Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Genre Spotlight - Breaking

Transcript

Genre Spotlight - Breaking · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: On today's genre spotlight episode, we explore the rich history and culture of breaking, a style of dance that originated in the Bronx, but has since spread around the world.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: From the streets to the Olympics, breaking continues to create community and opportunity for those who wish to pursue it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: Hey Dance World, welcome to our next episode of Making the Impact.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Muleck.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's another podcast day, Courtney, one of my favorite days of the week.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: It is, and this is gonna be a really awesome episode because we are jumping into our third genre spotlight of season six.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: And boy, is it a good one.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are so excited to bring this series to everyone.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: We've had many requests over the years to dive a little bit deeper into some of the history of our beautiful dance world.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And this year we're getting really deep into specific styles within styles.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're hearing about breakdancing, um, which is underneath the sort of umbrella of hip-hop.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we have some incredible guests.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't, my dad is somebody who says incredible, like, oh, that sandwich was incredible.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like he just uses that word a lot.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think sometimes there's no meaning to it.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, but when I say incredible, like I reserve the word incredible for truly incredible things.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And our guests today are incredible.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: They really are, and I cannot wait to learn so much from them on this chat today.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: But before we jump in, we have some recent Making the Impact Award winners to share with you from IDA affiliated competitions.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_03: If you haven't heard about our Making the Impact Award, this is sponsored by Impact Dance Adjudicators and this podcast, where we give away one award at every IDA affiliated competition event to that one dance that you just cannot stop thinking about by the end of the weekend.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: Your IDA judges will select it and you will win a plaque at the award as well as receive a shout out live on our podcast.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: So let's hear some of our recent winners.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: From Endless Talent Dance Competition in Spartanburg, South Carolina, congrats to Expressions Dance Studio from Denver, North Carolina, and Adeline for their solo pulled.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: And from DECA Dance Competitions event in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, congrats to Step by Step Dance Studio from Millstone, New Jersey, and Sophia for her solo One Step at a Time.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Congrats to all the winners, and if you want a Making the Impact Award this season, make sure you send in all of your information so you can get your shout out on the podcast.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: All right, and before we jump in, let's hear from our sponsors.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Dance teachers, studio owners, and choreographers, this one's for you.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: Imagine four incredible days of inspiration, innovation, and movement in the heart of Las Vegas.
• 3:05
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• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: And you do not want to miss it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: With over 140 masterclasses, you'll gain fresh choreography, cutting-edge business strategies, or improvings to elevate your teaching and grow your studio.
• 3:24
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• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: You'll get to be a part of exclusive sessions with industry icons, learning about retention strategies, about marketing, and even injury prevention.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: Or take part in live movement classes to bring new energy into your dance lessons.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: Or attend networking events and parties to connect with dance educators from around the world and receive full access to the Expo Hall, where you can discover the latest trends in dancewear, costumes, and studio must-haves.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: And let's not forget over$20,000 in giveaways.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: And did I mention that I'll even be attending the event this summer on faculty teaching jazz movement classes and hosting a handful of informative seminars.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I would love to see you there.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: Use our exclusive promo code Impact 50 in all caps for an extra$50 off your registration at the Dance Teacher Web Conference and Expo this summer in Las Vegas.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: That code is Impact 50 in all caps.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Head on over to their website at Dance Teachersummerexpo.com right now to grab your spot or click the link in our show notes.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Join me in Vegas for the biggest Dance Teacher event of the summer at the Dance Teacher Web Conference and Expo.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Dance World.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: We are jumping in to our third genre spotlight episode of season six.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: This is a new series that we brought to you over here on Making the Impact, and we are loving it because we are Leslie and I are both sitting back and learning so much from these fantastic professionals and amazing people in our industry that are just doing so much for the dance community in so many different genres.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: Now, when we were deciding which genres to do for our spotlights this year, we wanted to make sure we were giving that variety.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: So we started off with Fossey and Jazz.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: We kicked it off with Rhythm Tap for our last genre spotlight.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: And now here we are in the hip hop genre of dance, specifically spotlighting breaking.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure a lot of you watched the Summer Olympics and got real excited to see break dancing for the very first time at the Olympic Games.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: What a fun treat! And every single dancer across the world was watching that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: And once that happened, we were like, we gotta talk about breaking on the podcast because we never really have.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: We've done some hip-hop episodes, but here we are to zone in and focus on breaking as a culture and within the hip hop genre.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: We have two experts in this field from the East Coast and the West Coast who are joining us today, and I can't wait to learn from them.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: The first person that I'm excited to welcome was actually a part of the Olympic Games, which I'm sure we're going to learn all about.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: She's also a studio owner, a breakdancing coach, and a dance mom.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm meeting her for the first time, but she wears so many hats, and I can't wait to hear what she has to share with us.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: Please welcome B Girl Bonita to the podcast.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome, B Girl Bonita.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_06: Hi.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_06: Hey everybody.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_06: Very happy to be here.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_06: Of course, always to share a little piece of my journey in dance, my journey in breaking, how it's, you know, obviously changed my entire life, my outlook, my perspective on dance.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_06: So um, yeah, so I'm just really, really excited to be here.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yay! Yeah, I'm so glad it worked out.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: I know all of our schedules are so busy and time zones and everything, but here we are, we're making it work, and we're really thrilled to have you on the podcast.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: So if you could share more about you, where you're from, where you grew up, your dance training, and uh what you're working on now.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm originally from Phoenix, Arizona, born and raised.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, actually started dancing as your kind of standard three-year-old in ballet and tap class.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_06: I was the first of like my generation or my whole, you know, to do any sort of formal dance training through a studio.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_06: Did the whole started competitive competitive dance around age six.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_06: You know, this is like 80s, 90s, where hip-hop definitely was not involved in organized studio dance at the time.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_06: Um, we did, you know, we did some kind of like hitch kicks and I don't know what was going on.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_06: So that was our hip-hop at the time.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: But jump to, you know, I actually got exposed to real hip-hop, or what I would say, like, you know, cultural hip-hop, actually through a team that I joined.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_06: There's like WMBA, you know, how they have professional hip-hop teams, or you know, that was a thing, and I know it is still a thing now.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_06: But I basically auditioned for this local team.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_06: I was 17, I was a senior in high school, well-accomplished studio dancer, jumped in, auditioned, ended up making this hip-hop squad, and it had B-boys and lockers and poppers and like the whole gamut of hip-hop.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_06: And I was like, whoa, what is this, you know?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_06: And basically, you know, they they thought I was a joke because I couldn't freestyle, and I thought they were a joke because they couldn't count music and pick up choreography.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_06: And so there was kind of this like understood respect, but also like I knew I had a lot to learn and kind of vice versa.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_06: And so I ended up, you know, one of the B-boys there, B-Boy House, he was my first teacher, kind of took me under his wing, started really teaching me what this was, you know, just everything about the culture.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and I just fell in love to be super honest with it.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_06: I grew up in a funk and soul household, very musical, lots of singers, lots of movers, real expressive, you know, household.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_06: And so this kind of just fed me a little differently, like the music and the freedom behind it and all of it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_06: And so I also was kind of a hothead.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_06: I I liked competition.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_06: I liked the that aspect, the breaking was like really in your face.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_06: It was real confrontational.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_06: Me against you right now, like, nope, it's not passive.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_06: A lot of dance is very passive.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_06: You get the, you know, you get the response via computer later.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_06: Like, it's not like that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_06: It's if you don't like what someone's doing, you don't think they're good.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_06: It's very like, you know, and so all of that kind of changed my view of dance in a great way.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_06: And so just continue to dive in.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_06: I ended up getting down with the crew, which is like one of the most legendary crews, uh Rocksteady crew early on in my journey, and really from there, that's where I really got schooled in hip-hop and breaking.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_06: My teachers were Wiggles and Crazy Legs was really one of my main mentors, you know, and just all of the Rocksteady.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_06: It's an international crew of like the top-level B-boys DJs, you know, all of it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_06: And so just really kind of got pulled, you know, pulled in and just dove in from there.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_06: And so at the same time, I actually was also in LA pursuing commercial dance professionally, and that's where I was dancing with beat freaks and doing a lot of commercial, which for me kind of how I explained it to people that maybe don't understand it as much.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_06: I like commercial was where I was making all my money, and underground is where I was getting my skill up, right?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_06: That's where I was battling, that's where I was like fine-tuning my craft, my art, my passion.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_06: And then commercially was where I was making the money, doing the music videos, doing the shows, you know, judging, doing just all the commercial stuff that you get paid, right?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_06: And so, so that kind of like allowed me to rise in like a real respectable way where I was respected in the underground and kind of pulling my weight that way, but then also trying to make a living off of doing what I was doing.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_06: So so yeah, so I mean, basically from there, through all of that, it took me all over the world and you know, teaching and doing all those things.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_06: Jumped to, I ended up getting married, met my husband, we had children and started a dance studio.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_06: And so now I am in Phoenix, Arizona.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_06: My studio is called the Students Lab.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_06: I am totally a dance mom.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_06: Both my kids are very competitive.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_06: One is a little B girl that's like crazy dope.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my god.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_06: And my other one is like all into like radic scholarship, jump scholarship, all she's she's like, you know, at every convention, every other weekend, doing all of that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but both my kids break, of course.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_06: And this is, you know, a big part of who we are and what we do.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_06: My husband also breaks, and so so yeah, so I'm also in that field, of course, aside from doing choreography and directing my studio at, you know, in Phoenix.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_06: And I lastly, my I guess last major thing that I've been working on, it's called Levels, and it's a plug-and-play breaking curriculum that I've been working on for the past like three or four years, specifically for dance studios to integrate a breaking program into their studio, like I've done here with my studio.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_06: So we've launched it this year, we've now are you know at different events and things like that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_06: So I can share more about that later.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_06: But but yeah, so long journey there.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_06: But that was um, there you go.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_06: That's it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: And the Olympics.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my gosh, and the Olympics, hello.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_06: Just you know, that little event that happens.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_06: You can't forget about that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_06: Everyone was waiting for that one.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_06: Um, gosh, yeah, the Olympics.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_06: That that's been the past like three and a half years.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_06: I got involved with the Olympic mission in 2021.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_06: I got a phone call from also one of my mentors, Flowmaster.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_06: He basically, they're pulling together a team.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_06: They needed a B girl on the squad to be coaching, because obviously there was boys and girls.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_06: Um, there's off, as you know, a lot of B-boys, not very many B girls.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_06: And so, within that, you know, it was like, we we need bonita, we need you to be involved.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_06: And so ended up in Philly, ended up like what this is like before anybody knew what was going on.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_06: And we were just learning along the way, like as I had mentioned, you're pulling all together different crews and different mentalities and different ideologies on hip hop and breaking and trying to push through this successful team USA to represent breaking was a mission on its own.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_06: So I learned so much.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_06: I I gosh, man, it was you think you know, you know what I mean?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_06: Especially when you're so accomplished in what you do, and then you get thrown into this whole other world of competitiveness and Olympic, you know, athletes and history, American history.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_06: It's it was just insane.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_06: Um, what we got to learn, see, experience.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_06: And um, it again changed my whole mindset on coaching and um recovery and just the athleticism behind what we do because we are artists, of course, but that athleticism piece is you know what I mean?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_06: We sometimes it goes on the wayside because we're just like go with what we feel, and and it's like, man, we really have to take care of ourselves.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_06: So so yeah, the Olympic, it was insane.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_06: It was amazing to be a part of the journey and to to lead it, you know, and so yeah, so grateful for all of my involvement with the Olympics.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_06: Cool.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm sure we're gonna like at a point in this discussion talk about the Olympics too and hear both perspectives.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's so cool.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like going down in history with the Olympics, iconic.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we're thrilled to have you here.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for joining us on Making the Impact.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, thank you.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: All right, our very next special guest is someone who I'm also meeting right here, right now, but he is coming to us from the East Coast, specifically New York City, which is also where I live as well.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not a born and raised New Yorker, y'all.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm from Baltimore, Maryland, originally, but I do kind of consider myself a New Yorker these days.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: I have a New York license.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Does that count?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: I finally switched over.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: I've been here for fifty over 15 years, so I'm a New Yorker now.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: And we're gonna hear the New York City perspective and uh all of the culture of the breaking history from the East Coast, recommended to us from one of our previous guests on our podcast, John Comics Barella.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: I am so thrilled to welcome B-Boy London of the New York City Breakers.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome, B-Boy London.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for having me.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited because B Girl Bunia, she is incredible.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: She's literally one of the handful of people in this entire world that I've met or come across or follow that are really doing it the way that I believe.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're really doing it right in terms of being professional, understanding the origins, the foundational elements of all of this stuff, and putting it together in a way that young people can appreciate, parents can appreciate, and a lot of OGs can appreciate.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So thank God for her.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: She's not the only one, but she's one of a few people that are really doing it, and I can really appreciate and respect that.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm glad and honored to be part of this and have her to be in here and all of us together.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited, man.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can't tell me anything.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: You love that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: That was so awesome.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: I love this so much.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then I want to thank John, you know, for making this introduction.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, John is another person that I met, I don't even know, 15 years ago.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I just love what he's doing.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because to me, I think the misconception that people have when it comes to this whole b-boy culture is that it is a culture.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't think people really understand what that means.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And what it means is there's no one way, there's no strict guideline or blueprint to this, right?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because everyone is an artist, everyone expresses themselves differently.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like what I tell people it's like we're like a radio station.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not tuned into the right frequency, then you're gonna miss everything, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whether we speak different languages, eat different foods.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us are tall, some of us are short, some of us are light, some of us are dark, some of us on the East Coast, some on the west.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's something that developed in New York City, but it doesn't really get born in New York City.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, it does, but what is New York City?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: New York City was a place that I grew up that people came from all over the world and laid foundation down.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And our parents took this and created this lifestyle that us kids are the beneficiaries to that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when you talk about breaking and you talk about the b-boy or b girl culture, what you're really talking about is the food, the language, the clothing, the lifestyle, the artistic expression, whether you do it physically on the floor, or if you're an artist and use a spray can to express yourselves, or maybe you like poetry or rap or DJ expressing yourself musically.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: What breaking and what B-Boy culture did, in my view, is it created an economic structure for people that didn't have a lot going on.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us didn't go to college, some of us didn't even finish high school.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And how are we gonna make a living?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when you look at that element, I mean, think about it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: We were kids.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people, we were kids.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm born in 1966.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Heroin was tremendous, crack, drugs, the bronze was burning.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when we go back to those pictures or look at some of these documentaries and they record how we were growing up, I don't think that people understand there were no rules.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can stay out as late as we want, we could do block parties.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: We would open up fire hydrants, cops didn't care, nobody cared.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: We just lived our lives and we experienced it, you know, through uh trial and error, through the good and the bad.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, we drew so much attention to New York City, the Bronx more specifically, that people started to record what they were seeing, whether that was through photos, videos, people wrote articles.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what I explained to people is all of this information is there.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even from the 70s, the articles are there.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And just like we do research, if someone told me, London, you were just a kid.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was a kid, but I was there.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I witnessed it with my eyes, I participated, I was involved, whether it was me DJing, trying to rap, trying to be a boogie boy, becoming a break, whatever it was, whatever was happening in New York at that time, everybody was doing.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like the new dance, whether the life feet movement, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: The locking movement, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody did uh you're doing the spank, the hustle, whatever it was, every kid, if you're in New York, you were doing it.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Someone decided to wear fat laces, guess what?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or wear fat laces.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody decided to put a permanent crease on your jeans, everybody was putting a permanent crease on their jeans.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody decided, let me put some artwork in the back of your leaves.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody had artwork in the back of their leaves.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, it wasn't something that was weird, strange, odd, different.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's what everybody was doing.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what made certain people special was their contribution to the culture.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: In Cool Herc's case, what I try to explain to people is that although he wasn't the first DJ, because obviously there were DJs before him, and although he wasn't the first DJ to play the break, because DJs did play break beats, he was the very first one to say, I'm just gonna play the break.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna play the whole record.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go from this break to that break to that break to that break to that break.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what that did was it gave us, especially Latinos, uh opportunity to go to a place that just focused on the dance.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell people, you have to remember people want to say that this started in 1973 with Kool Herc.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I love Cool Herc.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's definitely a pioneer, he's definitely considered the father.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: But when he decides to only play the breaks, who is he doing that for?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because rappers didn't exist, right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was doing that for who?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: The dancers, right?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why was he doing it for the dancers?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because he recognized, along with all the other DJs, that every time these breaks come on, people go off.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: They start just going on the floor doing some crazy stuff.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was the first one to say, man, nobody sees what I'm seeing.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna focus on these dances.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else, he got the disco stuff, you got the funk stuff, you got you got all this stuff, genre of music, but nobody's doing these little breaks.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna do that.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what allowed people to start flocking towards him.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he stood out.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's why his crowds were getting bigger and bigger, because now the B-boys that would only do it in the park, that would only do it in basement parties, that would only do it in their parents' house when they're playing Latin music, they now said, We got a place to go.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: We go over there.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why people feel that everything started with cool her, because this is where everybody starts to come together now.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's when the like consumers see it, like other people see it besides your friends in the park and your friends in the basement.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So think about American culture.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Before there was Walmart, you had mom and pop stores.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody even went to the big box stores, but then Walmart came out, and then I The first, but I'm just using that as an example.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody goes to Walmart.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody stopped going to these mom and pop stores.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with the record companies, our business.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: We used to have record stores all over the place.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are no more record stores.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody goes to one location.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, in many ways, that's what Cool Her did.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: He made it one location for everybody to come to that was interested in that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why he gets the credit.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not to discredit people like DJ Smokey or Mario or Bambada or all these other people that were either before his time, DJ Hollywood, during his time, or even came after DST, now known as DXT, everybody played a pivotal role.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I believe, in my opinion, that it took all of us to create this.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if it wasn't for the level of competition, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because if there's no New York City breakers, with all due respect, there ain't no Rocksteady.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that these two crews hated each other is what propelled this thing to grow.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I can't let this dude get me.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: He got me.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Next week I'm gonna get him.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Wait, wait, wait.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: I wanna learn.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: What do you mean they I don't know that they hate each other?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me more.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: I wanna know I know we're about to get into it.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean now, you know, 40 years later, we're all friends for the most part, you know.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's like it's like head to like East Coast, West Coast, head-to-head, like like Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was it would so you know, and I don't like to really get it too deep into it because to me, I really feel it's a it we're in a different space now.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's really about bringing people together.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: But New York in the 70s, when I'm growing up, you know, I'm born in 1966, so I got to see a lot.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I come from the very tail end of the black lords, uh, excuse me, the the young lords and the black panthers.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: My father was somewhat kind of like an organizer, not because not for any other reason than just we wanted to be in a safe environment.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to let people know that we were part of the community.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was very dangerous and it was very territorial.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what people don't really understand, and and for those that are, you know, over 50, over 60, they get it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: For those that don't, it's like you don't leave your neighborhood because you can get jumped, you can get assaulted, you you can get robbed.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Bad things happen.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you stay within your confines.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: The only time you left your area was because maybe you had a family member in another area, or maybe you had a friend that can validate, oh no, he's cool, he's with me.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not that you know, because there were so many gangs.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was the gangs that really regulated New York City at that time, right?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because even though you might have had a uh a police officer walking the beat and stuff like that, they nobody really cared.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be honest with you, they didn't care.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were a bunch of misfits.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: We were kids that didn't understand anything, that just thought that we can do whatever we wanted, because we were.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody was stopping us from doing anything.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's now, if you do a block party, you need permits, you need security, you gotta get this, you gotta jump through hoops.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, back then, all you needed to do is steal electricity.
• 25:01
  unknown: That's it.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes they make an extension court and take it from the house and run it all away.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because in projects, you have parks in projects, you know.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like like Central Park, you know, you don't have an apartment building right there in front, you know, or Paul Park where we grew up by Kingsbridge.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a building directly.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: But in the projects, yeah, you just roll down the window, send the extension court, and you got electricity.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or in some cases, you have people that knew how to hotwire the street light.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or in other cases, they had generators.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so there were people that were doing these parties.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that when we're growing up, the gangs didn't allow you to go from place to place.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So what I explained to people is you can't really talk about hip-hop in general terms because in my community, in my neighborhood, and I grew up in the South Bronx, not the North Bronx, not the East Bronx, the West Bronx.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I grew up by Yankee Stadium.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um when you grew up, you you could not leave your neighborhood.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: When that gang truce came, which is kind of like what the Warriors was a little bit based on, um, when that happened with the um Ghetto Brothers, Yellow Benji, Black Benji, um, when when that whole thing happens and it's all documented, there's film on it, you can go see it, you go see the gang members talking, they created a truce.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: From that point, then people were allowed to kind of spread out a little bit.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: But what people don't realize is it was still dangerous.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like, oh, okay, they made an agreement, everybody can go hang out.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we had uh crews and you had DJ crews because if you went and did a block party, for example, and you were just you and your friend, you probably were coming home with no equipment, no records, they're gonna rob you 100%.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you needed to go there beefy, like, y'all, we got my boys, you know, ain't nobody gonna rob us because it's gonna be a problem.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So when you look at the early crews, there were no individuals.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the early rap records.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care who they are, whether you say the Sugar Hill gang, the Cold Crush Brothers, the Funky Four, the Furious Five, it was the DJ and his crew.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they're called Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a group of people.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the First Prince.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right now through time.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Even L O Ku J had a DJ, co creator, right?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: As time went on and technology started to come into play, you don't need a DJ.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: You don't even need the dancers.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Go look at the early videos.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're always gonna see some type of dancing, you're always gonna see crews, you're always gonna see a DJ.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now we fast forward 30, 40 years later, it's just the MC by himself.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's hiring local people to give that impression that this is authentic hip hop.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not knocking him, right?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, you gotta pay your DJ, you gotta pay the B-boys and the B girls, right?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta pay all these people when all you need now is a dot machine.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you hit play and you have everything you need.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so that's interesting.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm again, I'd like I'm we know just a teensy bit about all of this history because we've had guests before, and so you're naming off some of these names.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I know who that is.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I know who that is.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: I can like connect the dots a little.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm so curious, Bonita, since you mentioned earlier that you were able to sort of bridge the gap between that sort of community-level hip-hop breaking crew kind of lifestyle and commercial dance.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just what you were mentioning, London, that like that has started to happen now and that grew out of, you know, that culture and now it has turned into this.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Bonita, what is your experience?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: What was that like to sort of be a part of both, I guess?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: And like, do you feel?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously you do, but I want to hear it in your words.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, do you are you able to maintain the authenticity of that culture, even though you're kind of a crossover artist, if you will?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_06: So I think um, I mean, to be super honest, when I first started getting into breaking, I was hit with a lot of like r I guess pushback from the scene, right?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_06: Because I do, I came from structured dance studio world.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_06: They used to call me special K.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know if you've ever seen the movie breaking, but you know what I mean?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_06: Like it just is what it is.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_06: So, you know, anytime it something's unfamiliar or or unrecognizable or they don't can't label it correctly, it's just different and it has to be dissed, if you will, right?
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_06: And so, um, so I would say for sure early on for me, it was I that's what I received, definitely, because you are you're crossing into a world that doesn't respect.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, exactly what I was saying, they have zero respect for anything that you do that isn't what they what they hold to, you know what I mean?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_06: To being dope or being raw or being real.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_06: So now here comes someone trying to cross in.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_06: It would be in any any field, right?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_06: Any I mean, give any two other examples.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_06: It's the same thing.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm stepping into a world unknown, and I'm like, oh no, I love this.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_06: I want to be a part of this, I want to be down.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_06: And they're like, Well, yeah, you're a joke, you know what I mean?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_06: You can't freestyle, you've never battled, like, you know what I mean?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_06: Show improve.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_06: It's always a show and prove situation, right?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_06: And so, so I will say, like, for me, legs was really the one that was like, No, I'm telling you, she's gonna be dope.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna train her, I'm gonna educate her, I'm gonna put her down.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_06: Trust me, like, you know what I mean?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_06: Because you also do need that mentor or that person that sees something special in you, or that is like, no, I I I trust myself and I can coach her to this, or I can right.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_06: I'm sure we're we all have been in that space where someone has done that for us, and then we also get to do that now for the younger generations, right?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_06: And so I know for me that that alone with him saying no, trust me, and him just saying, like, you know, she's gonna be dope or she's dope, she's gonna be down with us.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_06: That was enough for me to like push through all of the negative talk or push through whatever, you know what I mean?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_06: And um, but it was an uphill battle for sure.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_06: And I, you know, and you girls are girls too, right?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_06: And so that's like 10 times worse.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_06: Oh gosh, you know, and so forget about it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_06: And then you're trying so hard to be, you know, respected and be ex accepted.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, to give you a kind of a quick example, wiggles, right?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_06: One of my teachers, like someone had gotten down in our crew, like a new kid, you know, a new b-boy.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_06: And he he's like, Until you put 10 years in my crew, I don't even want to know who you are.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_06: It's very, it's very like, don't come in and try to like be a fast food grabber or a fast food.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_06: Like you're either here to be down with what we do or you're not, you know, because there are a lot of vultures.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_06: That's the scene was seeing a lot of that, you know, grabbing and taking and and you know, so it they had kind of were it's a very protected thing.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_06: And so, so anywho, you know, put then pushing through, overcoming, finally really getting my own respect, winning battles, ciphering, like you gotta put in your own work, right?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it's it's like anything, no one got to where they were at just because, right?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_06: There was a whole there's a lot that goes on to get to where you are, you know.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_06: And then as I started to cross back over into the commercial, then forget it.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_06: Then I got more backlash because now I'm not raw enough, I'm not doing enough battles, and I'm like, yeah, I'm trying to survive.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_06: I need to go do the music video, I need to go put on the costume and you know, be a body double on the Disney show and head spin real quick or whatever, because I need to make money, you know, and then but then you're like, then your crew is like questioning if you're, you know what I mean, really down with them because you're not doing the unpaid gig or you're not showing up to the battle against the it's just like goodness gracious, you know.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_06: And so trying to just navigate all of that young when you're, you know, you don't you obviously you're away from your family, you don't, you know what I mean?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_06: You're just like trying to figure all of that out.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_06: It is it was a lot to be honest, but I think thankfully I was able to make I think good decisions to say, hey, I know who I am and I know what I'm trying to do and what I'm trying to accomplish.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_06: You can either be role with me or not, you know, and I think that's hard for a lot of artists.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_06: They get more persuaded by friends or more persuaded by opinion, and they end up maybe, you know what I mean, not doing what is best for them or their career.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_06: And, you know, and so it was this it's a struggle for sure, and I'm sure other people can relate to it in different ways.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_03: So and I also feel like that out of a lot of different genres, and you kind of hinted at this at the beginning, saying that you know, like the Olympic team needed a B girl because there were B girls on the team.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I feel like in breaking culture, possibly, I could be wrong, please let me know.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_03: But I feel like, like you said, there's less females doing this, so I feel like it was probably even harder for you to be getting taken seriously at the start when you were interested in wanting to break into this because oh, it's just another female, another girl coming in here thinking that they're gonna be able to do this, and to be accepted, it's almost you have to prove yourself times 10 to that crew and to that group of people in culture uh to be accepted.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas the flip side, in studio dance, in jazz dance, in ballet dance, it's a majority female and less men, you know, so it is interesting to to see that flipped around in this culture and subgenre of dance.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_06: For sure.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_06: And I mean I think there's this whole like you know, mentality, or not necessarily mentality, but like, you know, females and kids, right, get a lot of like props.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_06: There's a whole crew, Asia created a whole crew called No Easy Props, a whole mission, a whole thing, because a lot of times too, girls do just get the like, yeah, great job, you're a girl.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_06: You shut up, you got here.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_06: You're a kid, like, you know, and then you're like, no, don't give me the easy props, right?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_06: Or whatever, like city props.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I actually want to be respected because I'm dope and I like can be boys, you know.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_06: And so, but yes, it is a very, yeah, you're in a male-dominated space of like ego and testosterone.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_06: It's like, oh my gosh, you know, and so again, more power to all the bee girls because it's like you have to stick together.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_06: You have but but the females bring such an essence, and that's one thing that like even my teachers would say, like, you have the females have a place and a and a presence that you obviously just can't have all men together, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_06: So it's like there's like the essence and the vibe and the groove and the finesse that women bring that is a big part of the culture, and you can't be absent of that, right?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_06: So it was always welcome too, with great, you know what I mean, respect and love, too, which is good.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: She said a lot of wonderful things, and I want to touch up on a few of those things.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I could see why she turned out being so dope in her life because she mentioned B-Boy House, who's an OG pioneer that laid a lot of foundation down.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's not from New York, but if you see him, you I you swear to God, he's from New York.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: He just has that flavor, he has that attitude, he's a real b-boy.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then she mentioned Wiggles, to me, is the greatest B-boy ever.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Period.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care who you mention, you know, people like to say legs or Kenny or Icy Ice.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or to me, Wiggles by far, it's not even an argument because when you talk about a real b-boy, you're talking about again a culture.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's the only one that does everything on a on a superb level.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's breaking, he can break.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Locking, he can lock, popping, he can pop, writing, graffiti, tagging, he does all that music, rapping, like whatever.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: He I people don't even know.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: He guitar, lead guitar, he can play.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't care what it is, he's phenomenal.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: That to me is a real B-boy.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like rocking, just whatever.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just he can do it all.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, he's my all-time greatest of all time.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when it comes to breaking, well, this is again, these are just my personal opinions.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure people might feel different.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to breaking, for me, the prototype that you see, even though it's night and day, because what they're doing today, those are things that we were only dreaming about.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking this can never happen, but we'll try it.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: So to see what these kids are doing is is incredible.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: To me, that really stems from um powerful Paxter because he's really the first one to really combine footwork, top rock, power moves, combinations, and to make it look dope, like wow, who's that?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, you got you know so again, you're talking primitive, you're talking people from the 70s and the early 80s.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what they were doing back then, but if you really study the videotapes or whatever's out there, it's all out there.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you start to really analyze it, you can see it.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you talk to the people that don't have a dog in the fight and they want to be honest, that really what it is.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are some people like Kenny who's just a full work genius, master, like there's nobody.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to a full work technique, that's the God, you know.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: But when it he didn't have the same level and power.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not that he couldn't, but just that wasn't, you know, he felt basically like this is the foundation and this is what everybody should be doing.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: So with New York City Breakers in Rocksteady, a lot of the issues came because they're before New York City Breakers, who were originally called the Floor Masters.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: So they are more traditionalists.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure Benita can attest to this because if she got taught by all of those, I know, God bless you.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know you had a rough life, you know.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they really strongly believe that power moves were were for gymnasts, and that's where you get this whole concept from.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when the floor masters come into place, oh, you're not no b-boards, you're a bunch of gymnasts.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all ain't no breakers, y'all can't, y'all spinning on your back and doing these windmills and the headspins.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: That ain't breaking, that ain't no b-board.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they wanted to keep it just on the footwork side.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we took that, and this is what leads to the famous battle between the floor masters and rocksetti crew in 1981, where Michael Holman, who was from California, moved to New York to make movies.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: He came here with the intention of being a someone, you know, like instead of going to Hollywood, I guess he came to New York.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in that process, he ran into this culture and he started to document this.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is where a lot of the early stuff comes from.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lady from England, um, originally from England, called Lady Blue, who basically was promoting like uh uh clubs, and she was a promoter, and she got this club called First Class, oh, excuse me, Negrill.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she asked Michael Holman to come and and listen, you want to do a review, you could bring the breakers, you could bring the graffiti artist, because Michael Holman was into all of that.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was already been exposed to that through Fat Pi, Freddie, and a few other people.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they got a chance to work with the Rocksteady crew.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where he comes in.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: So now he sees Legs and Canny and he sees all the Frosty Freeze Take One.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: He sees all of these guys, and he's like, whoa, okay, yeah, we can do something.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the B-boys are hired as talent because when you do an art show, it's not like a jam.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's no, it's just art, right?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: But they wanted to spice it up.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we bring a DJ.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring the dances.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: People like the dances.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: So now they're starting to see the beginning of the foundation of what we now call hip hop culture, right?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because now you're bringing all these elements because what are you doing?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're trying to promote art, you're trying to sell art, right?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're not, you don't really care about the B-boys, not that you hate them, it's just you know, I'm into art, you know.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if I can go and I can get some dancers to come in, they can bring more people because they want to see them, that's great.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: They might buy a painting.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: So now she gets this club called Negrill and she asks Michael Holman to promote on Thursdays, and he does, and he hires the Rocksteady crew.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what people, if they want to be really honest, he was their manager or agent or whatever title you want to call it.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to work with the Rocksteady crew, you got in contact with Michael Holman.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, whatever you call that person, that's what he was.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when he again he's learning, he's has Rocksteady performing here Thursday nights, and he's starting to get kind of bored and tired of same crew, same steps, same night.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Can we change it up?
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and he would ask legs, like legs, what is this thing that I'm hearing about a battle?
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's a battle?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the height of all of this, really, essentially, is the competitive element to this.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: So now he wants to see a battle because everybody keeps telling him, yeah, it's cool, the dancing and all of that, but that's not like a battle.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: You want people to come?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's in it, and then you're gonna see what happens.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: Just humanity always wants fights, just like sometimes immemorial, just like we want to fight.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: Competition season is right around the corner.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're looking for expert guidance to polish and perfect your routine before hitting the stage, then be sure to check out our popular service, IDA's online judges critique.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_03: Our experienced judges will provide you with a video critique of your performance.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: But with IDA's online judges critiques, we take it one step further than your standard competition critique.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: Our additional feedback option allows for your judge to go back through and review your dance for an extra 10 to 15 minutes to give specific corrections and personalized feedback.
• 42:42
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• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of focusing on the dancer's performance, your IDA judge will dive deep into choreography-specific feedback, including concept, appropriateness, costuming, transitions, style, formations, visuals, textures, technique, song choice, difficulty level, and so much more to help you learn and grow as a choreographer and take your artistic vision to the next level.
• 43:12
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• 43:16
  SPEAKER_03: So what are you waiting for?
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_03: Click the link in our show notes or visit our website at Impact Dance Adjudicators.com/slash online critiques to submit your dance today.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: So they send out words and they get in contact with Kid Nice, and he calls his best friend action.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and a lot of people don't realize that Mr.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Freeze grew up with all of us.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: We all went to the same school together.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Mr.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Freeze was always kind of like a really good friend to the crew.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even though he was with Roxetti.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: But he was always he was just one dude that was yo, he's with us.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know he's there with them, but he's he's all right, you know.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so he gets in contact with uh Action, I believe, or kid nice, and then he says, Yo, they want to set up a battle.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: They set it up.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh floor masters battle rock steady.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's always arguing who won.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, who cares?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what I tell people is after the battle, Michael Holman was so impressed because this is what the truth is.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have to say it now.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry for get mad at me, but this is what it was.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: Legs knew Michael Holman, and Michael Holman was a filmmaker, and he was documenting this.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Legs wanted to get a crew that weren't as good as Rocksteady so that they can look good on film.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh playing out.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna ride.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna smoke them.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be famous, you're gonna be on film.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't get somebody, you know, I don't want to get I don't want to get the number one champ, you know, number one ranked person in the world.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get these guys.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: Freeze knows them.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're okay.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: What they didn't know was that the floor masters were better than okay.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so now when that battle takes place, if you want to say Roxetti won, I'll tip my hat to you.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, it's Michael Holman that runs out of the club chasing the floor masters down.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, don't leave, wait, wait, please take my number.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want to work with you guys, I want to meditate.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: He dropped that from that day on, that was it.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason why he did that again was because Rocksteady, fundamentally, they were better.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna sit there and lie and say, uh, when you look at the footwork, when you look at the style, you look at the character, they had an edge.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's no question about it.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they were before Floor Masters, they were fun fundamentally sound.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: These are some of the dopest b-boys in New York City to this day, even.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what floor masters lacked in the foundational movement, although we had it, but we just went as polished as Roxetti, we more than made up for it.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: We spun longer, harder, faster.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: We did hand glides, fist glides, turtles or floats, whatever you call them, heads.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was wow, I never saw that.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was everybody had something different.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't five, seven, ten people doing footwork.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you are if you're a b-boy, you can understand the nuances.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, woo, did you see that?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was dope.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're a novice, you you see them doing footwork, it all looks the same.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's nice, but you don't understand it in that way.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: But now you see somebody spinning on their head.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa, someone's spinning on their back, whoa, someone doing windows, whoa, someone doing hand glides and flow.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's man, these guys are doing all and with power.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where the disrespect starts to come in.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, you're not B-boys.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're all a bunch of gymnasts, they're doing backflips, look, they're doing this.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the floor masters, though Chino Lopez, uh, whose action, he's the first one that says breaking should be in the Olympics.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because everyone is trying to diss us, trying to say that we're gymnasts, we're not.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're real Bronx B-boys.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody is from the Bronx, literally.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: So now we take that concept and we run with it.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Holman, who was the manager, gets excited because he sees this group that he felt was better than Rocksteady.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now he sets up a meeting with phase two, the graffiti writer, and he proposes a concept of let's put together the floor masses with Little Lep, who was one of the baddest B-boys.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was a with a group called the Seven Deadly Sins, who lived in the same neighborhood.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: We all grew up in the same neighborhood, five minute walking distance from anybody's house.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Let's put a crew together, but we want to change the name.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to, we don't want to do the floor masters.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, in the beginning, everybody's like, oh, this guy's bugging.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, you're bugging.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're a floor master.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't changing our name.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what you say.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then phase two is the one that actually comes up with the name.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, you guys are from New York and you guys break.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you guys should think about changing your name to the New York City Breakers.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you'll always be floor masters.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Everything will still be, you know, it's just you're changing your name.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's all.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: People change their names.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Michael Holman then goes out and says, Well, think about it, guys.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you travel around the world, do you want to be known as the floor masters?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or where you really come from?
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: New York City.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you do?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Breakers.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when everybody was like, Oh, you know what?
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: They might be right.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the very beginning, what people really don't know, and I'm sharing this probably for the first time.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm articulating this in this way, is Michael Holman, along with phase two, they were business partners and they both became our manager.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they had a falling out, I guess, just the way it power struggle, I guess.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Phase two being from the street, like most people from the street do, you know what?
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: F him, I'm out of here.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can do it, I don't care.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he leaves.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then Michael Holman now begins to take over, right?
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I try to tell people, because I'm the same way, if I don't like something, all right, I'm good, I'm out.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't want to be out.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to stay because what I realize is that when you leave, things change.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: So now as I come back into the scene, because I've been gone for 20 years, I was with Nike for like 16 years, I was with the NBA, so I was doing a lot of their stuff.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when I came back like three years ago, four years ago, the first thing that I did was I just paid my own way and I went to every possible event that I can go to just to learn.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know who the top B boys are, the top B girls.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what event.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just know if I'm gonna get back into this, I need to learn, I need to study, and I just need to listen.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to talk.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that whole year, no interviews, no nothing, no even nothing.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to learn.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second year, now I'm participating a little bit.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm starting to, all right, let me sit on the panel, let me share some stuff.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, now this is the third year, now I'm doing events.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have an event coming up in April 12th called Battle of the Burrows, where the concept basically is it started in New York City, the five boroughs.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can't come to New York, we're gonna bring New York to you.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Battle of the Burrows to come into a home near you.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we take them on a ride.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the conductor, taking the audience on this journey, a journey of knowledge, culture, dance.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why but I find Bonia to be fascinating because she had to, for number one, as a female, I know she got abused because guys didn't look at females equally.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: You were less than.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you're a B girl, but you're not on my level.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: Even if she was better than them, they don't see her that way.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then to pay your bills, you do have to go back and forth because breaking doesn't pay the bills.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases, maybe, but in most cases it doesn't.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so now they talk bad about you because you're out there making a living.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is where I kind of fight with the old school generation a little bit.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm old school, but I'm not so old school that I want to demean people.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, this is a business, okay?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is a business, then one should not criticize someone else unless you're paying their bill.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're paying my rent, you're paying my light, you're putting food in my kitchen, okay, then you have the right to say something.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not, who are you to say that I shouldn't take that job?
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: I have kids, you know, I have two boys that have grown now.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, again, I did events in the 90s before Red Bull, before all of these events.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and I know what it's like.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like to from every end.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: The fact I'm into schools right now.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a program running into the public schools where they teach breaking.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in working with people that have studios where they can pass down this knowledge.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in working with parents because every parent, and I'm no different, wants their child to be in an environment where they learn and they're safe away from gang violence, away from drugs, away from people talking garbage.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: We just want our kids to be in an environment where they can flourish and express themselves and not be intimidated.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, in this culture, it's the complete opposite, which is why it's taking us so many years to get to where we're going.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and the Olympics, I mean, think about how crazy this is.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: They have the Olympics, and the crew, or at least the person that generated this idea, and again, it's all documented.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: How do I know?
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody started reaching out to me, like, oh, we we just found this out.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: But yet, they didn't have the courtesy to say, let's fly.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to fly the whole crew in.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just at least fly in Chino Lopez action.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I spoke to everyone from the president to the vice president to everybody.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wrote letters, did everything.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you're telling me that you couldn't pay a flight just to go out there just to honor this man who's 59 now?
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like that to me is not cool.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what leads to these problems.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: And not everybody fully understands the history, so I'll take responsibility because I haven't been around.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: But there are those that knew the history that were a part of this.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: There were those that understood and chose to sweep it under the rug, which is why the Olympics did not turn out the way it could have been.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how much Bunia wants to get into it because I know some stuff too, but it's not my business.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: But to me, in my humble opinion, and again she can correct me, they didn't treat her with the proper respect.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: She did some incredible stuff, like powerful stuff that to this day, when you start to trace down all these bloodlines, it goes back to her.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, when you go look at footage of her, you're like, oh my god.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: They treat her differently or not the again, it's about respect.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: She did some stuff in those circles.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, she was with some hardcore people that you know old school to a fault sometimes.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: So she had the the best of both worlds.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: She got that tough hardcore love, but to me, and I could be wrong, she can correct me, that's kind of what made her who she is.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: That tough love, that lack of respect, that yearning to you, I gotta prove it to these guys because these guys don't think I got it, and I got it, and showing like, yo, I'm better than even what you think.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I think what she's doing is incredible.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then to take all of that knowledge and to put it in a professional environment away from the chaos, that's why I love her.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: She's freaking awesome, man.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, sure we can we can master two.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_06: Ooh, Benita, care to respond?
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, hey, I I think that's all super dope.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_06: And I appreciate all the words.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, yeah, I guess you you don't really realize, you know, because my life is just what I do every day.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_06: I you know what I mean.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_06: You don't think about it I guess in that capacity of like the reach or how it affects people, or even maybe how people perceive you, you know, as you get older too.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I'm obviously a mom now, and so my like thoughts that kind of pass through my brain now are very different and and I comes I'm consumed with different things, right?
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_06: But I will say, yeah, I mean, I I'm very grateful that all everything that I've learned, you know, in my professional, you know, I I work heavily in the dance team world too, with varsity and UDA and NDA and USASF and and that whole world too.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_06: And so just grabbing all of all of the knowledge that I've grabbed, right, and then trying to bring that into the breaking space was really right.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, even joining with the Olympics when when I came in with the Olympics specifically, right?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_06: I was coming in as an assistant B-girl coach.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_06: As we started to facilitate meetings, I quickly learned that like a lot of us don't have any sort of skills, any management skills, any delegation skills, any like what's the bigger picture here?
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_06: What are we trying to accomplish, you know?
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_06: And I I have 400 kids at my studio, you know, management, I have fifth 15 teachers, five employees.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_06: Like, I'm this is every day for me, right?
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_06: Of managing my family, managing my business.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_06: So then when I jumped into the Olympic space, it was really no different.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_06: It's just a different group of people.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_06: You know what I mean?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_06: Now we've got a little bit of a different vision, different mission.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_06: But but yeah, I mean, I just kind of grabbed all the knowledge, everything that I have, and kind of place it in here with all these b-boys, you know, truly.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_06: It's a big big group of b-boys that like is very different.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_06: It's a whole different, you know.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_06: And so sure.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, early on it was I was uh, you know, came in as an assistant quickly.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_06: They were like, no, you need to be head coach.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_06: Like you're really the only one that has any vision and can really organize us.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_06: Like nobody, everyone else just was like, let's just practice, or we get on teachings and people would talk about beef and f you know, and and I'm like, What?
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_06: Like, what is the goal?
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_06: We were trying to win gold, like what is can we focus here?
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_06: And so um, you know, for me too, I I don't have a lot of time.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, I got one thing to the next thing.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_06: I gotta get my kids, I gotta, you know, choreograph for whatever, you know.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_06: And so, um, so yeah, it was a it was an interesting journey.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I I mean, and um and like anything, I get I understand politics.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_06: I I'm in business, like I understand how decisions are make made.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_06: I have to make the hard decisions too, you know?
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_06: And so I don't ever put myself in a position or or you know, I'm always trying to see perspective regardless of what is happening.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_06: Like whether it's for me or against me, I'm always trying to see perspective, like, okay, why would that decision have been made, or oh, this or whatever, you know?
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm not ever like defensive or feel like, oh, I should have been this or I should have never, you know.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, no, there's a purpose and God's will is exactly how it should be, regardless, you know.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna show up, do me, represent, and that's it, you know?
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_06: And so, but yeah, I mean, I I just think that was for sure a big challenge with within the Olympic space, like I was saying, and I've kept saying, right, just trying to to pull a group of people together that do not think the same is hard.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_06: It's a hard, very hard mission, you know.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_06: And so I will say, learning one of the biggest things that I did learn is that as a female, I actually coached the boys way better than the girls, and vice versa.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_06: And so the men responded way differently to me coaching them than the women did, and the women responded way differently to having a male coach than having a female coach, is what we get like again.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_06: You're learning all of this stuff, like you know, who's responding, who's not responding.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_06: Like, you know, the men, like for me, would would what's would you know, they would like what be honest, I guess.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_06: Like, if I'm like, hey, are you having a bad day or what's going on or what what's happening?
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_06: They would be honest with me, not with the male coach.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_06: They'd be like, Yeah, yeah, I'm good, I'm good, you know.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_06: And they couldn't really say what was really happening.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_06: And in those, in these types of spaces, it's like, what I need to know what is up.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_06: Like, you need to be real with me.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_06: And just men aren't like that to each other, you know.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_06: So it's just a it's a lot of stuff that again, as you're coaching the best in the world, right?
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_06: And your mental, their mental has to be right, they're physical, they're spiritual.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_06: Like you they have to show up and be at their like highest moment at that in that moment, you know.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_06: It's just a lot, it was a lot to learn and and a lot to um, you know, it was it was great, it was all good.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_06: So, but yeah, I mean, I I was very thankful for my involvement.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_06: It took a lot of my time and energy for years, um, but I'm grateful for you know, for all of it for sure.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you see, now you know why I have so much love and respect for her.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, summed it up in the mind club, and that in itself is artistry, right?
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have to work with different people, different temperaments, right?
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: Different situations.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience, when you look at my team, most of the people behind the scenes are women.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because, in my experience, I find that women tend to be more focused, tend to be more honest, tend to be more committed.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not that everyone is different, everyone's an individual.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: So even my wife, my wife is opposite.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from the Bronx, I'm a street person.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: My wife is from the Lower East Side, went to Juilliard, you know, constantly trained.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: She's a studied classical music.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she likes RB, she likes hip-hop, she grew up in New York, so she likes, but she's a professional in every sense of the word.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then here's the street guy that, you know, it's like, what the hell?
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you can imagine her parents were not big fans.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you bring this roughly guy from the Bronx, here they are, they drinking wine, listening to classical music.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, this family's weird, you know.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm a stock eating with my hands and they're looking at me like, what the hell?
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_00: You need to leave this guy, you know.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's funny because opposite attract.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in my experience, you can't have fire and fire because that'll just explode.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have fire, you need water.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's a blend, and and it can actually work better that way.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, for me, you always need, you know, someone to be the good cop and someone to be the bad cop.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you get two good cops, you're gonna, they're gonna walk all over you, you get two bad cops, it's gonna so you have to have that balance.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_00: And same thing with schools.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is why schools are so important because I gotta tell people if you're gonna open up a school, you can't just have to teach breaking.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: You you'll never you're gonna go under.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't just say, I want to do a hip hop, it's just breaking, popping, a locking, because you're not gonna make it.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: You need jazz, you need modern, you need ballet, you need tap, you need new school hip hop, old school hip hop, but you need to have 20, 30 classes that are different, you know, and you can't have you if you want to do two classes the same and have two different teachers, cool.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_00: But if you got if you have 10 classes and eight of them are breaking, I promise you you're not gonna survive.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and you need that cross element, you know, and what people don't understand is in the early days of breaking, I don't care if you're from the 70s, most of the dances, not all, but most of them were involved in sports, whether it was gymnastics, baseball, football, basketball, that's what attracted them to the dance because they can use their athleticism.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we all played sports when I was a kid growing up.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_00: We would take where we lived our entire block, and we would go and challenge another block in baseball and football and whatever, and that includes dancing.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: We would go and hunt people down.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, I heard there were b-boys over there.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, they go over there.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we would challenge them.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, we were in two games.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's go.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it was in the hallway, which is where a lot of battles took place, the parks that we all hung out in, and they would play music.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I remember going to Washington Square Park, and this is back when like WK uh KTU, which is a big radio station, was KTU, KISS FM, and WBLS were the major stations.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember being a part of that, and I would go and we would all go there to dance and perform, and it'd be like 30 radios.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: We call them boxes.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: There'd be 30 radios, and everybody would be playing the same music, playing on the same station, and it'd be four, five, six circles of everybody either performing, battling, entertaining, whatever it was.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was just one ginormous entire park filled with 20 radios, and just everybody was just going off.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get back to that.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get back to going to these events.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds epic.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get back to these events where so the events, like I tell people, when I do my events, they call them breaking events.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_00: I say you can call it whatever you want.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, it's really a community event.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just breaking.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: I have rollerbladers, I have drummers, I have breakers, I have rockers, I have new school, I have old school, I got the little kids.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: If I gotta bring the bouncy council, I'll bring that too.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_00: If I gotta bring the lady that paints on the face, I want people to enjoy themselves.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I do my my block parties, the parents come with blankets, they sit down, and I have a little ice cream machine.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: We make we I mean it's just a big party, and everybody's hanging out, and I play all kinds of music.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then when it comes to battle or compete or perform, all right, now we're gonna this next hour or two, all right, we're gonna just watch the kids battle, you know, but it's for everyone.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, the parents are loving.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is what we used to do.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is and now you have an intergenerational program where everybody's learning from each other because we learn from the young kids, and I'm sure the young kids, at least I like to think, will learn from us.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important to have those elements all come together.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, it makes it very difficult for everyone.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I'll say is the most important thing, be professional.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's really that simple.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, greet people, hi, good to see you.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you don't work with that person, it's cool.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not saying you gotta work with them, but just be kind, be considerate, be nice.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be surprised.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and in the business world, if you come with these animalistic behaviors, who's gonna want to do business with you?
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're professionals.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you sit there and you try to BS them, my father told me one time, I'll always, and and I hope people understand what I'm saying.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working for Nike at this time, and uh, and one who did all the basketball stuff, they want to hire me to the MC.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh yeah, my father's telling me, man, so you're getting pretty good with this basketball stuff.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that I'm the man.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, the NBA guys, I'm training them.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm feeling great.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Wow, wow, that sounds pretty good.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: So would you consider yourself an ex?
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's my dad.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm the best.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: They all come to see me, bro.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta see this is crazy.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_00: So now he says, Well, let me ask you a question.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you do your breakdancing stuff and and and you go into he said, You're an expert, right?
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like that.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, bro.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working with everybody.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, if you go to a park and you see guys playing basketball, can you tell who's good and who's not?
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like that.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: Stop it.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: What are you what are you trying to say?
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_00: How long would it take you?
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: 10 minutes, maybe.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I gotta see how they how they process the information, how they you know the decision, selfish, not selfish, understand.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, I can break everything down.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_00: Says, all right, so when you go to these corporate meetings and you're sitting with these professionals, the CEOs, the the CFOs, and so on and so forth, how long do you think if it takes you 10 to 15 minutes to figure out who's good is not, how long does it take them to figure out whether you're full of crap or not?
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're professionals, they're millionaires, right?
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_00: They build a multi-million dollar business based on making decisions, right?
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're doing all this wonderful work because you could make good decisions and you can evaluate, don't you think they have the same ability?
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said, oh dad, whoa, for real.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yup.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_00: So now when I sit down and I meet with people, I'm honest.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't have the answer, I'm gonna have to get back to you.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're still developing, we're still working.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is still a new culture.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're all still learning.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_00: Even those from the 70s are still learning.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's important to be humble, to open up your mind, try new things.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they work, maybe they don't.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to expand yourself.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, God forbid if we can only eat one type of food your whole entire life.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be suffering.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_00: You I mean, me personally, I like a little bit of everything.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe some rice, and maybe some chicken, maybe potatoes, some vegetables, some fruits, you know.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_00: We need more variety, and we need to stop putting down people that understand business better than most of us.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_00: And because we're not doing what they're doing, we want to criticize them.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, that's not authentic.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is authentic.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_00: And just because they want to expand doesn't give anyone the right to say that you're not a real person.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_00: I disagree with that.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I tell a lot of these old school guys, when I was growing up, we were not allowed to mix styles together.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you were a breaker, just break.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't sit there try to lock.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't sit there trying to pop.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_00: You want to pop, just pop.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why in the beginning, you don't see all styles.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_00: That comes later on.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even with Wiggles, who does everything.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't see him in circles breaking, popping, locking all together.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_00: That comes later.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, when he was breaking, he was breaking.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_00: When he was popping, he was popping.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like he was in there doing all styles.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now you see more of that.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, where did that come from?
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way that people have to go through these struggles, you had house dancers coming onto the scene.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_00: New school hip hop people coming to the scene that wanted to learn the b-boy element of hip-hop.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then people, oh, you're not a b-boy, you're a house dancer.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're not a b-boy, you new school.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_00: But after the scars, after the beatings, after the torture, some of them break through.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_00: And now look at the fruits of all the labor of all of those people that came up, in my opinion, from 95 to 2005.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the people that we should be talking about.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the people that we should be saying, thank you.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you didn't keep doing this, God knows where we would be.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because I can tell you right now, if you're from the 70s or 80s, you're probably still pulling out the cardboard, saying, Yo, I want to keep it real.
• 1:09:41
  unknown: You have to grow.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_03: That was so inspiring.
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I'm sitting here listening to that and and just thinking about how that's so true for all genres of dance.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_03: And and, you know, throughout all the different I mean, I'm I'm a jazz dancer, so I'm just thinking about how the evolution of jazz dance and the fusions that we're seeing now.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, it is it is interesting how we kind of get classified and put into labels and boxes within these genres of, oh, well, you only specialize in this and oh, you can only do that.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_03: And it is exciting to see how our dance world and community and culture has grown to accept a little bit more fusion within these styles and being able to pull from so many different parts of our community and training that we've learned through our life from our lifetime and from our mentors who are guiding us as well.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's so refreshing to hear and really inspiring because, like you said, I think hip-hop is new for our dance world.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_03: This this culture, as we've been talking, we've really only been saying what?
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_03: The 70s is where it kind of originated.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_03: So that is fresh compared to other styles of dance, like ballet that has has been around for centuries, and and jazz dance that was introduced back in the 20s and the 30s.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so it is it is really interesting.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's one of the newer genres of dance.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm really glad that we got to kind of dive into some history today on this episode and and learn.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you just said something.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to put this in perspective.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I really want to hear more from Benia because I love her.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when I start listening to rap music, right, it it they weren't records yet.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were just these cassette tapes because back then the DJs would record their block parties.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we would take the radio, uh, the the box, and we put the cassettes in there, we would listen to it.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So one day my mother is listening to me, listen to this music.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, What the hell is that?
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Oh, it's rap.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, Rap?
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: That ain't music.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah, that's the mom.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's this this is the that ain't you know what's music?
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid growing up, doo-wop and rock and roll.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is in the 70s.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Rock and roll was in the 50s, that was only 20 years difference.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're in 2025.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than 20 years.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if there was a disconnect back then, it was only a 20-year difference.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_00: What 50 years?
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's a major disconnect.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and for me, coming back, what I like to think of, and I'm a very spiritual uh spiritual person.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that we're all energy and like like like uh a magnet, they can attract, or if you flip the magnet, there's a force that doesn't allow it to come together.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna attract or or push people out.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I I'm a firm believer that as energy, as human beings, we should be able to educate and work with people that that want to grow.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still growing.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and my I'm I'm closer to 60 than I am to 50.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm still growing and I'm still developing, and that gets me excited.
• 1:12:38
  SPEAKER_00: That makes me feel good.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not living that type of life, I feel like there's a disconnect.
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and I want to be the bridge that connects that informational highway, the bridge that allows the old generation to connect with the new generation.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I told my mother recently, maybe that's why you call me London, because I'm gonna be the bridge.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are all these years later, and I'm gonna try to bring this all back.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe in all of that.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_00: When I struggled in life, when I was really doing bad, when I say bad, I mean as a kid, you know, I stopped going to school.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was just doing a lot of bad stuff.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I never want to share it because I feel I'm embarrassed.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I went through all of that because now when I deal with these kids, I'm no different.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know exactly what you're going through.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was there, been there, done it.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a different level of connection there.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So now I can relate opposed to someone that didn't grow up in that type of environment.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then there is no.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of these parents, they call me when there's a problem.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they call me coach.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I need you to talk to my son.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Coach, you gotta talk to my daughter.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_00: She's why, you know, because they respect where I've been.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I get it, I've done it all.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what it is you did, I've done it all.
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't lie to me.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've been there, done that.
• 1:13:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a different level.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that when we're honest and we open ourselves up, like just open.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_00: You want to criticize, criticize, but that's that's what it is.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that's when people start to connect.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I feel like what Benita does is different because I feel, without really knowing her, to be honest with you, just studying.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a researcher, I study, I have understanding.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel, and please correct me if I'm wrong, she can understand because she's kind of been through similar things, obviously from two different states, but bad happens in New York, California, Arizona.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Bad is bad, good is good.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that struggle that she went through, even being part of the rock study crew and going through that tough love, that made her sharp knife, like sword, sharpened sore.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why when you see her, you can see that passion, you see that fire, you see that wow, I know she went through some stuff because look how she's expressing herself, right?
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Some people can be animated and then some people could be timid.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't nothing timid about her when she is that dance floor.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, you know, so it's impressive when you see the body of work and then you see what she continues to do and how she continues to elevate the game, man, that should be rewarded.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it should, giving her her flowers.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I want to hear if you have if you have the time, if we have to wrap, I understand.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_01: But speaking of Benita and your your curriculum that you've developed for studios, so obviously we've heard a lot about the history of breaking and how that all came up and how people learned.
• 1:15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, London, it's 2025.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Things are different now, things kind of have to be different because of the way every, you know, culture, social media, technology, everything.
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_01: How, Bonita, are you bringing breaking to the studio space?
• 1:15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that look like in practice?
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And where can people learn more about it?
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_06: So, I mean, obviously for me, right through throughout my kind of professional master teaching career, I've always integrated breaking into hip hop, right?
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it it's one and the same, but your your layman does not understand that.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_06: So I've, you know, I've tried to educate in that space just again, generally, I like I was saying, I've whether I'm just doing a like a master class within a studio or you know, doing call working with collegiate teams or working, right?
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_06: I've I've really done a the gamut of of work in terms of developing curriculum, speaking on forums, doing all that kind of stuff, even in different platforms other than the underground world.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_06: And so for me, that that piece of education to bring breaking into more of you know the dance team, the dance studio space has always been, I've always done it, but uh unintentionally, because it's just who I am, right?
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_06: So if they're asking me to come teach, my teaching is a mix of hip hop and breaking and kind of just my fusion of movement, right?
• 1:16:49
  SPEAKER_06: And so when I started my studio, right, I already had a heavy reputation in breaking, even more so at the start of my studio.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_06: And so as soon as I landed and kind of planted myself, I already had a lot of people that were specifically coming to learn because at that point I was all over.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_06: I was teaching at this studio, at that studio, at this studio, that right.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_06: I didn't have a home base.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_06: And then I did.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_06: Then all of a sudden I do have a home base and I started, and so then I was really able to take control of my students instead of like dropping one hour here to this kid, or you know what I mean?
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_06: You just don't have full reign of their development.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_06: And so then I was able to develop my own students, my own programs, and start seeing what was working over the course of years, over the course of consistency, right?
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_06: And and things like that.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_06: And of course, like in hip-hop, which I don't, I'm guessing it's similar in other styles, but it's a very master teach master student type of vibe.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_06: So you don't pay for for what you learn, right?
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_06: You're not you're not paying somebody to get taught.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_06: I never paid my teachers anything to learn what I learned.
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_06: And I brought up students, proteges, they never paid me nothing, right?
• 1:18:00
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's that is not you take them on because you're wanting to continue the culture, pass on what you've learned and and right.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_06: And so now, though, as you start a studio, it's very different.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_06: Now you are paying for a service.
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_06: Now I do, you know, it's it's very different.
• 1:18:16
  SPEAKER_06: Before it's like, oh, I'll pick you up from school, we'll practice a little.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_06: There's no there's not no stipulations to it.
• 1:18:21
  SPEAKER_06: If we do it, we do it, if we don't, we don't.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_06: Now you're saying, now you're gonna pay me a service, I have to show up.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna give you this, I'm gonna make your kid good, right?
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_06: Like now we're now we put a lot of stipulations around it, but it there's the business, right?
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_06: That's where the business comes in.
• 1:18:37
  SPEAKER_06: And so just kind of over the course of the development of the students lab, breaking has always been a heavy program that we started from the inception of the studio.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_06: And so as we were developing kids, high-level kids, right?
• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_06: Pretty quickly, I started to have to train my teachers because at first, right, just like anything, I'm teaching everything.
• 1:18:57
  SPEAKER_06: And then as a program starts to grow, you need to ensure that there's consistency in what's being taught.
• 1:19:03
  SPEAKER_06: So you have to develop something for other teachers to learn, right?
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_06: Like there, it just has to happen.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_06: So that's when where levels basically started to develop.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_06: And as we were developing levels, it was basically broken down.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_06: It's broken down into three levels, you know, level one, level two, level three.
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_06: Level three obviously has Olympic level movement in it.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_06: But I start hip hop and breaking at my studio at age three.
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_06: So we can we start developing kids at age three, obviously, with like just rhythm and claps and stepping and all of the things that you just start introducing freezes.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_06: You can introduce all of the culture so early on.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_06: My kids were, you know what I mean?
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_06: They've you just can.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_06: It's just like anything else, right?
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_06: You start uh in understanding the etiquettes, the vibes, all of it.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_06: And so, so yes, over the course of the last three years, we've basically been recording all of these skills that are involved in our curriculum, which now we do actually have quite a few schools.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_06: We've we've we did a soft launch, got some feedback, and now again, in a lot of spaces, a lot of studios are starting to launch it.
• 1:20:08
  SPEAKER_06: Some already have breaking programs, some have hip hop, but they are missing this kind of golden nugget piece to like amp up competition routines, amp up right competitiveness, like stay, you know, with the times, if you will, like be consistent and relevant.
• 1:20:24
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, so I mean, basically that's what levels is.
• 1:20:28
  SPEAKER_06: We've created it here myself, and you know, I have a lot of different, even O like OGs or you know, leaders in the culture that have come in to speak on it, teach on it.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so it's a big, you know, it's an app.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_06: You basically download it, you download the week-to-week lesson plan.
• 1:20:45
  SPEAKER_06: So it's like, I'm gonna go teach breaking week one, lesson 10, and it gives you all the skills that you're gonna teach.
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_06: It gives you the homework for the kids, it gives you um a coloring sheet, like it's a graffiti, all original like graffiti sheet that they print, the kids get home.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_06: There's like a parent corner where the parents can ask about what is ciphering or what is freestyle or what freeze did you learn.
• 1:21:06
  SPEAKER_06: There's like it's a whole thing because again, we've learned here at the studio with you know, over a hundred breaking kids that we see every week, how to get the kids engaged, how to keep them learning, how to grow them, how to progress them, what parents want, what studio owners need, like all of it, you know, and there's just nothing in the space yet.
• 1:21:25
  SPEAKER_06: And it was it's needed, you know, it's super needed.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_06: And so basically that was the the launch of levels, and yeah, so studios can definitely adopt it, grab it, use it, and um, yeah.
• 1:21:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 1:21:40
  SPEAKER_01: That is really, really cool and like so forwarding for for because there's just so many places in the country where you just don't even have an opportunity to bring in a teacher.
• 1:21:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have to find you have to train your teacher, and they do that, you know, ACRO does that already.
• 1:21:54
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of other training, you know, systems exist, but this is really kind of that's a really huge deal.
• 1:21:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really interesting.
• 1:22:01
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it this has been it's been years in the making, and I'll tell you the biggest like thing I get from studio owners across the country and world are they can't find reliable hip hop teachers.
• 1:22:13
  SPEAKER_06: They can't find teachers, and I'm like, you don't need to be straight up, you do not need someone that's from the culture at all.
• 1:22:20
  SPEAKER_06: You just need someone that's eager to learn and can watch some content, watch some videos, like everything is in there.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_06: There's like knowledge drops on I'm it's basically me speaking about today.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_06: You're gonna introduce freestyle and freestyling is this.
• 1:22:33
  SPEAKER_06: Today you're gonna introduce, you know, whatever, the battle, and battles are this.
• 1:22:37
  SPEAKER_06: And so then that teacher is gonna relay this information, teach the moves, right?
• 1:22:41
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's just like any other curriculum.
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_06: It's you just grab it and share the information.
• 1:22:47
  SPEAKER_06: It doesn't have to be everyone's worried, like, oh, it has to be super, super authentic.
• 1:22:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, sure.
• 1:22:52
  SPEAKER_01: But well, it has to be you, you as the person learning as a teacher, like I need to be excited about the authenticity.
• 1:23:00
  SPEAKER_01: I need to be willing to go do my own research.
• 1:23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily that I'm gonna be able to say I was there in 1973.
• 1:23:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, but at least I care about it and I want to share.
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_06: Who was really there when all these other styles know.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_06: But if if you love ballet and you want to teach that and pass that on, you're gonna become a student of ballet and you're gonna learn and you're gonna pass it with honor and respect.
• 1:23:22
  SPEAKER_06: It's the same, like, you know, but it's just because breaking in hip-hop has that, like, oh, are you really in the culture?
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_06: You know, you can't teach it.
• 1:23:30
  SPEAKER_06: Like, no, you can.
• 1:23:31
  SPEAKER_06: So I kind of am like, no, you can.
• 1:23:33
  SPEAKER_06: I'm having to like re-you kind of get this out of even studio owners' brains that they feel like they have to hire someone from the scene.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, no, you do not.
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_06: Like, all my teachers at my studio are they're not B-boys and B girls.
• 1:23:46
  SPEAKER_06: I've molded them and now they teach.
• 1:23:49
  SPEAKER_06: You know what I mean?
• 1:23:49
  SPEAKER_06: And now they understand what to do, and they're not going out and battling, like, you know what I mean?
• 1:23:54
  SPEAKER_06: It's but they can teach it and they can expose somebody, and then from there, they those kids can go on their own journey through it, you know.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_06: So yeah.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_06: That's awesome.
• 1:24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think she hit the nail on the head.
• 1:24:04
  SPEAKER_00: To me, the future, and I said this on an interview because I I'm working with the mayor here in Yonkers, and he allowed me to get into the public schools to work with these kids.
• 1:24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what I explained to him was, because most uh professionals on that level don't know what's going on.
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_00: They just know what's going on politically speaking, right?
• 1:24:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I I went to I said, Mr.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Mayor, we were having uh dinner, and I said, Did you know that breaking is gonna be in the Olympics?
• 1:24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he went, breaking?
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean the Olympics?
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I went, Yeah, you know the Olympics in Paris.
• 1:24:34
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, No, I know I know the Olympics.
• 1:24:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean breaking is in the Olympics?
• 1:24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, It's gonna be, you know, on the major stage.
• 1:24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, we're gonna have a platform.
• 1:24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he was shocked.
• 1:24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, and what's crazy is that we have an opportunity because if it's in the Olympics, then it's considered a sport.
• 1:24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's considered a sport, then technically schools will be teaching it.
• 1:24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I said, You know that every single Ivy League school in America, every single one has a breaking program.
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was shocked.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 1:25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, How long do yes?
• 1:25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, How long do you think it'll take before every high school has one, before every middle school has one?
• 1:25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, how about if we start to implement this into the because eventually, if that happens and it's a sport, just like baseball, basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse, you're gonna get a division one scholarship.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_00: You get to school free, right?
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Based on a scholarship, right?
• 1:25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just another revenue source that people have.
• 1:25:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have the listen, college is a quarter of a million dollars.
• 1:25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not kid each other.
• 1:25:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of money.
• 1:25:36
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 1:25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many people have that kind of at least that kind of money, but so if you can get there for free, then that would be the way to go, right?
• 1:25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had Division I athletes go.
• 1:25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh matter of fact, my son played with Kyrie Irving, who was a number one pick in the NBA 10 years ago, and they played together as kids.
• 1:25:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we coach top-level people.
• 1:25:55
  SPEAKER_00: We understand.
• 1:25:56
  SPEAKER_00: We just need the support of government.
• 1:25:59
  SPEAKER_00: We need the support of people that don't necessarily understand, but want to be a part of this on a professional way.
• 1:26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we work with kids.
• 1:26:08
  SPEAKER_00: You have to pass a fingerprint, right?
• 1:26:10
  SPEAKER_00: You got to be fingerprinted because you work with children.
• 1:26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be responsible.
• 1:26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, most people in the B-Boy culture or in hip hop may not be able to do that, right?
• 1:26:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're not the most responsible, they're not the most courteous, they're not the most, you know, but they got street cred.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not with that.
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with providing a safe environment that families and children can flourish in.
• 1:26:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if we can create a program that we can implement in schools where these kids can develop and then eventually compete on the high level, I did the AAU thing because I was coaching.
• 1:26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I worked with everybody.
• 1:26:42
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, we need to create a feeder system.
• 1:26:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 1:26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bottom line, you know?
• 1:26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can do just the beginning level and then pass it on to a studio uh uh personnel or pass it down to a college personnel, or however you want to structure it.
• 1:26:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to start somewhere.
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there has to be a group of people that understand that concept and can say, okay, we're gonna start here, we're gonna feed it to the high schools, or we're gonna feed it to the AAU programs, we're gonna do all of that stuff.
• 1:27:13
  SPEAKER_00: But everybody has to work together collectively and understand that there's a bigger vision and a bigger goal.
• 1:27:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's the politics that ruin everything, you know, because I want my crew to shine.
• 1:27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want that crew.
• 1:27:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about crews, you know, it's about understanding where we're trying to go.
• 1:27:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get back to the crews.
• 1:27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I it makes me sad when I go to these competitions and everything is a one-on-one.
• 1:27:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I like it better when you had your crew with you, when you had a whole mob of people behind you cheering you on, when you could do routines.
• 1:27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I miss that.
• 1:27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do, I tell them, I don't want to do no one on ones.
• 1:27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's gotta be two on two, three on three group, you know, because all we do is promote individuals, just like the MC.
• 1:27:55
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need the DJ, we don't need the B boys, the B girls, we don't need none of that.
• 1:27:59
  SPEAKER_00: We just need me.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like corporate America came in with good intentions.
• 1:28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:28:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're giving out money.
• 1:28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, listen, all these guys remember, it was the kids that created and developed this culture.
• 1:28:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was the adults that came in and wanted to manage us and ruin it.
• 1:28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then it was the kids that came in in the 90s that started to put together these events.
• 1:28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Red Bulls and the Corporate America came in there and they kind of messed it up a little bit.
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and I with no bad intentions, because I'm sure they were looking for people.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, this person looks like they know what they're doing.
• 1:28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then they realized, ah, that didn't work out.
• 1:28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's work with this person.
• 1:28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, this guy robbed us.
• 1:28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's work with this person.
• 1:28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 1:28:40
  SPEAKER_00: So they were they were always running into problems, and then they just said, you know what?
• 1:28:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna do it the way we think it should be done.
• 1:28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we think it should just be one-on-ones.
• 1:28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the next thing I know, everything is one-on-one.
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I miss the unity of our culture.
• 1:28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to say I want to be involved in bringing the group back, the crews back.
• 1:29:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to bring the families back.
• 1:29:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to go to events and see parents intermingling with other parents and see their children intermingling with other children.
• 1:29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get back to that, and that's why I'm here.
• 1:29:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm even doing this.
• 1:29:17
  SPEAKER_00: John is a phenomenal friend.
• 1:29:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love what he's doing.
• 1:29:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of the few people as well that's mixing all of this together in a healthy way.
• 1:29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to be supportive to all of those teachers or people that have schools or anything that's involved in that realm.
• 1:29:33
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to be supportive and helpful to make sure that this product continues to grow for the next 50 years.
• 1:29:42
  SPEAKER_03: We hope you enjoyed our latest genre spotlight episode all about the history of hip hop and breaking.
• 1:29:48
  SPEAKER_03: Huge shout out to our special guests, B Girl Bonita and B-Boy London, for joining us on this fantastic discussion.
• 1:29:55
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to follow them on Instagram.
• 1:29:57
  SPEAKER_03: You can find Bonita at bGirlbonita and London at b-boy London.
• 1:30:03
  SPEAKER_03: Also, be sure to check out B Girl Bonita's Levels plug and play breaking curriculum.
• 1:30:09
  SPEAKER_03: Click the link in our show notes to learn more or visit the website at dancelevels.app.
• 1:30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to follow Making the Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, and pretty much everywhere you listen to podcasts.
• 1:30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want more exclusive episodes, support our podcast by joining our Platinum Premium membership for only$5 a month.
• 1:30:28
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• 1:30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Join now at Impact Dance Adjudicators.com/slash Platinum Premium or click the link in our show notes.
• 1:30:42
  SPEAKER_03: Looking for some outside expertise to fine-tune your dance before hitting the competition stage this season?
• 1:30:48
  SPEAKER_03: Then check out IDA's Online Judges Critiques.
• 1:30:51
  SPEAKER_03: Our seasoned judges will provide you with a video critique of your routine, just like you'd receive at competition.
• 1:30:57
  SPEAKER_03: But with IDA's Online Judges Critiques, we take it one step further with our post-critique additional feedback.
• 1:31:03
  SPEAKER_03: Your judge will go through your routine again, pausing the video to give you even more detailed and personalized feedback.
• 1:31:10
  SPEAKER_03: You can even request a judge that specializes in your style of dance.
• 1:31:14
  SPEAKER_03: This game-changing service has helped countless dancers prepare for the competitive stage and is available year round.
• 1:31:20
  SPEAKER_03: With critiques starting at only$35, what are you waiting for?
• 1:31:24
  SPEAKER_03: Click the link in our show notes or visit our website at Impact Dance Adjudicators.com/slash one line critiques to learn more and submit your dance today.
• 1:31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Stay tuned for more Micking the Impact episodes, including the age old debate about dancers wearing one shoe, the oversexualization of kids in dance, and reels and footage.
• 1:31:44
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you next week for some more episodes.
• 1:31:46
  SPEAKER_03: Until then, keep dancing.