Celebreak

The Breakin’ Effect - a documentary of Paulskee, Mighty 4 and breakdancing culture

Posted on January 30, 2009

Here’s a short documentary by Geoffrey Price on Paulskee, Mighty 4 and breakdancing culture:

B-Boy Stance Comedy

Posted on January 28, 2009

This skit came out back in 2007 but it’s still hilarious. It’s of an over-zealous hip-hop head who surgically attaches his hands to himself to have a permanent b-boy stance:

That’s hip-hop.

How did Junior (Wanted Crew) become the B-Boy Rick Astley?

Posted on January 28, 2009

If you spend more than a few hours a week casually browsing the web then you’ve probably been Rick Rolled. If you’re into breaking, you’ve probably had the equivalent done with B-Boy Junior of Wanted.

I don’t know how he became the b-boy archetype but his Red Bull BC One highlight clip is one of the most shared breakdancing videos around. Marketers should be scratching their heads trying figure out how make something go that viral. I’ve had it shared with me countless times and since his name is often forgotten, I unsuspectingly click the links. The scenarios are usually along the line of…

• In person: “Oh, you breakdance? I saw this one dude who was amazing. I can’t remember his name but I’ll send you the clip!”
• IM/Email: “You gotta check this out! This guy has got to be the best breakdancer around!”

Etc. Don’t get me wrong, I think Junior is talented. I’m just perplexed over how he became the poster boy for breakdancing. Everytime I click a link and see that French b-boy’s familiar highlight clip, I think to myself “Dang…I just got Juniored”

Over-shared clip of Junior at Red Bull BC One:

Coming in at second place is the over-shared clip of Elsewhere (”Dang…I just got Elsewhered”) at Kollaboration:

A Conversation with Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones aka “Ozone” from Breakin and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo

Posted on January 26, 2009

There’s an interview with Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones (aka “Ozone” from Breakin‘ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo) over at Blackpower.com. He talks about how he got into locking, what he’s up to these days and technology’s influence on today’ breakdancers:

We do have some dancers, today, that are doing some pretty spectacular things. You look and think, wow, look at that guy fly. Or, wow, that guy can do 50 head spins as opposed to the little Puerto Rican guy who could only do three back in the day. The big difference is the guy doing 50 head spins lacks the nutritional value. And that nutritional value can only come with time. We’re not allowing the soil time enough to repair itself, organically. If you have people who are viewing dance steps on YouTube so readily and quickly. What you have is people just copying from one another. Just copying, copying, copying. And we never get a sense of your own neighborhood.

That’s what I talked about earlier. Back then, you had east coast going on  and you had the west coast going on. We didn’t know what you guys were doing.You’d seen some of the stuff we were doing because we were on TV, we had <i>Soul Train</i>. But we had time to let it settle and sink in. That’s no longer the case now. Now you got YouTube, which is a big problem. True art needs time to reflect. It needs time for these feelings and thoughts to inculcate themselves in our minds and our bodies. With technology, there’s no way for art to grow properly. Arts needs to be allowed to mature and enrich itself.  Life can only be reflected in art if it has time to grow.So that’s what you have out there: a lot of junk, a lot of cotton candy. And YouTube is the McDonald’s of art and culture. Anybody with a camera can put anything they want on there, and it doesn’t have to be tested.

It’s like break dancing now. You don’t have break dancing. You have break flying. What made it beautiful back then was that they were bringing their experiences and those frustrations from the boroughs to the dance. Not the high flying stuff. It was organic, rich, my-momma’s-whooping-my-ass- I’mma-go-out-in-the-street-and-let-out-this-frustration kind of dancing. All that other stuff, based on tricks and flips, is Olympic dancing.

This is as interesting as it is ironic. Shabba-Doo starred in 2 movies that were detrimental to the b-boy scene (and doesn’t appear to be bothered by it) in the 80’s yet is dissing technological advancements which have helped spread and maintain a breakdancing scene all over the world. While he does have some valid points on Youtube’s impact on originality, he’s missing the big picture.

80’s article - “What Break Dancin’s All About”

Posted on January 24, 2009

Here’s an 80’s article and how-to about break dancing. I don’t know where it was published it looks like it was produced by Jamb Productions:

Breakdancing around the World: Vietnam

Posted on January 24, 2009

Though breaking started in the Bronx, NY, it has since grown from a U.S. fad to world-wide phenomenon. I‘ll periodically post a “Breaking around the World” blog to showcase b-boys and b-girls from all around the globe.

All B-boy Kingz was thrown in Ho Chi Minh City this past December and demonstrated that there are some serious beasts from the East(ern most country of Indochina)! The event, which was thrown by Peace United, pitted 16 of the country’s best b-boys to see who came out on top. Here’s a sample of what went down:

Breakdance Flash Game at Onemotion

Posted on January 21, 2009

There’s a breakdancing flash game created by artist/designer Tomas Eriksson at Onemotion.com. Personally, I’m not really a fan, but it could be fun and entertaining once you get the hang of it.

Related Posts:

• Breakdancing Widget on Google Modules

Early 80’s TV Segment on Californian Breakdancing

Posted on January 20, 2009

Here’s an early 80’s Californian TV Segment, “Eye on Dance”, on the explosion of Breakdancing:

I got this clip from Mikey Ice, a Sacramento B-Boy who has been providing the b-boy community with raw and rare breaking footage for the last 2 years. Check out his Youtube account for 700+ old school footage, tutorials and competition battles.

Interview with B-Boy Photographer Carlo Cruz

Posted on January 17, 2009

In addition to movies and films, breaking has been spread another way—through photos. From magazines to newspaper articles, photographers have been there since the beginning, capturing b-boys in a single moment…and then eternalizing them. I recently interviewed Carlo Cruz, an amazing b-boy photographer from Long Beach, CA

What’s up Carlo, please  tell introduce yourself for the readers

Hey everyone! My name is Carlo Cruz and I live in Long Beach, California. I have been a photographer for about 8 years now. I originally started with film but moved to digital a few years ago.

Continue reading Interview with B-Boy Photographer Carlo Cruz…

B-Girl, the movie

Posted on January 16, 2009

2009 will be another year of dance flicks including B-Girl, a film by Emily Dell.  The movie stars Lady Jules, one of the most decorated b-girls around, as well as some B-list Hollywood actors:

B-GIRL follows the journey of a female breakdancer finding her spirit in the world of underground hip-hop. B-GIRL stars the world’s most elite b-girls and b-boys in breakout dramatic roles, as well as Wesley Jonathan (Roll Bounce), Drew Sidora (Step Up, White Chicks), Aimee Garcia (”The George Lopez Show”) and more!

I’ll post more info as soon as I hear it but you can also get updates by visiting their official website , IMDB page or myspace.