Self Journal Day 4

I tried One Journal and keep it to myself but that keeps me lazy.
So I decided to get back to this again.

Day 4 (Restarting Blog).

Succeeded in balancing work and working out for more than 3 days. Hence, the restart of this blog with the hopes that I can keep this consistent.

For now, the results of my work and work out is 50-50. Both are taking gradual improvements.

Until Monday (23rd) I will keep up with my workout to end my 6 day training menu. On Monday, I will update the menu. The new menu will have inner and outer muscle training module. It will change each day. I think the inner muscle menu should be combined with isolation training. This should gain me more control of my body. I would do my isolation training combined with rhythm training. This is because I need to drill rhythm into my body. As for inner muscle training, the focus should be on legs/waist, core body, and shoulders.

Pop training should be after completing this new training menu.

For now, I need to focus on improving the basics.

Rhythm training that I've learned from Hideki is easy to do while I commute to work. Gradually understanding the difference in rhythm in music. I should check in with Hideki to see whether I'm on the right rhythm.

Electro Soul Satisfaction 4 Popping Battle Clips

Sup you all.

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!!!

Prelim

Top 16 VS Jae (From 3:00)

Top 8 VS Riceball

Top 4 VS Castro

Final VS Mark Flux

ILL WHAT THE FUNK?! CREW......

My first student/crewmate/partner/brother from another mother killing beats where we've met.

2009. Thats when I first met him. He didn't know anything. Just a fanboy of Nam Hyun Joon.

Now he is consistently learning, developing, and trying to evolve the dance using his individuality.

Still a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go till he gets to the point where he wants to go.

But even with difficulties, I know he NEVER gives up. He will consistently work to improve.

My brotha

iLL of What The Funk?! Crew.

"What The Funk?! Crew" Showcase at Takala Land

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.

Hope you all enjoy our crew flava!!!

What The Funk

A Dance Journey from age 35 to 44 Time Lapse

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.

Monstapop in "Good Times" Montreal Canada | YAK FILMS

Gotta feel this get down and film......

Mosta Pop x Yak Film


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.

What The Funk!? Crew Show at Takala Land 1 year ago

We did our show again at Takala Land for its two year anniversary party.

They haven't posted the showcase yet, so I'd like to share our show we did last year!!!

Enjoy :D

HOLY SHIT,,,,,,SWEEPY

DA FUCK DID I JUST SEE?!!?!? lol

Crazy dance and popping. Sweepy Killing it....DAMN.

The Cypher Dance Freestyle | Sugaloo

My freestyle get down at the event "The Cypher".

Straight outta work. In casual outfit.

Just having fun. 

Just DANCING............

The ultimate form of play for me in life.

My review on ジャパニメーション(Japanimation)

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.

Peace and God Bless.

This event was titled after Frantick.....

The title of the event is

"Physical Poetry"

Frantick is definitely one of the best, deepest, and the dopest physical poet on the planet.

Beginning to the end......So sick with it!!!

What The Funk Crew Performing at Takala Land 6/29/13!!!

6/29/13, What The Funk?! Crew will be performing at 

TAKALA LAND DANCE STUDIO 2years Anniversary 2013<Back to the streetz vol.2>

!!! 

There will be other amazing dance crews that will be performing! Just see the pic to find out who will be attending! SAVE THE DATE!!!

DROP(PED) from the Moon, the Moon Runners.

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.

Peace and God Blessings

Dope Popper discovery!!!

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.

Come Get FUNKED UP NYC!!!

Peace and God Blessings.

SUGALOO

This is a REAL POPPING ROUTINE! - Jazzy J Electric Boogaloos (Red Suit)

THE FUNK MASTER, The Electric Boogaloo, Rhythmatic Funk Movement, the one and only Soul Fire,,,,Jazzy J.

My teacher and a dance name god father getting down HAAAARRRRD.

One of the best Old and New Animated Masters.

Mr. Steen and Boogie Frantick

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......

Well enjoy the video! Peace and God Blessings!

One of my favorite popper VS One of my favorite DJ

Kid Boogie VS pSyk

I respect Kid Boogie for flying around the world to teach popping. After taking his class, I know he is spreading the knowledge of popping to contribute further to his teachers, the EB's legacy.

I respect pSyk for not only producing dope popping track to keep us dancing, but that he actually dance and battles as well. Met him at Step Ya Game Up couple years ago and he was killing it as well.

Much respect for both for the contributions to the popping community. Peace and God Bless.

To Improve your popping.

Ok. I've been off again.

Its tough to continue a blog I guess haha.

Well the truth is, my work schedule and such changes constantly and I can't keep up with it lol.

But now I think I can maintain a routine schedule. So, lets try this again!

Sharing the word of wisdom shared by Aja George on Facebook.

My post:

Very well summarized statement from AjA George. Yes the Greats STUDIED!!! They go through the “Bad phase” to improve. I always tell my people that a down time in whatever you do is similar to you squatting down to make a big jump. It is a “preparation step” for improvement. Be humble and always look up! Peace and god blessings!

________________________________________________________________________

Aja's Post

So many times, people have asked me to teach them how to pop. 98% of those people NEVER followed through with it. So many of these new dancers feel like they’re stuck…or plateaued, and I can give you a reason why. Most people who dance decide to stay away from certain dances, such as popping, for a reason. One of the most common answers I got was “it’s too hard, I’d never be able to do it (or be good at it)”. NOT true. But…how would you know if you never took the time to try? You’re so concerned about looking good to other people, that you’re afraid to go through a “bad” phase again to learn a new dance. You just want what’s easy. So you keep taking these same “hip hop choreo” classes where the “teacher” is showing you their moves, and how to move to, dance, and hear the music like THEM. Then there are people who are teaching you to hear the music the way YOU want, move the way YOU want, and dance the way YOU want…and there’s 7 people in that class?! See, we’ve got it twisted nowadays in the industry. We’re always looking for the easy road to stardom. The greats STUDIED. The greats, not only in dance, but in other artforms. Michael Jordan STUDIED. Michael Jackson STUDIED. Tiger Woods STUDIED. Shoot, Einstein STUDIED. When they got good at something, they decided that wasn’t good enough and got good at something else to ADD to that one thing they were good at previously. Why would you take “hip hop choreo” class EVERYDAY when you’re already good at it? Why not take salsa? Or house? Or contemporary? Or ballet? Whether you want to excel in that category or not, it WILL help you in whatever form of dance you wanna excel in. I’m a popper that’s taken lots of different dance clases…and I’m still a popper. I just add in what I learn to what I do. But I expanded from it. It made me a better dancer. Don’t just go in the same class week after week “killin” it in there….

Learn something new. You’ll be happy you did.

LA Part 3: Visiting San Diego and reunion

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

He faked a stomachache lol

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.....

What The Funk?!: E.T Experimental Popping Get Down!

What The Funk?!: E.T Experimental Popping Get Down!: 2013 CREW MATES ARE MAKING THEIR MOVE!!! (finally, its been me and ilya for too long man :O lol) Enjoy!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?...