and drilling.
We both worked during the day. And since I have two jobs, sometimes I came home after midnight. So we decided to go to the gym to workout in the morning.
We woke up at 4 am.
First thing we had was oatmeal + whey protein shake.
Than we got ready for the day and left the house at 5 am.
What I enjoyed the most about getting up early was to see how the sunrise colored the cloud.
Taking pictures of the cloud using iPhone is actually starting to become my new hobby lol
82nd St Station
By 5:45, we got to the gym. Planet Fitness was a little far from my house, but its only $10 a month and the tools are easy to use. On top of that, it was open from 5 am, and when we got there, it was almost empty, allowing us to use the equipments and machines freely.
Planet Fitness
Both of us had our own training routine. I'm not sure what Ilya's workout routine was but I stuck to the Brad Pitt work out I found online.
After the workout, we had another protein shake and off to work.
Ilya's job ended by 5 pm. However, I have two jobs so when I had double shifts, I came home late.
Therefore, when I had double shift, Ilya worked on the drills alone at home while I tried to drill a little on the train back home :D lol
When I ended my work by 5pm, we drilled together.
Like I said, we didn't do anything intense. We did basic drills with intensity.
Since we needed at least 5 hours of sleep, we slept by 10:30-11 pm.
We ate healthy too.
I made the meal and we packed it into the neat lunch box I got from Wal-Mart.
Other than the protein shakes, we had the meal (picture below) on lunch and dinner, had snacks between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner.
Rice (white/brown), Chiken, Green Salad
It was not easy to do all this. lol
I mean we were awake and active for almost 20 hours a day.
But we kept going, believing one thing......
I mean if you can't believe in yourself, how can you keep on improving for the better?
Of course we had arguments as well.
I mean our lifestyle were pretty repetitive. It wasn't really fun lol
Especially when you don't see that much of a progress, it was very stressful.
So we talked a lot. A LOT OF TEXTING during work LOL
We discussed about many different topic. Dance, work outs, diet, videos, jokes, girls, mentality, inspiration, life etc.
The conversation made us understand each other as a person more than before.
And kept pushing ourselves to keep on going.
I felt all of this was worth doing when I went to events with Ilya, especially at Electro Soul Satisfaction (waiting for the organizer of the event to upload the video. Review of the event will be posted once the vids are published).
Having Ilya aside when I was battling influenced me more than I could ever imagine.
Since I got into this dance battle environment, I've always been alone.
I had a crew, but I've always lead the crew. Therefore, when I battled, I got prepared and pushed my ass up to go against someone.
But this time, I had a partner that slapped (more like slammed lol) my back to get me prepared physically and mentally.
Not only that, I had someone who knew what I should do or should've done and I can ask for advice for the next battle.
This was very new to me
But having a crewmate that I can rely on gave me strength.
Now we are a part since I'm going back to Japan for a week before visiting LA.
Our summer training is not over yet.
But I just wanted to summarize what we've done till this point.
LA is going to be AWESOME.
We will keep striving to evolve as a human being, dancer, popper, and crewmates.
Kamikaze What The Funk?! Crew
Training with consistency to gain the power to bring destruction on the dance floor!!!
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:(
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