Latest / Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel / Breakdancing's Big Moment: Inside Ivan ‘Flipz’ Velez's Journey to the 2024 Olympics!

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Breakdancing's Big Moment: Inside Ivan ‘Flipz’ Velez's Journey to the 2024 Olympics! · Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Misunderstood, you guys. I'm your host, Rachel.
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  Speaker 1: You could tell today I'm sitting with my producer, Allison,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: who's a longtime friend. And we did a really fun episode.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And so she's just we're sitting here having a conversation
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  Speaker 1: about it because it was so good. And we are
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  Speaker 1: 100 days away from the Summer Olympics in Paris, which
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Allison is so excited about. Allison, tell me what it
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  Speaker 1: was like for you growing up watching the Olympics.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody loved the Olympics growing up. It's something you watch
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  Speaker 2: with your mom. And I have a picture from 1984
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  Speaker 2: of Mary Lou Retton getting ready to do the balance beam.
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  Speaker 1: It was a big year.
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  Speaker 2: Who doesn't love Michael Phelps in the pool? Everyone has
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  Speaker 2: a memory from the Olympics.
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  Speaker 1: That's so true. I also really did love the gymnastics.
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  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to the gymnastics. Swimming, obviously, was really
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  Speaker 1: exciting to watch, especially when Michael Phelps. And what was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the really hot kind of dumb guy that became famous
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: with Michael Phelps?
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  Speaker 2: Ryan Lochte.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Love him. Love Ryan Lochte.
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  Speaker 2: And this year, Simone Biles is back. So everyone's excited.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone is excited. So this year, what's exciting about it
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  Speaker 1: is there's a whole new sport being introduced into the
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  Speaker 1: world of Olympics. I think there's a couple, but the
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  Speaker 1: one we are featuring is breakdancing. I'm sure some of
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you are like, what? But as you listen to today's episode,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I think you're going to come to see what an
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: incredible athletes these dancers really are. And I had the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: best conversation with today's guest. His name is Ivan Flips Velez,
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  Speaker 1: and he's a legend in the breakdancing world. He's thrilled
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  Speaker 1: to see the evolution of the sport he's been doing
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  Speaker 1: since he was 14 years old, take center stage internationally.
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  Speaker 1: And what did you think? I know you did like
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  Speaker 1: a pre-interview with him, Allison, and you were like, you
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  Speaker 1: have to talk to this guy. You have to have
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  Speaker 1: a conversation with him. He's so good.
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  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I'm from Brooklyn, where breakdancing was
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  Speaker 2: huge when I was younger. And these guys are athletes.
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  Speaker 2: They're gymnastics, you know, into themselves. They combine so much
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  Speaker 2: stuff with dance and gymnastics that it's not your regular
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  Speaker 2: person doesn't just start doing it. It's not like disco.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody can't do it. So he's the coolest. And he's
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  Speaker 2: so passionate about it that you can't help but feel that, too.
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  Speaker 1: Right. Well, so the thing about flips is if you've
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  Speaker 1: seen a dance movie, a TV show with choreography, anything
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  Speaker 1: like that, a musical performance, you've probably seen some of
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  Speaker 1: the work that flips has been a part of he's
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  Speaker 1: worked on everything from dancing with the stars to Michael
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  Speaker 1: Jackson's one by Cirque du Soleil to the movies, honey,
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  Speaker 1: you got served, stomped the yard to perform it with
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  Speaker 1: such stars as Madonna, Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, his resume
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  Speaker 1: was totally insane. So he was the person to come
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  Speaker 1: on and talk about this. Um, And I really loved
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  Speaker 1: our conversation. I think he gets really emotional talking about
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  Speaker 1: his past. And then he obviously talks about the love
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  Speaker 1: of dance and where he got that from. But I'm
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  Speaker 1: very excited because he's the sweetest guy. And so I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to thank you, Allison, for bringing him to my attention.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm sure our listeners will be excited to hear
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  Speaker 1: our conversation that we're about to have. But anything else
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  Speaker 1: you want to say, Al?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think everyone just listen up and get excited
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  Speaker 2: for the Olympics coming up this summer.
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  Speaker 1: A hundred days away, Olympics in Paris. Okay, get ready
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  Speaker 1: for my conversation with Flips Velez. Thank you so much
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: for joining me on misunderstood. It's so fun to have
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  Speaker 1: you here.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I'm so excited. You have no idea.
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  Speaker 1: So I think it's pretty incredible. The break dancing has
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  Speaker 1: now been accepted and is now like going to be
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  Speaker 1: in the Olympics in Paris, 2024. When you hear about
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: break dancing and the Olympics, these are two things that people,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you know, do not put together. So this must be
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: really exciting for you.
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  Speaker 3: Super exciting. If we date back to 1984, right, with
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Lionel Richie closing out the ceremonies, we had break dancers
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  Speaker 3: on there. Now, fast forward 40 years later, we're on
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  Speaker 3: the main stage as athletes. I call us dance leads,
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  Speaker 3: dance athletes.
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  Speaker 1: That's amazing. How often is it that they add a
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  Speaker 1: new sport in the Olympics? Do you know?
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  Speaker 3: Every four years, they have trials. So back in 2018
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  Speaker 3: in Buenos Aires, they had the trials for three new sports,
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  Speaker 3: and breaking was one of them. Based on the turnout,
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  Speaker 3: which was incredible, the numbers, the youngest was six years old,
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  Speaker 3: and the oldest, I want to say, was like 89.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone was coming to watch, specifically the bouts, which were one-on-ones,
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  Speaker 3: B-boys and B-girls. And it had like the numbers were
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  Speaker 3: just amazing. So they were like, you know what, let's
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  Speaker 3: fast forward. And they pretty much vouched for it to
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  Speaker 3: become an actual sport in the Olympics. And here we are.
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  Speaker 1: So breakdown, that's a pun on words, I guess. But like,
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  Speaker 1: tell me what breakdancing is. Because when I think of it,
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  Speaker 1: I think of guys or girls spinning around on like
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  Speaker 1: a cardboard box on their head. Obviously, it's progressed since then.
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  Speaker 1: But what would you categorize breakdancing as?
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  Speaker 3: You're actually spot on. We did start dancing on the
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  Speaker 3: concrete in the Bronx on cardboard, actually, to not hurt ourselves.
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  Speaker 3: But breaking is considered when you have top rock, you
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  Speaker 3: start at the very top. You take it down to
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  Speaker 3: the ground. You do some footwork. Right. Then you have
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: the continuous power moves, which is the most exciting, which
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: is what I love. It's very, very close to gymnastics
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  Speaker 3: and martial arts. You got flares. You got air flares.
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  Speaker 3: You got head spins. And then you have to end
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  Speaker 3: it with a freeze. So you have top rock, footwork, freezes,
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  Speaker 3: and power moves.
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  Speaker 1: So is it like when we're watching, I would say,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to compare it to ice skating. Some of
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  Speaker 1: us watch it, love to watch it. It's beautiful. But
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  Speaker 1: we don't really know what the judges are looking for.
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  Speaker 1: I know you just came back from Paris. You were
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: doing some preliminary judging, right? Tell me what the judges
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  Speaker 1: look for and what things we can spot as amateurs
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  Speaker 1: and we don't know what we're looking at.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: So as judges, there's a couple of boxes that have
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  Speaker 3: to be ticked. 60-second rounds. Now, if you go over,
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  Speaker 3: you get dinged or you get deducted. If you go
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: under too short, you get deducted. So you're given 60 seconds.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: It's a one-on-one. So one person comes out, a B-boy
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  Speaker 3: or a B-girl, they have to finish and then get
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  Speaker 3: off the dance floor before the other person answers back, right?
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: We're judging on creativity, how creative you are, what you
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: bring to the table, think outside the box, personality. We
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: want to see that you are in the rawest form,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: bringing forth the best you as possible with the movement
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: as well to be original. Variety. Can you do top
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  Speaker 3: rock into footwork, into freezes? Or are you just like
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: what we call a one trick pony where you just
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: stay up top or you just stay spinning? You get
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: dinged for that as well. Performance. So overall performance, how
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: you start. the middle of your round or your solo,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: how you end it, how you connect both in battle
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: with your opponent and with the audience and with the judges.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: And the last but not least, which I love, is musicality.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: So the rhythm and the beat. We're giving you a
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: beat for a reason. Please dance on beat.
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  Speaker 1: That's what we're looking for. Is this something that's a
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: routine that they're practicing before they get in there? Or
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  Speaker 1: is this something you throw at them and they're supposed
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to kind of ad lib?
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  Speaker 3: So the ad lib or the creative side of it
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: is what we love when you get to freestyle, when
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: you are free in your own style, creating your own
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: movement based on what the DJ is playing. Sometimes You
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: create a solo or what we call a set. But
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  Speaker 3: if the music changes and there's more BPMs, beats per minute,
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  Speaker 3: it causes your brain to rewire and restructure what you
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  Speaker 3: planned on doing, which is also what we love when
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  Speaker 3: they innovate. Like in the moment, just kind of think
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  Speaker 3: outside the box and recreate. You get points for that
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  Speaker 3: as well.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: But will they do that in the actual Olympics? I mean,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's not normal, right? People really follow
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a routine. They practice it, whether you're in gymnastics or
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: in ice skating or whatever, and they follow that routine.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: This is something you're saying is a little bit different,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: that you get the ability to freestyle, and that's what
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: makes you stand out.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Yes, that is what makes you stand out, which is great.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: The problem as well is if you submit a routine,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: by the time you go and perform it on the
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: dance floor, you have evolved a couple of moves. And
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: sometimes when they fall out of their moves, you're forced
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: to create almost a way to clean it up. You
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: don't want to crash because you'll get dinged for that
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: as well, which will also create an in-the-moment kind of
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: spontaneous difference in your routine.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about your resume of why you
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: are the expert that you are in this. I mean,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you are a dancer from, what, 20, 25 years ago?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Explain to people your history in this sport.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah. So I started at 15 years old. Turn
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: back the clock. Started in high school. There was a
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: dance show. It was like a talent show. And we
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: rented the movie Beach Street. So if you guys ever
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: get to check that out, it was amazing. New York
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: City Breakers and Rocksteady Crew, they got on the train.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: They went to the Roxy. And in this amazing club scene,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: they had this epic battle where the crowd just opened
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: up for them. It was insane. And that's when I
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: fell in love with it. It ignited a passion that
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: since I was 15 years old. I went to the
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Mecca of breaking. I went to New York. I moved there.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: I pursued almost as a student of the art and
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: the culture. And I got really good. Thank God I
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: got really good, really fast. I got well known for
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: my flipping and my headspin. So I created a style
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: where gymnastics, I call it flipping the script, where gymnastics
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: and martial arts like capoeira and stuff I had learned
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: in karate could be morphed into breaking. And once I
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: got the headspin down packed, I was flown all over
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the world, Seoul, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Madagascar, Africa.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: So I was able to not only travel the world,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: but also enrich myself in the culture of breaking. And
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: what we do is we call each one teach one
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: is pass the torch to some of those countries that
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: hadn't seen breaking. The evolution of breaking because it started
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: in the US. So, yeah, three time world champion. Yeah,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I won. My team and I won the first ever
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: World of Dance. We also won the UK championships. We
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: were flown to London and beat Russia's top nine. We
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: beat Korea's Jinjo crew, which was undefeated at the time.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: So yeah, pretty, pretty and back to back champions at
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Ashes to Ashes coming out of Portland, Oregon, which is
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: a world championship as well. So yeah, been around. Yes.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And it's so funny. I'm looking at three pages. of
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: your history of tv and web film you know track
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: stage that you've done it's like endless all the things
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: you've done from movies you've been in to you know
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: choreographing things like michael jackson's one Cirque du Soleil you
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: did a couple of Cirque du Soleil's right tell me
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: about that i grew up on michael jackson i love
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: music what what was it like to help choreograph that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: So being a part of the creative team for MJ1,
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: number one, it's a dream come true. So once I
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: got the email and I got flown to the headquarters
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: in Montreal, I started to see the wardrobe department, how
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: they were making everything that Michael wanted to come to life.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: May he rest in peace while he was still alive.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: And that was the main objective of the show was
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: what would Michael do? What would Michael do? How would
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: he like it? What would he choose here? So I
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: was given, I submitted for Billie Jean. It's my favorite song.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: And he changed the world when he did the moonwalk
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: for the first time.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Know, the backslide. So I submitted for Billie Jean. They said,
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: do you mind choreographing it in a template, right? Like
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: a previous and send it in. And I got the job.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: So it's now been running for 10 years.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: And yeah, with the same choreography that you did.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's still running. I got invited. Yeah, I flew out,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: got invited to the 10 year anniversary. And I was
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: just I was in tears because sometimes you want to
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: leave your mark. You want to leave your footprint. And
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: the DNA of Michael Jackson is so it's like perfection,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: as we all know it. He was such an incredible
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: creative artist, both on and off the dance floor. And
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: to have my work. reign supreme for 10 years it's
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: like you can't ask for anything better.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I'm curious as a kid like what you saw what
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: you thought of like MTV right and they had the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: videos that came out and then Michael Jackson doing Thriller
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: stuff like that was that stuff that like you know
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: helped get you on this path did you love that
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and were you like I want to do this.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: I feel like when I watched Michael Jackson perform and
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: sing because a lot of people don't sing and perform
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: as well right yeah It ignited something inside. I call it,
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: it tickles or it pulls on your heartstrings. And I
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: wanted to be him so bad, so bad. I had
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: the glove. My mom made me the glove. I learned
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: the backslide, the moonwalk, forwards and backwards. But I really
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: felt like if there was any way I could work
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: with him or for him, it would make my dream
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: come true. So I'm getting a little... choked up that
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: I was able to do that for him and continue
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: his legacy. I mean, who didn't want to be MJ?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I know it must feel like such an honor that
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: today you are part of the reason that he, his
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: legacy goes on, you know? I mean, I think that's
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: pretty spectacular. And then looking down this list, well, wait,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: before I get to more on this list, I'm curious
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: what your family thinks of this. I know you said
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: you were born in Puerto Rico. I know you had, um,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: something that happened to you when you were 10, you,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you had, there was a fire, right? In your home.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Tell me, tell me about that.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: Excuse me. Sorry. I, uh, Yeah, this one's a little
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: tough to get out. But when I was 10, we
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: had moved from Puerto Rico. We were only at the
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: house for about, I want to say, a month or two.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: And wait, set the scene. Who lived with you?
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: Okay, yes. So my father actually helped us move from
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Puerto Rico to Florida. Okay. bought the first house. They
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: were so happy. We were all like gung ho, like,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Oh my God, our dreams are coming true. And we're
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: so close to a Disney world as well. So it
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: was definitely, uh, like a big thing for the family
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: to move. However, we had to learn English. I only
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: spoke Spanish at the time. So it was, yeah. When
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: you talk about a big life change and it was
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: a culture shock as well. Yeah. So I had my
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: little sister, my oldest, my little sister, Natasha, my older sister, Jalira,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: and my little brother, Pito. We call him Pito. His
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: name is Ray. And at the time it was around
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Christmas time, just after Christmas. So you're on the high
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: of living in a new territory, learning a whole new
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: language and life couldn't get any better. I mean, we
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: had our house and everything. So Um, yeah, one unlucky, very,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: very late night, um, in January, I, I felt like
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I couldn't breathe. Um, to be quite honest, I felt
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: like something was suffocating me as I was trying to
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: just as I'm sleeping, just to take in the next
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: breath of air. It got really, really hot. But when
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: I woke up, um, I did see like a blue
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: flame on the wall. which was for a 10 year old,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: you're like, what is that? It looked like a fire,
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: but it didn't, it also didn't feel like one and
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: it wasn't red. It was just like blue. It was electrical.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: And based on the heating systems that we were using,
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: because it was so cold outside and it was hot inside,
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: the condensation was causing like the electric to spark and
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: it sparked enough that it caught the walls caught on
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: fire where the outlets were. So, I immediately went into autopilot.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I can recall it. It makes me like it makes
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: me get a little bit emotional because all I kept
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: hearing was my brother crying and we were sharing the
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: same room. And he has this crib that has like
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: this child lock, which I never really understood. My mom
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: knew how to do it. But you had to like
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: kick the lever a certain way to drop the thing.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: the bars and i couldn't do it so i started
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: like anxiously pulling to try to break the crib to
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: get him out and i noticed he couldn't he couldn't
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: breathe so he he was um almost like choking a
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: bit and i had to react.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Itching burning soreness when you know it's thrush you want
• 25:06
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• 25:13
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• 25:17
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• 25:21
  Speaker 3: So I opened the door, which I felt like was
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: the first mistake. Soon as I opened the door, the
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: fire just went like it just grew. And I can
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: hear the windows cracking. A couple of them popped, I guess,
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: from the energy or from the heat. So I ran
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: to the room, called my mom. She told me to
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: go back to bed. she thought I was having a
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: nightmare and, um, she felt in my voice, like something
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: was wrong. So, so she got up and then she
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: went to the room and then she saw it and she,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: she panicked, but in a good way, it like clicked
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: her to, to get moving. And she started, you know,
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: just yelling, we got to get out. We got to
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: get out. You know? Um, so I, I know my
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: sisters were across the hall. Um, A small hall, thank God.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: But I opened the door and their room was cold.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: So the fire hadn't got... None of the flames or
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: anything had got to their side. And we helped wrap
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: them in the quilts that they were sleeping in. And basically,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: that's all we had, sadly. My mom thought very, very
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: quickly to push us out. And she went and got
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: an olla, like a pot in the kitchen just to see...
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: if she could turn it off. And it was, I
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: felt so bad for her because when she threw like
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: the water, you see, it was like gas. It was
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: like gasoline instead of water. So she dropped the pan
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: and she started freaking out and she had enough, I guess,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: wits to pick up the phone and use the cord
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: to like go as far as she can away from
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: the fire to call 911.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: And, Wow.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: And yeah, she, we were able to somehow, I knew
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: I was 10, but all I thought about was how
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: do I get my family out? How do I help
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: my mom? How can we survive this? Right. But, but
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: within seconds, all this kind of role play has to,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: has to happen. And then we go outside and within
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: like minutes, the fire department starts showing up. The ambulance
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: are showing up. We just had like our batas, which
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: is basically like long t-shirts and, and, you know, your,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: your nightgown kind of, and we turn around the house.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: It's like, it's just like crumbling. Excuse me. I don't
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: talk about this often. Cause it was so long ago.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: You kind of like, you want to bury it a bit.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Cause it hurts, but thank God nobody was hurt. Like
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: nobody was hurt. Yeah. Um, and they started asking us
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: all these questions. And again, we, we, our first language
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: is Spanish. So we're talking in Spanish and my mom
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: is just trying to calm us down. The neighbor came over, um, Pat, oh,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: she's so sweet. And she just didn't want us to
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: keep looking at what was going on. So she took
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: us to her side of the yard and, and yeah,
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: we just, from there it was like, life changed in
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: a whole nother way for me. And that's what's impacted
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: me the most.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What do you think you learned from that experience?
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, what I learned, what's in my heart and my
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: brain and my soul since that night is to live
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: in the purpose of helping other people. When you know
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: what to do for yourself, That's one thing. Some people
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: focus only on themselves, but when you become a vessel
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: or a tool for the higher purpose of life and
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: to make humanity better, it really is about stepping outside
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: of sometimes your own body, your own ego, your own thoughts,
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: controlling your emotions enough to know that this is the
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: best decision for all, for all that are there at
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: that time, for all that are there in the future.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: And I thought about my brother, my little brother. He
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: was like a year and a half, I would say.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, I thought about him surviving. Not me. I
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: could have got burned trying to reach to get him out.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: It was him surviving. My mom, no. my sisters getting
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: out and yeah, letting the fire department know exactly what
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: I saw because by the time they got there, they
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: couldn't tell what started the fire. And I was like,
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: there was like a blue flame coming from the wall.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: And it almost becomes, how can I help? prevent this
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: from happening to someone else? Or if someone goes through
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: the same tragedy, how can I help? How can I
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: connect with them, um, to help? Because something like that,
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: it's hard to get over. Um, it could affect the
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: family enough to where it, you know, it could cause
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: like a breakage in the family due to the fact
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: that it was so traumatic.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: A couple of us start blaming each other or whatever.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: Yes. Yes. Like anything negative, Thank God my family's strong.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, Latinos are very resilient, I would say. We
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: considered it such a strong blessing for so long that
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: we didn't want to turn the page and look at
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: it as if it was this really bad curse or
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: something bad that happened. So it really helped us as
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: a family unite even more as a family and always
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: have something to be grateful for because we witnessed something
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: that could have been, you know, a whole nother story.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I could be telling. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, God, you
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: just had me choking up. That was such a powerful story.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: You know, I, I, there was a summer that I
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: worked in the Hamptons and I lived in a house
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: with everybody I was working with. It was a 10
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: bedroom house and we had five dogs between all of us.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I had two myself and, And we it was Fourth
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: of July weekend. We went out that night before we
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: started work and we got a call 45 minutes after
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: we left the house that the house was on fire.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: And I remember getting in my car, driving home to
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: get to the fire, being like. My two dogs are
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: in there and that I don't know if you're an
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: animal person, but my dogs are my life. And I
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: had gotten you brought up before we started our our
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: conversation here. You brought up September 11th. I had lost
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: my fiance. My fiance was killed in the World Trade Center. And, um,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I had gotten, thank you. And I had gotten these
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: two dogs. I had gotten one dog was named Rudy
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Giuliani because he was a hero at the time. And
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the other dog was Ozzy Osbourne because, um, I was
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: invited to the white house correspondence dinner and I sat
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: next to Ozzy Osbourne and it was the day I
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be married. And so I named my,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: and I got the dog that the second dog. And
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: so I named him Ozzy. Anyway, Ozzy and Rudy were
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: in this house.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And I heard it was burning down. And I kept
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: saying in the car with the four guys that were
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: driving with me that also were in the house, if
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: these dogs die, that it will be the end of me. Like,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I will not be able to get back. And when
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: we pulled up to the house, there was four fire trucks.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: This is a huge house. And it was gone. The
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: house was gone.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: And.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was going to do. And luckily,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: long story short, I will say all five dogs survived.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: A neighbor found some, the fire department found the others.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: They were taken to the neighbor's house. It was an
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: incredible story of survival. We had nothing. We were left
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: with nothing. I think J. Crew sponsored us for the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: weekend so we could open up our nightclub that we
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: were hosting that weekend. But to get to your point,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: it bonded us. Some of these people I haven't talked
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to in 15, 20 years. But when we do see
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: each other or we speak on the phone or we
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: text or we see each other on Instagram, we will say,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: do you remember 4th of July, that fire? I can't
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: believe it. And I love you always. Like it's something
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: that bonds you together. And also it reminds you of
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: how precious life was. And it was an electrical fire,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: by the way. That's how it was started. And those
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: are the most scary situations because it's not like, first
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: of all, you can't blame anybody, but it can happen
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: to anyone. So it's a totally frightening situation. I think
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: it's amazing that as a child, you went through that.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: You survived it. Your whole family was great. And I'm
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: sorry I made you talk about that.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: No, that's okay.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: But I love that you have that in your background
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: because it makes you appreciate your family and life in general. Yes, absolutely.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: What were your parents' thoughts about you wanting to be
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: a dancer? Were they like... Ivan before you became flips
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: or they're like, that's crazy. You need to be a doctor.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Like what were they saying?
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: Yes. Very close to that. So my, my father's a
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: registered nurse at the VA hospital.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: And he works in the operating room. So he's saving
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: lives daily. And here I am like playing LL Cool
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: J and like Missy Elliott and like dancing. And they, they,
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: they were supportive, but they wanted to, they wanted me
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: to be more focused on like an, like an, an
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: a game. That's like a B game, right? It's a hobby. Yeah. Just,
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: just to have fun. And then once I started, um,
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I had a couple of major injuries and that's when
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: they were like, okay, put the brakes on whatever this is.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: Cause you're not about to end up in the hospital,
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: you know, in and out of hospitals for the So
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: I almost made a pact with my dad. I remember
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: one summer right out of high school and I wanted
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: to go to USF, University of South Florida in Tampa.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: And I loved Miami, University of Miami for their sports, right?
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: So I had this conundrum moment where I'm like, maybe
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: I don't want to pick up the books right now.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Maybe I just want to like chill, relax and express myself.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: That summer, I told my dad, let me get this
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: out of my system and I'll hit the books. Man,
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: that's when it took off. I practiced every day. I
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: won multiple competitions to the point where I was scouted
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: for Universal Studios by GeForce Entertainment, a guy named Mike Garcia.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: And he went to a battle and I actually won
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: first place. I won $ 500. My parents were like, where'd
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: you get that money? Because in the envelope, it was
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: $ 100 bills and it came from the club. So they
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: were like, what were you doing? And yeah, that summer
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: was what changed my life. In the matter, in the
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: course of a couple of months, I was so determined
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: and dedicated to being the very best B-boy breaker I
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: could be, right? Whether it led to something great or not.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: And it's funny that behind me, look, I have the
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: movie Honey, which was my first film. And then I
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: had a lead role in this one with Chris Brown
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: called Battle of the Year. So I wear that so
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: proudly because my dad actually said, you know what, if
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: you got to do that and get your rocks off,
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: go ahead. But at the end of this summer, you know.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: And I knew what he was getting at because he
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: he was already prepping me to work. I worked at
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: the Moffitt Cancer Center as well, helping transport cancer patients.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: So I was already being prepped and groomed. Like you
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: were saying, you should be a doctor. You should study
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: or study law, you know. So, yeah. Yeah.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: So I want to go through some of these other things.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Like what was your most favorite thing? I mean, I
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: don't know.
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: Itching, burning, soreness. When you know it's thrush, you want
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: it gone. You know how you pick. Exactly. But like,
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: do you prefer to be in it or you prefer
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: to like in the movie or do you prefer to choreograph? I, oh,
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: that's actually a really good question.
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: My alter ego does not want me to hang up
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: my dance shoes, so flips always wants to be in
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: front of the camera.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Ivan Velez is cool to be creative, like behind directing,
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: producing and choreographing as well. But I think for, for
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: this day and age, if you don't show your face,
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: sometimes they forget about you, like out of sight, out
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: of mind. So it's been the last couple of years.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: I just did the movie, um, with Ryan Reynolds and
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: Will Ferrell. And when people see me in that movie,
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: they're like, oh, my God, we thought you hung up
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: your dance shoes. I was like, no, man, you get
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: the itch sometimes to just... And when they call you
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: for a cameo, I want to do honor to everything
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: I've done in life, to... Everyone who's helped me, everyone
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: who's taught me. And the moment you say, I'm too
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: good for that, I'm cool, but you're being offered a
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: cameo in a Super Bowl appearance or a film or
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: a commercial, you should... In order to inspire the next generation,
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: you should show face. You should wear that proudly. And
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: it's like a badge of honor. So it's a really
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: good question that you asked. Do I like to be
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: in front of the camera or behind? I love creating
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: the moment, though. I really do. I love writing scripts
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: or producing the content and then putting it forth on
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: the table and having a brand say, That's a great idea, Flip.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: Let's go for it. And then you have an Adidas commercial,
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: you know?
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But like for this movie you're talking about, was
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: someone else in charge of doing the choreography and you
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: had to follow it? And how does that feel when
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: you're like, well, this sort of sucks? Or like you're
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: dancing with Ryan Reynolds, who probably... you know, I'm not,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing he's not the best dancer, but maybe he is.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Well, for his role and for the movie's sake, they
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: had the perfect ensemble because you have some of the
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: world's most best, I mean, the best tap dancers. They
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: had guys on pogo sticks that can flip. So for me,
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: it was like the perfect storm, right? It's like organized chaos.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: You have all this happening. And then Will Ferrell and
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: Ryan Reynolds, who are, you know, okay dancers, but they're
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: incredible actors and great producers, right? They write their own lines.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: They They freestyle their own stuff on set. They don't
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: have to be as good as we are. But to
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: be quite honest, they rehearsed so long and they rehearsed
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: so hard that they got the moves down. So they
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: do their own dancing in the movie. Yeah, there were
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: dance doubles ready to go on if need be. But
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: they maybe their ego got in the way. They're like, no,
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: we got this. We got this. We don't want to
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: cut cutaway shots. So it was really cool. It was
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: really cool to see them work that hard. And I
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: was like, man, are they going to get it in time? Like,
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: what do they got three weeks? You know, and all
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: the dancers are like waiting to see the outcome and
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: they nailed it. So it's exciting.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I know a show that you've done is Dancing with
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the Stars. You participated in that. What was your role there?
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: Yes, I got to choreograph. Oh, this one I love.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: So I flew in. I was on tour with Janet
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: Jackson at the time and got flown in to work
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: on Dancing with the Stars to choreograph Apollo Ono and
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Julianne Hough. And when you go into a freestyle realm,
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: whatever they're good at, you want to enhance that in
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: any way that you can. Well, we did that. And
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Julianne was like, flips, Apollo really wants to break. And
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: I was like, well, what can he do? Like, let's,
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: let's pull the hat out of the, you know, let's
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: pull the rabbit out of the hat.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: And we got them doing windmills. He did windmills. He
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: did swipes. He did freezes and they got perfect tens.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: They got perfect. 10 from, from all three judges. So
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: it was amazing.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: After that, he'd done this before you got your hands
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: on him. Like, did he know what he said?
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: He said that he used to break a little bit. Right.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: So that's when I was like, clearly like, what's your artillery?
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: What do you have in the bag? Let's pull it out.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: And the windmills sometimes it's like riding a bike, right?
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: So if you've had the move in the past, just
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: like shake the rust off and get it going. And
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: we only had three days. So He worked really hard,
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: and he's an athlete. He's got eight medals, Olympic medals.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: So if anyone is determined more than me to get it,
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: it was him for sure.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Right. That must have made you so proud watching that.
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: After that one, Mario Lopez was like, let's get flips
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: in here to help me out, right? And then after that,
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Drew Lachey. So three different seasons, I was able to
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: come in and just work with them to– Enhance whatever
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: it is they kind of already have in their artillery
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: and create moments, which is what I did for Cirque
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: du Soleil. You help create the moment. You help create
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: the staple of that moment, and people remember that for
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: the rest of their life. You might not have to
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: choreograph the entire thing. You create these moments that are
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: great visuals.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: So we talked about Cirque du Soleil a little bit,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: but you don't really hear a lot about break dancing.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: So you can also choreograph other dance moves, right?
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes. I started with gymnastics. I was a gymnast.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: So if you guys, if anyone knows Dominique Mochiano, she's
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: a gold medalist for the U.S. I trained with her
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: at Omar K. Lightfoot Center in Tampa, Florida. That's how
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: I really got into elite type of gymnastics and stuff
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: like that. And through copying Bruce Lee, copying gymnastics, and
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: copying Michael Jackson, I was able to embody my own style.
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: I think that's why they would call me Flips at
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: the pep rallies in school. They'd be like, Flips, Flips,
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: the guy that flips, the dude that flips. And it
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: became my name or my alter ego. But when you
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: choreograph or when I choreograph these things, I try to
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: pull and pluck from my expertise, what I know best,
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: my biggest truth and my rawest kind of creative idea,
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: I guess. So when I do choreograph, I've choreographed stunts
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: as well. I've done stunt coordinating. And that's like gracefully
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: falling or learning how to break your fall learning how
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: to creatively maybe like jump out of a car, do
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: a nice little roll and pop up. Sometimes you just
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: take the fall, but you could get hurt, seriously injured
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: that way. And yeah, learn how to move and shift
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: with movement and momentum and defy the laws of physics.
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: I love it. I love doing that. That's why Cirque
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: is definitely a realm where I can thrive. Cirque du
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Soleil has the best of the best acrobats, the best
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: of the best. And some of the breakers actually, they
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: don't say they're break dancers. They just say they're acrobats
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: or they're extreme martial artists or, and they learn the
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: choreography and, and, and, you know, and it's raw as form.
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: They're breakers, right?
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. You've talked a lot about childhood, children.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: These are kids that are obviously wanting to get to
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: a certain place in their life. And that takes auditions.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I know you know a lot about auditions and being
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: in the role of casting people. So can you talk
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: a little bit about what is important for kids or
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: their parents to know about succeeding in auditions and booking
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: those roles?
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: That's such a great question. Okay, so sitting back, the
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: difference between auditioning and sitting back and picking someone auditioning,
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: you want to stand out immediately. So if there is
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: a special trick, a special move, if you can do
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: a split, if you could do a backflip. We can
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: run up the wall and do something. What we want
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: to see is something outside the norm, outside the box.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: We get bored by the same old, same old. Everyone
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: starts looking like carbon copies because they're all doing the
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: same TikTok dance, right?
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: But if you can come into a room, command the room,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: command the presence, right? So you walk into a room.
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: The first thing you do, most people, is they get nervous, right?
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: They get nervous. They look at the table and they're like, okay,
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: who's going to judge me or who's going to let
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: me pass or whatnot. As soon as you walk in,
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: own it. Say hi, greet them, wink, shake hands, high fives.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: It's all about your energy, right? And once we receive
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: that right away, then we start our judging process. Like
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: how do they look? Are they too tall? Are they
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: too short? Do they have personality? Are they smiling? It's
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: all about your energy. You want to exchange that right away, right?
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: Not with fear because you can smell that. Casting directors
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: can smell fear, unpreparedness. Be prepared. Be early. It's better
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: that you're early prepared. then you're late. Once you're late,
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: you got to strike on you.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious, as a casting director, can you see
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: through the fear? Because I know, I mean, my best
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: friend is a casting director and she's always talking to
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: me about people that are coming to her office. But
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: it's interesting to know, like, when do you give them
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: a pass on that? Because obviously everyone's fearful. Can you
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: kind of spot talent when it's there and it's raw?
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Yes. Once they get past the fear, you can feel
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: the freedom of their spirit once they start dancing, right?
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: And that's got to be the most important thing, right?
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: To see the authentic self as opposed to what their
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: coach told them, what their mom told them, what they
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: think they're supposed to do for you. I would assume,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I'm way too insecure to be an
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: actress or do any sort of auditions, but I would
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: assume from knowing Allison that, you know, it'll stand out
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: if you are who you are. And you'll get the
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: part that way, right?
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: Then we don't have to do any work at that point.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: If you're you and you come forth and I was like,
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: we just put a camera on you and you bring that,
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: you're booked. Sometimes the thing that I was saying about
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: fear is that it paralyzes us. your freedom to be
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: who you want to be just because you're nervous or
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: maybe you were late or maybe you feel like you
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: wore the wrong outfit. But once the music plays or
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: once you start your audition and we feel that you're
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: giving us the rawest you, that's when we see, like
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: they say, pressure makes diamonds. We see your diamond and
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: your light shine the best. So And I always say
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: when I'm casting, I go, there you are. I'll say
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: that to them literally like, there you are. The person
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: that walked in five minutes ago that was signing in
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: was like a whole other person.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: So, yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that you
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: give people the, you know, because I think so many
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: times people are wanting to fill a role for you
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: as opposed to being like, I get the role, but like,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: let me show you who I am and what I
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: can add to the role.
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: Probably. And here's another flips fun fact. We've had auditions
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: for movies and... The person that walked in we're thinking
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: could play this role. Then the person they became at
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: the audition, we wrote in roles for them because that's
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: something that was above and beyond what we were even expecting. Right.
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: Or we give them lines like a featured dancer now
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: has a major role because they were able to. show
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: us the best of them. And it's something that we
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: weren't even ready. We're like, Oh my God, did you
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: see that?
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: Who's your agent? You know, like before they even leave,
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: you don't even want them to leave the room. They've
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: actually like, like consumed so much joy. And, and I
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: love when actors, dancers, stuntmen, acrobats can do that because
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: there's something so unique and.
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: Itching burning soreness when you know it's thrush you want
• 49:28
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• 49:31
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• 49:35
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• 49:39
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• 49:43
  Speaker 3: Everyone's footprint and everyone's DNA, there's something different. So when
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: they come forth with their talent and their rawest form,
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: you feel like you've never seen that before. It could
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: be an acrobat and you're like, yeah, but I've never
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: seen it done like that. That's when you really stand out.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Right. I'm curious, you've worked with so many artists. Is
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: there someone that you've worked with that you think is
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: underrated or misunderstood as a dancer?
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. As a dancer, I would say me. I
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: would say me. Okay, tell me why. I love that answer. Yeah,
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: I would say I was given a chance at a
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: time during the movie Honey and You Got Served where
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: people just did not understand where breaking belongs. So I
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: had to– I didn't lie to myself, but in auditions–
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: I would have to write down that I'm a freestyler
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: or I'm an extreme martial artist or I'm everything but
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: the root of who I am is a b-boy, a breakdancer, right?
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: And I was signing in and all these other creative
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: ways to hide. It wasn't really a shame. It was
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: just the misunderstanding of hip-hop at that time. Hip-hop was misunderstood.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: It was like gangster rap. And I was like, no,
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: it's not gangster. It's not all one thing. Break dancing
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: is not two gangs battling it out. It's actually two
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: crews that are at home practicing for hours that are displaying,
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: through a bit of aggression, they are displaying who's supreme,
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: who's superior, who runs the area code, right? And then
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: people start to say, misunderstanding those facts. And we even
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: almost got arrested. The police broke up a battle at
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: the mall yesterday. And I was like, why is our
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: culture so misunderstood? Why can I shine in a film
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: and almost get arrested at a mall? That makes no
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: sense to me. So I always felt misunderstood. And I
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: wouldn't want to put it past any other dancer that
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: felt they were misunderstood. But I feel like our era,
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: excuse me, our era, Our time and what we were
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: doing at our time. I don't know if you remember
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: the L.A. riots. There was. Yeah. Crazy Legs was one
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: of the break dancers that was going to get arrested
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: for dancing in front of the police as they like
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: blockaded Venice Beach. He was great. He was just breaking.
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: And I was like, we're so misunderstood. I was there.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: I was taking pictures. I didn't want to break. When
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: I saw the helicopters, I was like, I'm deaf. I'm
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: not going to break or I'm going to end up
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: in jail and my parents are going to kill me. So, yeah.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Isn't that so interesting? Because now if that happened and
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: someone's doing their like TikTok move, you know, it's like
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: no one's getting arrested for that, you know?
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: And now millions and millions and millions of people worldwide
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: are tuning in. to something so positive that came from
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: the street, completely misunderstood. Breaking has been misunderstood for a
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: very long time. And that's why I say when I
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: was able to transition into the industry from just battling
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: to now being in all these movies, one of the
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: most misunderstood things was who I really was. This is
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: just me in my rawest form. But if I'm not
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: called a break dancer, I can't go to this audition
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: because they're looking for acrobats that can dance. Well, acrobats
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: that can dance are B-boys. Right, right.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: So it must feel amazing that now you guys are
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: being acknowledged and are going to be in the Paris
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: 2024 Olympics. So do you think it's going to be
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: a one and done? Because I read that it wasn't
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: accepted in the LA 2028 Olympics. Am I right on that?
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: You are right. And it stings even as you say
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: it again. I can't believe. No, no. In a good way.
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: Because I think the masses need to know that why
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: is it not being brought back to the origin place,
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: which is the United States of America? Why would they
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: not vote it in? Yeah. So right now.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Do you think that there's a chance that people will,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: if it becomes such a big deal, you know, people
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: who aren't familiar will be like wowed by this whole thing.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Is there a chance it could be added to 2028
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: or no, it's done?
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: I believe in the slot in which it was voted,
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: skateboarding took over that slot.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: So I'm not sure. Yeah. That would be a whole
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: other conversation with the International Olympic Committee as to what
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: other sport it could substitute for. Because when you have
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: extreme new sports, like a new sport added, skateboarding, surfing,
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: rock climbing, then if there's only one slot that it
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: can move into and three others were voted into those slots,
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: it's not even like a sub of one of those slots.
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: So I don't know how it would make its way in. However...
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: There is talks for 2032, and I believe that's in London.
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: So again, not in the United States, but I would
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: have thought that the Olympic Committee would be proud to
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: bring it back home. And in Buenos Aires in 2018,
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: it was one of the most viewed new sports. I mean,
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: the stats were incredible, how many people tuned in and
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: for how long. There was like stats on that. Like
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: people wouldn't even leave. They wanted to see the next battle.
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: And these battles take hours to go through. Like when
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: I was judging in Paris just recently, we pulled like
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: a 16-hour shift in one day to see three categories, juniors, B-boys,
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: and B-girls. So, I mean, hundreds of people sign up.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: Thousands of people are running qualifiers. And then you get
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: down to the best of the best. And I think
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: with hip-hop turning 50 years old last year, And breaking
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: being in the Olympics 40 years ago, you know, as
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: a special guest performers to close out the Olympics, you
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: would think that it would grow to just become a
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: part of the DNA of the Olympics. And it feels
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: like martial arts. It feels like gymnastics. Yeah. you do
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: get the spins of ice skating, you know? It's very
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: much in that fabric of Olympics. And now with these
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: dancers and athletes, I call them dance-letes, dance-athletes. what these
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: people are doing, B-boys and B-girls alike. It's beyond the
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: capacity of when I started breaking. Even in my wildest dream,
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: I don't think I would have seen what they're doing now.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: And it's out of control. I'm like, this is next
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: level because it keeps evolving. So imagine what we're going
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: to see this summer that was already viral last year.
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: It's crazy. It's crazy.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: So let's get educated on the Olympics and breaking and
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: what we need to know. So tell us what you
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: were seeing in Paris. First of all, so how does
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: it work? There's a USA team. Has that been determined
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: who's on Team USA for breaking?
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: Yes, right now Team USA is consisted of, and it's
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: a one-on-one, so it's not crews, unfortunately. Yeah, it's one-on-ones.
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: And we got B-Girl Sunny and we got B-Boy Victor.
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: So they're representing the United States of America at the moment,
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: which is amazing because they're really good.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: It's one of each gender, and that's it?
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: Correct. That's it. That's it per country.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. So now how are we ranked, if it
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: works that way, against the other countries?
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: Countries.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: So right now, if we were at a podium, right,
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: you got gold, silver, and bronze. The United States, unfortunately,
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: is not in the top three. Right now we're ranking seventh. Yeah.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: Now that's just.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: That's based on what you saw in Paris.
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: Correct. And on points as well, right? But as they
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: battle it out, we can reign supreme. There's still a
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: chance for us to reign supreme. You know, the bad
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: news bears can still win. Come on.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Everybody loves the comeback story.
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: It's going to be okay. So team USA is what
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: we need to watch for Paris 2024. We've got to
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: root for them. So in the meantime, in the next
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: four months, five months, whatever, it's going to be six months.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: What are they going to be working on to get
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: to on that podium?
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: Okay, so here's the other flips fun fact is a
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: lot of these dancers were posting what they were doing
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: on social media, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. As of the last
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: couple of months, not a lot of people are posting
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: because you're actually giving ammunition for your competitors to watch you,
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: dissect you and know what to do. Once they do this,
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do that. So it's kind of crazy
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: that people are kind of going into the... into the
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: lab or the bat cave, you know? Right.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: They're going to hibernation mode of what.
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: They're going to do.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: And they're doing, so I was in Seoul, South Korea.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: I've been to Japan, Madagascar as well, and Reunion Island.
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: Some of these kids are training. These other countries are
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: being trained by the government with these machines to help
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: your breathing.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: This is very reminiscent of Rocky IV.
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: Do you remember Rocky IV? Absolutely. It is. It This
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: is the new Rocky. Breaking is the new Rocky story.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: I love this. Okay. Yeah, they're... We're not using machines.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: We're just having them, like, run in Iowa, like, up
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: a hill, right? Like, what are we doing to train them?
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: In Colorado Springs, at the training facility, the Olympic training facility,
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: they're even... dumping in ice baths. Like it's something that
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: breakers don't do like hip hop. We don't do that. Right.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: And they're doing everything that they can from their dietary supplements. Um,
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: they're on specific diets. They are, um, their workout regimens.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: So I do a thing called breakthrough fitness where I
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: utilize fitness to like jumping jacks. And then you create
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: a top rock out of the jumping jacks so that
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: Breakers or people that are learning to break are also
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: being fit. However, some of these training regiments are pushing
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: their stamina level and they're helping them be lean yet
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: cut because you have to be flexible. You need to
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: have torque and gain velocity as you're doing all these moves.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: So you can't just get buff. It's not like gymnastics
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: where you want to get big up top or big
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: in the legs so you can flip better. So a
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: lot of these breakers are... kind of pushing the limit
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: as far as health is concerned to make sure that
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: they are the very best at, I mean, at their prime.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: And most of the time, it's just how good are
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: your dance moves? Now it's like, how in shape are you?
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: How's your stamina? Like how long can you rock or
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: how long can you go? So it's creating like, like
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: cyborg breakers like.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Next level oh my god this is amazing like again
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: right out of rocky and we all know rocky wins
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: so yes we still have a chance.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: Let's go i always say i'm usa all day usa
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: all day so.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Will you be there will you be in paris Yes.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: I'm currently working on having my own show. Yeah, my
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: own travel show to show you the inside the circle
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: of what it's like to be. Because there's a lot
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: of people that are trying to report it, but they can't.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: You know, you got to get inside the cypher, inside
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: the circle. And I'm one of those that... whether I'm
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: dancing or not. I got my shell tools on right now. Look,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: I'm always ready. RTB, ready to battle. I'm always ready.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I want the people to... see and understand
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: how we can go from having a slice of pizza
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: to going like one-on-one for a world title. And hip
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: hop really, it's all about peace, unity, love, and having fun.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: Those are the elements of hip hop, right? So I
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: always think about, again, talking about being misunderstood is when
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: they only see us battle and they see these heated rivalries,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: people think that there's so much animosity and But there's
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: so much love in the dance, and there's also this
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: whole thing of passing the torch to the new generation.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: So I want my show to highlight all of that. Well,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: me in my rawest form, I'm always happy-go-lucky until you
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: bite my move, you steal my style, or you talk
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: bad about me, then we're battling for sure. But yeah,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: I think for Paris, I'm working on having my own
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: little spinoff show.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love that. I can't wait. I hope that happens.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: Are you going? Will you be there?
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. You and I were in Paris,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: I think, at the same time. I was just there
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: for the holiday for like 10 days. And it's an
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: amazing place, right? I mean, who wouldn't want to be there?
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: So romantic.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: No, I don't think I'm going to be there for
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: the Olympics. But now that I've had this conversation with you,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to be watching and pulling for Team
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: USA for breaking. I think this is so fun. I'm
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: inspired by it. And I think it's just... Such a
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: cool thing to follow now that I know the story
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: of the history of it, right? Okay, you've talked a
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: couple times about Flip's fun facts. Give me like two
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: or three just in general that you want us to
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: know that are important on the subject, obviously, but that
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: we haven't heard from you yet.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: A flips fun fact. Oh, here's a flips fun fact
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: about me is I got clocked at 132 head spins
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: in 60 seconds. So that's 2.2 spins per second if
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: you break it down.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: How do you do that? How do you not get nauseous?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: Well, you do have to train. So when you're upside down,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: you feel the blood rushing. So you have to control
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: your breathing, number one. You feel like you're scuba diving
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: because the faster you spin, gravity kind of pulls your
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: lungs together. So you have to control that, how much
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: G-force you're using due to the torque of your legs, right,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: spinning around. Then you do want to take the forms
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: almost like ice skating, right? You do want to take
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: those forms and create shapes with your arms as you're spinning.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: You have to create shapes with your arms and your legs. Now,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 3: as you pull in, the tighter you are, the faster
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: you'll spin, right? That's just a– it's the yin and
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: the yang of a head spin is a lot of
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: people want the balance and control, and they want their
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: hands out and their legs out. But you get the
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: torque and the speed by pulling in because you're– Definitely
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: testing gravity.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: How do you maintain that balance on your head though?
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the balance has to be right at the very top.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: Your chest has to be out and you want to
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: lock in. You definitely want to lock in because what
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: happens is if you're not one with your spine and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: your neck and the top of your head, you get
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 3: into a wobble. It causes you to wobble if you're
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: not centered and you're not locked in. Once you start
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 3: wobbling and you get off axis, you're not going to
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: gain any points, definitely from the judges. And what it
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: ends up having to do is it slows down your movement.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: So you end up either falling or kind of stopping
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: your move. It's really hard to correct, to bring it
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: back in and lock it back in. But yeah, it
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 3: takes a lot. It's a lot going on at one time.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 3: You got your legs going, right, to get your speed up.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: Then you got your arms controlling that. You're controlling your
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: breath while all of your muscles in your core are
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: locking in like ballet. So think of ice skating and ballet.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: Flip it upside down. That's a flips fun fact. And
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: then get it going. And then you got a headspin.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: You know, it's so I love that you're giving people
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: advice on how to do that because dancing is such a. Um,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: big part of, of people's lives, adults and kids, but
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: kids let's talk about it for a second. My daughter's 11. Um,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: during COVID, um, we came, we were living in New
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: York city. We came down to, to Florida and I
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: was trying to contact people to like get her moving.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? Cause we were like
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: sitting in a house and in Florida you can be out.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: And I found this guy who owned his own dance studio.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: His name is Sean Green. And the studio actually had
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: closed because of COVID. And I somehow got his cell
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: phone and I said, listen. I'd love for you to
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: come over to my house and teach my daughter like
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: you're teaching her at camp. I know we can't have
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: other kids over, whatever. But for five days, let's, you know,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: from like one to four, teach her. And at the time,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: TikTok was such a big deal, right? So he came over,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: had a personality like yours, amazing, amazing with kids, got
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: her out of her shell. And by the end of
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: the week, they started posting these videos of him teaching
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: her these dance moves, and it went viral. The guy,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: long story short, was able to open up his studio again,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: now has two or three, travels all over the country
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: to teach kids and adults how to dance within a
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: TikTok realm, you know, because it's fun little bits that
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: people can learn that are not dancers. Um, and it's
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: great for mental health. You know, it got us out
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: of COVID. Do you know what I mean? And not
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: only was it great for his business, but it was
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: great for kids, for adults. I had never danced. I'm
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: not a dancer. He made me do my first TikTok dance, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: It was so horrifying, but like, he made me good.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? For a second, for like
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: four seconds. Yeah. So I love dance. I appreciate it.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: I think it's amazing. Everyone watches Dancing with the Stars.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: Everyone watches these shows about dancers. And I just think
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: it's such a, you know, for people that really connect
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: on that level with those artistic movements and they enjoy music,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: it's so important for people. So I think this episode
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: is obviously going to be great for people that are
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: interested in dance in general, but now want to follow
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: dance as a, as a real acknowledged sport in the Olympics.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm really excited about it. I think our listeners
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: will be excited. Um, where do you think you see
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: your future going? What is on your bucket list? Oh man,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: that you haven't done.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: That I haven't done. Oh, we, we tapped a little
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 3: bit about it. It's me having, yeah, my own show,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: my own travel show, uh, whether it's NBC, ABC, uh, MTV, ESPN,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: as long as they really see and understand how I'm
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: trying to deliver our culture to the mainstream, which is awesome. Also,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: I do have another flips fun fact, but in the future,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 3: I want to continue to do my foundation, which is
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 3: called Footprints. Leave your mark. So what I started doing,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: and I'd love to do more of this in the
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: future with anyone who wants to team up, I would have...
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: Sometimes as a dancer, you get to keep your gear
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: or your clothes when you're doing all these projects.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: So if you're on tour with Janet Jackson and you
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: get to keep the outfits, you're on tour with LL
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: Cool J or Missy Elliott, they have awesome Adidas and
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: Levi's gear. You get to keep it right. What I
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: was doing. was on my birthday, I would throw an event.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 3: kids would come, they would battle, everybody wins because the
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: prizes is me leaving my mark with these kids by
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: giving them all of the tour gear, gear from the movies.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: So if you've seen one of the scenes and you
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: got served and we're wearing the blue Adidas tracksuit, I
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: would give that as a gift to one of the
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: kids that battled. And by you leaving your mark with them,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: it creates... almost like a channel for them to make
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: their dreams come true. They're like, oh, my God, I
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: could be in a movie. Flips just gave me the
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: outfit from You Got Serve or from Honey or for
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: his hat from Battle of the Year. And I felt
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: like a lot of dancers have we have to do that.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: We have to pass the torch. We can't just keep
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: it to ourselves and all the knowledge to ourselves. We
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: have to give nuggets of knowledge and wisdom and items.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: You know, I'll take this jacket off my back when
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: I'm in Paris. and give it to not necessarily the winner,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: but a kid that needs it. They need those omens
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: to continue to keep growing and their dreams to come true.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 3: So that's one of the main things I want to continue.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 3: That's on my bucket list is for the world to
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 3: see footprints, leave your mark and what it can do
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: for the culture and for kids and for the future.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 3: So that's pretty big. I want to continue doing movies.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 3: So commercials, I guess on my bucket list, Is to
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: continue thriving. Because sometimes you feel like you hit this
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: glass ceiling and you can't go beyond it. But my
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 3: bucket list is for everything to continue to keep growing.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: I think that, yeah, that would be a great bucket
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 3: list for me.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: Is there one person you haven't worked with yet that
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: you would love to work with? Ooh.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: That I have not.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: That I would love to. Seems like you've worked with
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: almost everybody.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 3: I would love... I was on Oprah Winfrey with Madonna,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: but we were dancing for Madonna. I would love to
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 3: work with Oprah Winfrey on something like Footprints, if that
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: makes sense. That's something to where, yeah, I know what
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: Oprah can do, and I know who she can touch,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 3: and I know who we could reach with this idea.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: So someone like Oprah Winfrey, yeah. Okay.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: All right, Flips. I think you're amazing. I think you're
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: the best. I can't wait to see what happens in
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: your future. Tell our listeners where they can find you,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: follow you.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes. You can find me on Ivan Flips Velez, I-V-A-N-F-L-I-P-Z-V-E-L-E-Z.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 3: And that's across all socials. So Instagram, Twitter. Well, Twitter,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: which is now X, right? YouTube, IvanFlipsVelez. Yeah, I try
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 3: to brand myself under the same thing so that it's
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 3: easy to reach me. But yeah, IvanFlipsVelez.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: And if people DM you, do you respond? Are you
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: the person reading this?
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I respond very, very quickly. And sometimes
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 3: I respond too much. I'm like, oh, here's footage of
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: me doing this. And here's a picture of me with so-and-so.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I do respond immediately. Yeah.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's great. But because I think that, you know, if,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: if there's ever kids that want your advice or want
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: to know how to, how to do something, it's great
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: to be able to connect with someone like you.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure talking.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: I cannot wait to follow your path. And obviously we
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: will be watching the 2024 Olympics with breaking and we
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: wish team USA the best of luck.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 3: Let's go team USA all day.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to Misunderstood. I'm your host,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: Rachel Yucatel. Please be sure to subscribe to the show
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: and give us a five-star rating and review. You can
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: support the show by joining our Patreon at patreon.com slash
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: misunderstood with Rachel Yucatel. Do you have ideas for the
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: show or want to reach out? Email us at infomisunderstoodpodcast
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: at gmail.com. That's spelled M-I-S-S understood. Thank you so much,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: and I'll see you next time.
• 1:13:27
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