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!!!
Once again, after a long night, we slept until 9 AM.
Surprisingly, my body wasn't sore at all. The training I've been doing must've helped me.
We got ready, had a Pizza as a breakfast near the studio where the workshop was held.
James and Ilya
Jazzy J
Time was closing in. Funny thing is, Jazzy didn't realize that he was doing a Locking workshop, not a popping workshop until the very last minute LOL
But of course, its Jazzy. To him switching his mindset between styles is not a problem at all.
Again, surprisingly, Gwo and Carlo was running late. I guess those guys were having too much fun with the judges this time LOL
We waited for an hour before the class began. Finally Carlo called and James began to organize the workshop.
Within the next 15 min, Carlo arrived with other judges.
The workshops began about an hour and 15 min late. Our initial plan of going
back to NYC was gradually being pushed back. I was getting nervous because I was worried about going back during rush hour. Plus, we all had plans early in the morning the next day.
Luckily me and ilya had fun
talking with Dickson, Bionic, and couple other dancers to ease our stress off.
After Jazzy's workshop, we drove to Gwo's house to pick up Fayzah Fire, who was taking a private class with Jr boogaloo.
Here, seeing how Jr Boogaloo interacted with Jazzy, I've realized how much respect he has on the West coast popping community. I say this
because as we were leaving, Jr Boogaloo looked at
Jazzy and sincerely said "west coast is waiting for you" with a respectful manner.
Seeing such an amazing dancer that represent the West Coast popping internationally for more than a decade to show such respect to him made me realize how great Jazzy really is.
Of course to me, he is my sensei, mentor, and dance name god father (My real name is SUGURU. He couldn't pronounce nor remember my name at all for few month. Finally, he got tired of trying and just decided to call me SUGALOO because it sounds similar lol) and I have high respect for him.
Jazzy relaxing his foot while I pump some gas lol
But
I also know his funny and teenage like personality that makes me feel
like he is a great funky old friend. However, seeing such interaction between him and Jr
Boogaloo reminded me how lucky and fortunate I am to learn under him.
When we began driving back to NYC, it was around 3:30 PM.
Going back to NYC was HELL. Especially for me. Because I was the one driving back!!!
I drove back all the way without making any stops because I wanted to go
home as quick as possible since we were already way behind out initial
plan.
But of course we were going back during rush hour.
I hit 4 traffic.... What a night mare. I ended up driving 5~6 hours. My back was KILLING me.....
Anyhow, that was the end of my first summer trip.
To me, it was a great start. But as a crew, I wish we could've done more.
This is because I know how much my partner has challenged himself to improve this summer. I want him to receive results and accomplish the goals that was training for.
But I'm sure this will happen soon. Because our next trip was a life changing experience :D
Finally, to Carlo Manabat, Gwoping Yang, and James Wu.
I know I've said this many times, but THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS EVENT.
You guys always bring one of the best and/or the most interesting poppers out to the East coast.
I believe your dedication towards the community is doing justice. I thank you so much for taking such action.
I WILL follow your footstep in the future so I too can help support the growth of the East coast community.
Once again, I truly enjoyed the event, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to battle A.K.A Kin. With out you guys hard effort of bringing him over from across the sea, this would've never happened.
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!!!
This event REALLY electrifies your soul until your satisfied XD lol
The event is organized by my friends (Carlo Manabat, Gwoping Yang and James Wu) in Washington D.C.
I've been to this event since it started and I have never been disappointed, not even once!!!
The event is very organized and they bring great judges and dancers to do workshops, which attracts great dancers around the local area, east coast, and even from abroad.
Now, this upcoming Saturday, (7/28), Studio G, DCDC, and LifeXHipHop.com presents......
Electro Soul Satisfaction 3, Popping, Locking, All Styles-Over a $1000 in Prizes!
Just look at the flyer ladies and gents.....
From the top.......
BIONIC MAN (Machine Gone Funk/LA)
One of the best and the dopest popper in the U.S right now. He is also known for being one of the most versatile dancer in the Street Dance scene. Definitely a figure that is trying and are filling the gap between the underground street dancers and mainstream choreography dancers. Mad props and respect. He has won, has been qualified and judged numerous international street dance competitions including Battle of the Year, U.K Bboy Championship, R16 and many more..... I've took his class twice within the past couple years and it helped me to exceed in popping more that I could ever imagine. He is also very funny and friendly. Definitely a dancer that I recommend people to meet and learn under.
JAZZY J (Electric Boogaloos/NY)
Member of the legendary popping crew, The Electric Boogaloos.
He has worked with legendary artists including Michael Jackson on a short musical film called "Captain EO".
Jazzy J has been a great influence to the East Coast Popping scene since he moved from California. He is versatile in many different popping styles and technique, allowing many (to name a few, Frank Boogie, Oba, Toshika, Dementia, and many more) to evolve their dance style. He is one of those dancers that you can't ignore because he is full of energy and funkieness.....
He has been dancing over few decades but never lost his edge, in fact, he is still evolving.
Lastly, he is my teacher, mentor, and a dance name god father.
A.K.A Ra (Korea)
The first impression that I had seeing him dance was "How many dance style is he great at???"
It was 2009 or 2010 when I first saw A.K.A Ra at an event called "Step Ya Game Up". He entered all of the categories (popping, locking, house, waacking, Hip Hop) and was the only one (I believe) who passed all the preliminaries. I was amazed and inspired by his dance ever since.
If I'm not wrong, he is one of the most influential forerunners of street dance community in South Korea. He is very rigorous, humble but open minded and of course an extraordinary dancer. Furthermore, I respect the fact that he is still constantly competing even though he is one of those figure who has an O.G status.
Go to 3:56. Guy in Denim Jacket.
Dickson (U.K)
I have never met Dickson before, but I've known his name and dance via Youtube since 2009. I'm very excited to see this guy live this Saturday!
Dickson is one of the top poppers in U.K, representing his country in numerous battles across Europe. I like his clean popping technique that has some groovy feeling on it.
A.K.A Kin (F.I.T.H/Korea)
One of my all time favorite popper right here :) I had a privileged to finally meet him last weekend at an event "Step Ya Game Up". His Boogaloo is one of the best in not only in Asia, but in the world (in my humble opinion). His style is deep in feeling and very chill. At first, you might not get his dance because it is slow at times, but if you listen to the music carefully, the expression he makes by using his full body is magnificent. Although he had a slump where people questioned whether he lost his edge in the past few year, he came back strong and now is the champion of the International Street Dance competition, R16. Once again, Congratulations Mr. Kin!!!
Ok with all that said.......
YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS JAM!!!
Here is the information!!!
(including workshops and After Party!!! :D)
Time: July 28th (Saturday) 12PM-8PM
Category:
1 v 1 Popping competition Cash Prize: $500 plus gear ***Battle Guest: AKA Kin***
1 v 1 All Styles Cash Prize: 300$ plus gear
1vs1 Locking Cash Prize: 300$ plus gear
Fee:
Jam – 15$ before 1:30PM and 20$ anytime after 1:30PM – Ladies 10$ ALL
DAY, Kids 10 and under are FREE ALL DAY (With an adult admission) &
supervision) !!!
Cameras = 5 Bucks, this jam will be well documented by the LXH and Studio G team, so no worries about footage being available! Location:
.JPG)
.JPG)
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:(
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
