Dance Masterz

Oh my god! I never seen this footage before and the video quality is great!!
If you are house dancer, you should appreciate this. And this is back in 80s..

I came across this clip and I loved it. Actually, some of the members in this crew are EX-Ichigeki. Glad to see legendary Ichigeki bboys are active!!

One thing bboying tend to miss is the musicality. Since most of the movements in bboying is so athletic that it is often hard to “dance” to the music. This bboying crew from Osaka, Japan “I Love Footwork” forcuses on musicality in bboying.

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This is the old clip of Electric Trouble’s performance back in 2003 I believe. At that time, the Electric Trouble consists of three members, Yokoi, Shohei and Bon. The first guy who is doing solo is Shohei and the yokoi is the next. This is my favorite Yokoi’s solo.

If you are one of the people who got inspired by PBS’s legendary documentary ”Reckn’ shop Live from Brooklyn”, you must appreciate this clip.  Yes, it is Kito from Misfits.   He is the member of Misfits crew along with Prancer (dancer for Special ED also a member of Zhige), Peek A Boo, Rubber Band.   As I mentioned earlier in this blog, Kito has a very unique style of dancing. It is very hard to describe but he hits the beat in a very different manner.  or somebody else can describe his style better, please.  Although he didn’t appear in many music videos (maybe only Mariah Carey’s “emotion” and Lalah Hatherway’s “Baby Don’t Cry”, I heard he was very prominent at NY club scene in early 90s.   (By the way, I think a guy who is hanging around Mariah in her “Dream Lover” video, is Kito.)  If you know anything about him, (like other video he did or what he is doing now), please leave your comment, please. 

And I just want to talk about the background story of this clip.  This clip is so called “Underground Zoo video” among dancers in Japan.  What it means is that there was a Japanese pop group called “ZOO” and in 1992 ZOO went to NYC  featured  NY dancers like Link, E-Joe, Brian Green, Marjory, Marquest, Voo Doo Ray, and Tony (Saku)  in their music video that you see at the bottom of this blog.  During the shoot, one of the members from ZOO videotaped NY dancers dancing being videotaped behind the camera.  And the footage was circulated among limited dancers in Japan first.   It was a kind of video people talked about but never be able to see it.   Later, I was lucky enough to see the same video but the quality was so bad because the VHS tape I got  was copied after copied so many times.     So, I was so surprised to see this video on youtube, I mean in public.  Time really changed!!

Kito’s dance appeared at 3:00 in this clip.

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The legendary hip hop crew, Elite Force appeared and choreographed the opening act for Soul Train 25th Anniversary show. The members are from Mop Top Family, a group of hip hop/house dancers in NYC, who appeared on PBS’s legendary documentary “Reckin shop live from Brooklyn”. The original dancers of Elite Force were Buddha Stretch, Link aka Henry, and Calef and Ejoe (according to the their website.) In Japan, their first appearance was in 1994 when they were invited to perform for the 1st Japan Dance Delight. (the members were Stretch, Link, and Loose Joint) Next year, they were invited again for 2nd Japan Dance Delight and the members were Stretch, Link and Ejoe. Currently, the official members of elite force are buddha Stretch, Link, Terry and Bobby. It is safe to say that Elite Force has had the biggest influence on the freestyle scene or new school hip hop or whatever you call it (basically the hip hop style after bboying). Elite Force choreographed and appeared so many music videos mainly in 80s and 90s including Heavy D, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson (Remember the Time) and etc.. The members are still very much active and they are traveling all the time being invited to perform or judge for dance events around the world.In this clip, the dancers are Loose Joint, E-Joe, Stretch, and Link dancing to aretha franklin’s “Rock Steady”. You can see the style is very different from what you see on MTV these days. This may be just me but the thing I like about their choreography is the flow. I see lot of young dancers who put so many moves in the routine but each moves are often disjointed and not flowing well with the music. Elite Force’s choreography has very smooth flow to the music.

For more information please check their website at www.eliteforcecrew.com

No need to explain. Electric Boogaloos. I haven’t posted their clips because most of the clips are already well known in youtube.but someone pointed out that at least I should mention them since they are the originator of popping. Also, I am posting this because these days people tend to focus on “animation” and “Boogaloo” aspect seems to be less emphasized. But Boogaloo is very very important foundation of popping and I want people to understand that. Here is the information copied from their website.

The group responsible for the creation of the dance styles known worldwide as popping and boogaloo style. In the mid 70’s Boogaloo Sam created a set of movements, evolving each into their own style. He then taught these to the members of his group - The Electric Boogaloos.

Three decades later, the EB’s are still active, performing in shows, teaching around the world and spreading knowledge of their own and other dance styles that were created during the funk movement in the west coast.

The EB’s were born in 1977 when Boogaloo Sam founded the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers - Original group was:

THE ELECTRONIC BOOGALOO LOCKERS
(1977, FRESNO, CA)

BOOGALOO SAM: Creator of popping and boogaloo style.
SLIDE (NATE) : Co-founder of the group with Sam.
ROBOT JOE: OG member and robot was his main style.
TOYMAN SKEET: Originator of the toy man style
TICKIN WILL: Learned the style ticking from Sam.
TWIST-O-FLEX DON: Don was (R I P) the hardest hitting popper around.
ANT MAN: (Anthony) Was the locker of the group. Also popped.

THE ELECTRIC BOOGALOOS
(1978, LONGBEACH, CA)

BOOGALOO SAM: Creator of popping and boogaloo style.
POPIN PETE: Little brother of Boogaloo Sam.
TICKIN DECK: The other little brother of Sam.
ROBOT DANE: Became a member after Sam battled him. (SAM WON)
PUPPET BOOZER: Known for the puppet style that Sam taught him.
CREEPIN SID: Sid came from Arkansas to learn how to boogaloo.
SCARECROW SCULLEY: Sam taught him the scarecrow style.
DARRYL (KING COBRA): Creator of the style snaking.
GEORGE (KING RATTLER): One of Long Beach’s first poppers.

I just noticed that IBM dancers’ clip was deleted by youtube. So, I posted it again.In case you missed before, here it is