Master Of your DANCE

There is a huge difference in our art between "beeing a winning bboy" and beeing a "Master of your dance"

Most of the bboys try to get an arsenal of moves that they are supposed to develop themself, influenced by what they see and who they train with, flipping moves that they watch with some little variations...
Well 93% of the bboys i see are a combinations of trendy moves a bit flipped, oldschool stuff that they were doing before or that were trendy before, classic breaking, outfits that usually changed every year depending on what's cool this year
For me they look like a big PATCHWORK that show me that those bboy don't master their dance.
thoses guys might win competitions because judges check mostly Moves & Energy ...but they doesn't really make me have goosebumps or deep respect.

The 7% bboys that master their dance have a way to be in life, dancing outfit, certain style of moves and favourite music that are Coherent with eachothers. They don't look like a patchwork... They went so far in their style that they customised classic breaking to make their own dance that make sense...that's why for me they become master of their dance.
The whole package from toprocks, go downs, flow, style of footwork, moves, freezes and power should make sense all together to become one unique dance.
It's shouldn't be necessary really far from classic breaking but the whole thing should be coherent.

We all were wack when we started, it's a normal step in the bboy life...but the goal is too such, work train and get knowledge to go to the next step and become with time a Master of Your dance.

New Generation

A lot of oldschoolers in our bboy community hate on the new generation because they don't do it the right way.
First of all we all started wack so it's normal that the young generation might not get it fully right at the beggining, second our art and culture is so rich that it takes a lot of time and energy to fully understand what we do, why we do it and how we should do it... and finally our scene is so fucked up right now that it's hard to have a good exemple to follow
for all theses reasons i have to give my props to a lot of young crews but specially those young kids from Canada. I met them randomly in Montreal, they invited me at new years eve in their parents house in 2008 and i fully feel the way the see and live our artform....look forward to see them making trouble at Hip Opsession in 2 weeks

Sweet technique at work

Bboy Shoes

    
  Hiphop people really care about their style! and a big part of that style is THE SHOES...that's why there is this whole sneakers freak attitude in our culture.
While most of the community check for new models, bboys really stick to the classics models.
Some models are timeless while others are just a trend that last some months or a few years.

NIKE CORTEZ

created in 1972, this model is the first one made by Nike. Soon after they created this model, they started from one athletics track to another in a van to promote Nike’s products as the brand’s main salesman It become famous after the Olympics Game in Munich were the american athletes started wearing the shoes. This shoes were soon on the kids feet in the bronx at the birth of Hiphop.

The Nike Cortez are really light, it's really good for powermove. Nowadays it's a bit rare to see them on bboys feet. The difficulty of the moves and the more and more dangerous style that some of the bboys do today might be dangerous for their ankles with such a model.

ADIDAS SUPERSTAR

created in 1969, this model became iconic in both basketball and hiphop. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the first NBA player to wear it and gethoo kids who were influence by basketball started have it on their feet playing in the street. When Run-DMC decided that they would dress on stage the way they dressed in the streets with their Superstar sneakers with the tongues pushed out and laces undone, that created a hip-hop fashion that remains popular today. with their song "my adidas", they promoted the shoe as they went on tours across the US, popularizing it outside of basketball culture.
Bboys directly adopted this shoes that is timeless. I think it's the most used today with the Puma Suede. For me it's the Ultimate bboy shoe!

 Puma Suede

created in 1968, the newly released Puma Suede was worn by Tommie Smith, the prominent Olympic athlete that took to the Olympic awards podium with one fist held defiantly in the air as a black panter salute. Some years after, Walt "Clyde" Frazier wore this style in the 1980's and this shoe became known as the "Clyde". The Suede is widely regarded as the original B-Boy shoe. It was made famous by early bboy crews, such as the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew, who rocked them religiously as the superstars at early Hip-Hop jams in New York City.
This model is light enough to be used by powermover because it's light enough but also gives you the perfect style for footwork with beeing scared to twist your ankle or injured your feet.

PRO KEDS

created in 1969, The brand Pro Keds introduced to the world the "PRO-Keds Super," which was also known as the 69er. To some people growing up in Harlem and the Bronx, the 69er was also referred to as the “Uptowns”.Again as the other brands, it was popularised by the New York Knicks basketball players wearing and endorsing the product on court, the brand also gained street credibility when they were seen on the feet of Hip-Hop pioneers DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaata, and the Rock Steady Crew amongst several others. With both its on court and street visibility, 69er quickly became the first classic sneaker for New Yorkers. Pro Keds really focused on the rubber of the gum which was quite hard but also elastic. This gum gave the ultmate boioing swag when you walk which gave the bboy a perfect shoes to dance.
In the early 1970s, PRO-Keds introduced the Royal Master, also known as the Royal Plus. It became one of the most well known basketball models. Some of the game’s most exciting players including Pete Maravich, Tiny Archibald, and Jo Jo White endorsed this shoe. In addition to PRO-Keds hardtop significance, its popularity on the streets continued as members of NYC’s elitle B-boy community adopted it as a key break dancing shoe.
The Pro keds were popular in the early years of hiphop and disapear after....it made a big comeback in the bboy community in 2005/6. This shoes lost his soul when they associate with Roca wear and made some shinny pink plastic models...they also changed the gum which was the secret power of the shoes to a normal one.

ADIDAS GAZELLE

Introduced in 1968 as a training/soccer shoe, the Gazelle is one of the most popular adidas models ever. Adidas brand is the number one brand for the Bboys and it's no surprise there are many models in the classic bboy shoes. The Gazelle has been released in hundreds of colour variations over the years in its usual suede material. This model is also a bboy classic, that was used back in the days and that will be use in the future. This model is like the Puma Clyde, a perfect mix between light and strong gum shoe that is comfortable whatever style you do. You can see them on the feet of the homeboy on the right of the picture

REEBOK CLASSIC

created in 1983, ths shoes became really popular in the UK, when i started to dance a lot of bboys used them to break. This running shoes is one of the few not to have a flat gum, now it's really rare to see some bboys wearing them.

CONVERSE CHUCK TAYLOR ALLSTARS


created in 1917, this model got famous with (again) Basketball players that used them such as Charles "Chuck" Taylor.  The bboys didn't really use them because the gum of this model is really thin. In the bboy scene, bboys start wearing them when Pro keds made their come back in 2005, Maybe due to the poor quality of internet and the pixelisation of the video, when bboys tarted to use the Royal Hi canveas pro keds, people watching internet clips thought it was Chucks allstars due to the similarity. So more and more bboys started using them even if the thin gum hurt your knee and your feet. The Chucks also became popular when bboys that are trying the LosAngeles TVdance life starting using them.
This shoe is a killer for your body, the thin gum makes you light but doesn't allow you to have good balance depending you the moves.

Learn from People that know

Yo,

My man Bret sent me this video of "Ready to rock vs Ata/Morris/Puzzles/dyzee" asking me who thoses fools are...
Obviously they don't really look like the ReadyToRock we know...hehe
What they need to complete their style is a "Nyke" track suit and some 4 stripes "Abidas shoes maybe

I blame this chinese crew of course but not only....i have to blame first of all the Host that didn't say shit or made fun of them during the battle because of their name but also from the Entourage of this crew that didn't tell them they CAN'T DO THIS when they started.....

It's really important to learn from people that know shit....that would never let some bboys do some big mistakes as this " having the same crew name as another famous crew" or byte trademark moves from famous bboys or whatever other bullshit
A crew and Entourage that have knowledge of the scene is here to tell you that "No you can't name yourself as this or that, No this moves looks too much as another moves from another bboy....etc etc..."
Every crew  at the beginning should have older real cats to guide them till they fully understand the scene they live in

And if you don't find any real cats to help well such better!

Peace