"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

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.

HOLY SHIT,,,,,,SWEEPY

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

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

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

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!

ELECTRO SOUL SATISFACTION Part 1: Before the Battle.

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.


Continues to Part 2.....